[Denmark]

Seeking owners of the Grace M9XX - out of curiosity, which of the 4 filters do you use as your 'standard' filter, and why?
 
From the Grace M9XX manual:
 
F1 sharp roll off, linear phase
For linear phase response and time coherency. Fast roll off protects against aliasing distortion
from high amplitude high frequency content. Best for recordings that are loud, compressed, and
with lots of treble. Will contain substantial ringing before and after transients(pre-echo and postecho).
Note that the ringing occurs at the Nyquist frequency (½ of the sample rate), so it is not
directly audible. However, it can cause intermodulation distortion in downstream components.
 
F2 slow roll off, linear phase
For linear phase response and time coherency. Best for acoustic music without compression and
artificially high levels of treble. Will have very low levels of ringing before and after transients but
is susceptible to distortion artifacts caused by high amplitude high frequency information in the
program material.
 
F3 sharp roll off, minimum phase
Not linear phase in the pass band. Fast roll off protects against aliasing distortion from high
amplitude high frequency content. Best for recordings that are loud, compressed, and with lots of
treble. Will contain substantial ringing caused by transients, but all of the ringing is shifted to
after the transient. This can reduce the perceived effects off downstream intermodulation
distortion due to the Hass Effect.
 
F4 slow roll off, minimum phase
Not linear phase in the pass band. Best for acoustic music without compression and artificially
high levels of treble. Will have very low level of ringing caused by transients and ringing will be
shifted to after the transient.

 

[sheldaze]

http://www.head-fi.org/products/grace-design-m9xx-compact-usb-dac-with-integrated-headphone-amp/reviews/14760
 
Look in the review for filter details.

 

[Denmark]

Great explanation on the filters, thanks. Although, if anyone else have different oppinions or experiences with the filters, feel free to share them!

 

[mandarch]

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[ShumDizzle]

I listen to lots of jazz and classical, so I gravitate to F2 and F4, which seem to give a slightly better sense of air with the high overtones. Sometimes I switch to F1 or F3 for pop music or if the highs are fatiguing. You might want to check out this paper about digital filters: it might have a bit of marketing gobbledygook, but they at least arrive at the conclusion that, for their applications, the minimum-phase, slow-roll off filter (equivalent of M9xx's F4) is the best compromise. When I use the M9xx's line out, I always use F4.
 
You can also check out the measurements of the AKM 4490 chip (which is used in the M9xx) here, but keep in mind that these won't exactly match what you hear, due to other components.