iFi Audio Pro iDSD discussion thread

[iFi audio]

  Far too late in the game for a real request - this will have to be for the iFi DSD Pro mark II.  Have always wanted a "1980s CD" button on a DAC - push it and some magical set of filters and EQ are invoked to squeeze a bit of LIFE from these flat, bloodless, recordings so typical before the mid 90s.  Some of this music is fantastic and has never been remastered (or at least not well) - maybe the best approach is to recreate a "pop-vinyl" type of sound for maximal invocation of lost memories.

 
Hi,
 
No comment on the "1980s button."  
 
In the interim, you can try Audacity+ReLife (plug-in).
 
http://audacityteam.org/
and
http://www.terrywest.nl/utils.html
 
Please note we are not the authors of either programs. We just know they do what they say on the tin. As the old saying goes 'you can polish a tXXd.'

 
Given this approach does not cost much and kind of 'uncompresses' compressed recordings, this is one thing you can try. There is some fabulous music out there that we adore but it has been compressed to heck. This is how we treat such recordings. It goes without saying that if the recording was ideal in the first place, then there would be no need for this but we all live in the real world.
 
Cheers.

 

[Trogdor]

Far too late in the game for a real request - this will have to be for the iFi DSD Pro mark II.  Have always wanted a "1980s CD" button on a DAC - push it and some magical set of filters and EQ are invoked to squeeze a bit of LIFE from these flat, bloodless, recordings so typical before the mid 90s.  Some of this music is fantastic and has never been remastered (or at least not well) - maybe the best approach is to recreate a "pop-vinyl" type of sound for maximal invocation of lost memories.

May I offer you this series of articles.

 

[EVOLVIST]

   
Hi,
 
No comment on the "1980s button."  
 
In the interim, you can try Audacity+ReLife (plug-in).
 
http://audacityteam.org/
and
http://www.terrywest.nl/utils.html
 
Please note we are not the authors of either programs. We just know they do what they say on the tin. As the old saying goes 'you can polish a tXXd.'

 
Given this approach does not cost much and kind of 'uncompresses' compressed recordings, this is one thing you can try. There is some fabulous music out there that adore but it has been compressed to heck. This is how we treat such recordings. It goes without saying that if the recording was ideal in the first place, then there would be no need for this but we all live in the real world.
 
Cheers.

 
Hey, thanks for the tip! I'm going to try this. I don't imagine it can do anything for distorted clipping, as you implied, but perhaps it can work some magic for let's say, the full Radiohead catalog, or perhaps even the Stone Temple Pilots catalog. There doesn't appear to be any distortion in these, just ear fatiguing dynamic compression. It's always worth a shot.
 

May I offer you this series of articles.

 
This is a pretty good set of articles. I like them. Really great stuff!

 

[iFi audio]

May I offer you this series of articles.

 
Really good stuff. We've read them before and well worth bookmarking. Highly recommended for anyone interested in recording quality and other things surrounding music.
 
Great read and nice to see a reviewer who knows his onions. There are so few out there.

 

[technobear]

The iDSD Pro won't have a 1980's CD button but the iCAN Pro has two 1980's CD knobs.

They are labelled XBASS and 3D and can deal with much that is wrong in 1980's CDs.

 

[bmoura]

  Read this:
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/670-schiit-audio-yggdrasil-multibit-dac-review/
 
Evidently this Yggy has raised the bar higher. I had looked at Schiit devices and had to reject them because they used C-Media drivers which would not work with Windows Server 2012 R2. That killed usage in my system. That is when I found ifi and have been very happy with this choice.
 
This Yggy sounds very intriguing. However, it does not play dsd, which is a red flag for me. I want a dac that plays everything.....and is future proof.....and costs less than $2299. C'mon ifi, I believe you will slay this Schiit Yggy monster and Gumby too dammit, with your increased capabilities...... AND lower price.....AND superior sound quality. Bring it!!!
 
The Schiity vs iffy war is on.

As always, you will want to audition the Yggy.  I heard it at The Show Newport earlier this year with the HiFi Man HE-1000 headphones and didn't find it to be anything special.

 

[all300b]

Thanks - I will look into Audacity.  Cool page on metal and sound quality.
 
| The iDSD Pro won't have a 1980's CD button but the iCAN Pro has two 1980's CD knobs.  They are labelled XBASS and 3D and can deal with much that is wrong in 1980's CDs.
 
Yep - got those on my iDSD pro - which I would still categorize as one of the all-time greatest hi-fi products for the money.  They help a little sometimes - it depends.  

 

[lakai]

Yep - got those on my iDSD pro - which I would still categorize as one of the all-time greatest hi-fi products for the money. They help a little sometimes - it depends.


...you got the iFI idsd pro..?

 

[Esprit]

After waiting all this time the only thing I hope is that, as the Mytek, the Teac, the Antelope and new other DACs, the iDSD Pro can do HARDWARE upsampling from PCM to DSD128/256 and from DSD64 to DSD128/256. At that point, the Pro will be a "must have"

 

[technobear]

After waiting all this time the only thing I hope is that, as the Mytek, the Teac, the Antelope and new other DACs, the iDSD Pro can do HARDWARE upsampling from PCM to DSD128/256 and from DSD64 to DSD128/256. At that point, the Pro will be a "must have"

It won't.

 

[EVOLVIST]

After waiting all this time the only thing I hope is that, as the Mytek, the Teac, the Antelope and new other DACs, the iDSD Pro can do HARDWARE upsampling from PCM to DSD128/256 and from DSD64 to DSD128/256. At that point, the Pro will be a "must have"

Why would it? What's the benefit?

The vast majority of DSD out there isn't even native, so unless you're talking about using iFi's excellent DSD analog filter on all of your audio, I'm not sure what the sonic benefits would be.

 

[technobear]

After waiting all this time the only thing I hope is that, as the Mytek, the Teac, the Antelope and new other DACs, the iDSD Pro can do HARDWARE upsampling from PCM to DSD128/256 and from DSD64 to DSD128/256. At that point, the Pro will be a "must have"

Why would it? What's the benefit?

The vast majority of DSD out there isn't even native, so unless you're talking about using iFi's excellent DSD analog filter on all of your audio, I'm not sure what the sonic benefits would be.

For more on why iFi won't be transcoding on the iDSD Pro, read this post:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/711217/idsd-micro-crowd-designed-and-the-new-firmware-flavours-are-here-page-138/690#post_10617050

and this one:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/711217/idsd-micro-crowd-designed-and-the-new-firmware-flavours-are-here-page-138/825#post_10641278

and this one:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/711217/idsd-micro-crowd-designed-and-the-new-firmware-flavours-are-here-page-138/840#post_10641478

 

[EVOLVIST]

Right. I follow you. I recall reading all of this. It's good to go back and read it all. Still, I wasn't talking about the philosophy that went behind iFi's implementation or their tech. Instead, what would be the benefit of up converting to DSD? There isn't one, as far as I can tell, or have heard.

 

[gr8soundz]

Right. I follow you. I recall reading all of this. It's good to go back and read it all. Still, I wasn't talking about the philosophy that went behind iFi's implementation or their tech. Instead, what would be the benefit of up converting to DSD? There isn't one, as far as I can tell, or have heard.

 
For me, the benefit of transcoding (as iFi says it) up to DSD via software is that it makes my old, crappy mp3s sound smoother and more musical.
 
In fact, I purchased my Micro based upon reading it (with software like Foobar 2K) could transcode to DSD 512. It does a lot more than that but, at the time, I'd been scouring the net for higher quality sources but I'm still stuck will some of those bad mp3s. May sound like overkill, but the Micro's 8x octa-DSD ability gave me a lot more hope in that area.
 

 

[Dixter]

personally.... I like the way the songs sound when they are converted to DSD....  and it is a DSD DAC...  so why not make the DSD DAC work with DSD files/conversion...