[jimmypowder]

Question on this dac regarding charging the battery.
 
Can I use to USB female to female adapter included and my own USB cable plugged into a iphone plug to charge this device instead of the blue cable
 
Also, can I use a different USB a male to USB a female to charge and play the device through the apple iphone plug?

 

[iFi audio]

  Question on this dac regarding charging the battery.
 
Can I use to USB female to female adapter included and my own USB cable plugged into a iphone plug to charge this device instead of the blue cable
 
Also, can I use a different USB a male to USB a female to charge and play the device through the apple iphone plug?

 
Hi,
 
> Can I use to USB female to female adapter included and my own USB cable plugged into a iphone plug to charge this device instead of the blue cable
 
Yes, but the Blue cable is USB3.0 compliant and will charge faster as this is a spec of USB 3.0 versus USB2.0.
 
 
> Also, can I use a different USB a male to USB a female to charge and play the device through the apple iphone plug?
Apple CCK/Lightning to USB is required.
 
But you cannot charge and play as CCK places iDevice into Host mode.
 
Cheers.

 

[audiotweaker]

 
I have a renewed appreciation of the DSD capabilities of the Micro iDSD.
 
Recently I began experimenting with upsampling all my PCM music (cd and hires) to DSD in realtime using HQPlayer (I could reliably upsample to DSD256 using my Macbook). This sounded just lovely... but it's not the solution for everyone due to the computing demands and the clunkiness of the HQPlayer interface. Definitely try it out if you have the opportunity.
 
What was really interesting was the even tone and spaciousness this setup provided with some HiFiMAN RE-600 IEM's I recently acquired at a nice reduced price. I may have even preferred this to my Audeze LCD2's.  

 
You can upsample all PCM rates to DSD128 in Jriver as well.  It has a better user interface and Jremote.  And it's less expensive.

 

[semeniub]

   
You can upsample all PCM rates to DSD128 in Jriver as well.  It has a better user interface and Jremote.  And it's less expensive.

I've tried JRiver many times (Mac and PC versions) to do just that, and never was satisfied at all. I've also upsampled to DSD128 offline using Korg Audiogate and that was better, but still did not hit the sweet spot like HQPlayer upsampling to DSD256 and higher.
 
I do agree that the interface to HQPlayer is open to much improvement, so it will always be secondary to my use of Audirvana+ and Fidelia for regular playback.

 

[iFi audio]

   
You can upsample all PCM rates to DSD128 in Jriver as well.  It has a better user interface and Jremote.  And it's less expensive.

 
Hi,
 
Couple of comments to clarify.
 
During the development of the micro iDSD, as there were(are) no native DSD 512 files and very few native DSD256 files, we had to use:
 
- J-River with ASIOPROXY to perform DSD512 conversion and that conversion to DSD regardless of the engine used (we have all the software including Weiss Saracon and Pyramix and some others) is lossy until at least DSD256.
 
- Among those conversion engines the Chief Designer who had to listen to endless amounts of DSD256 and DSD512 conversions disiked ASIOPROXY the least, but preferred to keep things native in PCM if that is what the source is.
 
Hence, in order to test DSD256/512 we ended up using all available upsamplers and playing stuff we liked (often MP3 sources).
 
If you spend hours a day listening to see if something glitches - you get very sensitive to what you are listening to.
 
But this is the fun of computer audio - endless options and possibilities.

 

[semeniub]

   
Hi,
 
Couple of comments to clarify.
 
J-River with ASIOPROXY does DSD512 conversion and that conversion to DSD regardless of the engine used (we have all the software including Weiss Saracon and Pyramix) is lossy until at least DSD256.
 
Among those conversion engines the Chief Designer who had to listen to endless amounts of DSD256 and DSD512 conversions liked ASIOPROXY the least, but preferred to keep things native in PCM if that is what the source is.
 
But this is the fun of computer audio - endless options and possibilities.

Sounds like a terrible job - how can you ever enjoy listening to any music at all after that?

 

[iFi audio]

 
Sounds like a terrible job - how can you ever enjoy listening to any music at all after that?

 
We know. Tell us about it.

 
Especially after having done an audio show because most rooms (and ours when we do customer requests) all play the same audiophile music - Eagles Hotel California et al.
 
We usually dont listen to those tracks ever. Even Taylor Swift is more enjoyable (no offence meant to Taylor fans out there).
 
On this topic, despite our preference for Bit-Perfect, we do find that compressed rock/pop stuff especially MP3s like Glitch Mob (no FLAC) does sound that bit nicer - not night and day but a touch nicer when converted from MP3 > DSD.
 
This is just our subjective experience.

 

[audiotweaker]

 
I've tried JRiver many times (Mac and PC versions) to do just that, and never was satisfied at all. I've also upsampled to DSD128 offline using Korg Audiogate and that was better, but still did not hit the sweet spot like HQPlayer upsampling to DSD256 and higher.
 
I do agree that the interface to HQPlayer is open to much improvement, so it will always be secondary to my use of Audirvana+ and Fidelia for regular playback.

I agree that HQPlayer has the best resampling algorithms of all the current Mac music players but the UI is so lame I cannot recommend it or justify the cost.  Maybe if enough people complain Jussi will improve it.  

 

[semeniub]

  I agree that HQPlayer has the best resampling algorithms of all the current Mac music players but the UI is so lame I cannot recommend it or justify the cost.  Maybe if enough people complain Jussi will improve it.  

Well, if iFi can sell enough iDSD's, there may be enough demand to encourage Jussi to spend some more time on the interface. 

 

[tf1216]

 
Well, if iFi can sell enough iDSD's, there may be enough demand to encourage Jussi to spend some more time on the interface. 

Why not use JRiver?  That program is fully tweaked out.

 

[semeniub]

  Why not use JRiver?  That program is fully tweaked out.

Doesn't sound tricked out, at least to my ears. That's just my opinion, my music, my ears. Others may have a different preference of course.

 

[tf1216]

Gotcha.  You would like the qualities of HQPlayer's playback with JRiver usability?  
 
Do you know if both parties describe anywhere how they handle modifying the original format to be something else?

 

[semeniub]

  Gotcha.  You would like the qualities of HQPlayer's playback with JRiver usability?  
 
Do you know if both parties describe anywhere how they handle modifying the original format to be something else?

Something like that.
 
Most research algorithms in digital signal processing have likely been initially developed in Matlab, and there may even be a DSD conversion Matlab toolbox already available (???). Knowing exactly what they have implemented is beyond my level of interest, but what has already been developed in Matlab code would be a good place to begin looking if you are curious.
 
Jussi certainly gives the impression that he is right on top of this topic technically, so I would guess that he is implementing the SOTA. 

 

[tf1216]

Thanks semeniub.  I had not idea MATLAB was a key contributor to advancing DSP in the audio realm.  I have been a MATLAB user for years.  I may just research this a bit more.

 

[semeniub]

  Thanks semeniub.  I had not idea MATLAB was a key contributor to advancing DSP in the audio realm.  I have been a MATLAB user for years.  I may just research this a bit more.

Not Matlab per se, but the researchers who use Matlab to develop their mathematical ideas.
 
http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/19-delta-sigma-toolbox