[TSAVJason]

It was a 3-4 email back and forth discussion. He kept saying jriver worked fine I said i didn't want to be forced into using a particular piece of software to deal with a driver issue. He was all over the place in the emails, I sent one last email begging him to fix the driver so I could run the software of my choice. Never heard back from him again.

From my understanding jriver seems to somehow mask the issue.

I just ended up buying a better different brand of DAC which was my C47 end game anyway. If in the mean time they some how have fixed the issue via a newer firmware on the D1100, why don't they fix the C47, C52 and C2600?

The D1100 is dual mono with smok'n hot signal to noise. That said it doesn't mean it likes all the different programs.

So do you want to give it up or do you want to leave us in the dark as to this software of your choice? I can't see if I can help if you don't at least give me a clue.

 

[TSAVJason]

Yes McIntosh Labs. I spoke to them on the phone and via email direct with their techs about the issues regarding debounce of volume knob and mute button control for a long time and they never would acknowledge the issue. The problem is neither volume knob or mute button respond to input for up to 4 sec after you have paused turning the volume either up or down or hitting the mute or un-mute. There is no other audio device on the market that ignores the user on a volume knob or mute button for so long like this. Calling it a feature by design is disingenuous.

We are still talking about the D1100 ...right?

 

[DrTone]

The D1100 is dual mono with smok'n hot signal to noise. That said it doesn't mean it likes all the different programs.

The D1100 is the same ESS9018 design as the the C47, C52 & C2600 but with an improved power supply and implementation along with the better true dual mono "quad balanced" analog output. Ron has confirmed this elsewhere. Of course these are 2 very very important pieces of a DAC.

Not sure what your mention of SNR and programs have to do with each other? The problem lies before the data even hits the ESS9018.

So do you want to give it up or do you want to leave us in the dark as to this software of your choice? I can't see if I can help if you don't at least give me a clue.

I use Roon as my front end which then controls HQPlayer. HQPlayer upsamples everything to the maximum DSD rate allowed using the following filters.

Poly-sinc-xtr
asdm7


@doggiemom Sorry for taking your review thread in a bad direction with my McIntosh DAC support issues.

 

[TSAVJason]

The D1100 is the same ESS9018 design as the the C47, C52 & C2600 but with an improved power supply and implementation along with the better true dual mono "quad balanced" analog output. Ron has confirmed this elsewhere. Of course these are 2 very very important pieces of a DAC.

Not sure what your mention of SNR and programs have to do with each other? The problem lies before the data even hits the ESS9018.




I use Roon as my front end which then controls HQPlayer. HQPlayer upsamples everything to the maximum DSD rate allowed using the following filters.

Poly-sinc-xtr
asdm7


@doggiemom Sorry for taking your review thread in a bad direction with my McIntosh DAC support issues.

So let me understand ....because I didn't fully describe the dual differential circuit or explain why the D1100 is superior to the onboard DAC's of the other models you mentioned ....am I to understand you're trying to school me? Before you go there, presuming that's your intention you may want to research who I am. For now I'll take it you're intention is to express your frustration with McIntosh and not take your comments as they seem on their face as a personal you are smarter than I am comment.

Not a friendly way to converse with someone that offered help.

 

[DrTone]

So let me understand ....because I didn't fully describe the dual differential circuit or explain why the D1100 is superior to the onboard DAC's of the other models you mentioned ....am I to understand you're trying to school me? Before you go there, presuming that's your intention you may want to research who I am. For now I'll take it you're intention is to express your frustration with McIntosh and not take your comments as they seem on their face as a personal you are smarter than I am comment.

Not a friendly way to converse with someone that offered help.

I'm not schooling anyone, you mention SNR for some reason and then immediately said it doesn't like all programs. I assumed you felt there was a correlation. Obviously they were two unrelated comments in the same paragraph.

If you can get McIntosh to fix the driver or firmware on their preamps to alleviate the DSD256 issue with software other than jriver many owners would appreciate it.

Let me know when you get roon or hqplayer upsampling to DSD256 working with any of the current generation McIntosh preamps. It will be nice to have someone McIntosh might actually listen to explain the problem to them.

 

[groovyd]

We are still talking about the D1100 ...right?

I was talking about the D100

 

[TSAVJason]

I was talking about the D100

Can you tell me if you're using a Apple or PC as your source?

 

[TSAVJason]

I'm not schooling anyone, you mention SNR for some reason and then immediately said it doesn't like all programs. I assumed you felt there was a correlation. Obviously they were two unrelated comments in the same sentence.

If you can get McIntosh to fix the driver or firmware on their preamps to alleviate the DSD256 issue with software other than jriver many owners would appreciate it.

Let me know when you get roon or hqplayer upsampling to DSD256 working with any of the current generation McIntosh preamps. It will be nice to have someone McIntosh might actually listen to explain the problem to them.

I am your advocate not your enemy. I'm always trying to be a benefit to this community. I have very special relationships with the manufacturers that most dealers don't. My software team is already working on issues like yours to help McIntosh get a wider compatibility with other software/apps.

Working with larger companies is typically slower than smaller boutique companies so do your best to be patient. I know you'd like to use your McProduct with Roon and for sure you're not the only one.

 

[groovyd]

Can you tell me if you're using a Apple or PC as your source?

Apple but the issues it has are independent of the source.

 

[TSAVJason]

Apple but the issues it has are independent of the source.

Ok so I can't really help you guys when I have to yank information out of you. So when you've decided your rigs are no longer double top secret I'll be happy to help. I don't really have the time to keep asking questions just to get an overview of your systems.

You guys are complaining and I'm offering my help. Since my help is free and no one else is stepping up, don't you think a little cooperation would be good here?

 

[DrTone]

Ok so I can't really help you guys when I have to yank information out of you. So when you've decided your rigs are no longer double top secret I'll be happy to help. I don't really have the time to keep asking questions just to get an overview of your systems.

You guys are complaining and I'm offering my help. Since my help is free and no one else is stepping up, don't you think a little cooperation would be good here?

Since it sounds like you and your team aren't even able to get DSD256 to work with anything but JRiver. I'll give you step by step instructions on how to configure HQPlayer upsampling and make DSD256 work with modern McIntosh DACs. It isn't for the faint of heart and over most dealer's heads.

1) Install HQPlayer on Windows (DSD256 to a McIntosh only works with the ASIO drivers on Windows. DSD256 isn't supported on Linux or macOS as the default drivers don't know how to talk Direct DSD).
2) Going into HQPlayer's settings. Choose your McIntosh ASIO driver.
3) Make sure "SDM Pack" is set to none. You can't do DOP DSD256 as McIntosh only supports 384kHZ PCM. DSD256 DOP would require 768kHZ PCM.
4) Min and Max volumes should both be -6db.
5) On the right side under SDM defaults chose the following.
poly-sinc
ASDM7
44.1x256
6) Click Ok to close the settings dialogue to apply these settings. Now in the main HQPlayer screen the very right drop down of the four should say Auto. Change that to SDM. This causes everything to be up-converted to DSD.

Now all you have to do is drag a regular flac file onto HQPlayer and play it. Now hit stop and enjoy the loud pop that comes through your speakers, I suggest not having the volume too loud.



Jeff

 

[DrTone]

To configure Roon for DSD 256, use the following instructions.

Again the roon computer hooked directly to the McIntosh DAC needs be running Windows. The ASIO driver is required for DSD256.

In roon configure the McIntosh ASIO device that shows up by default.
DSD delivery method must be set to Direct not DOP.
Max DSD rate should be set to 256.

In Roon's DSPing turn on the global DSP toggle.
You will need to give about 4dbs of head room to alleviate intersample clipping. So turn on the headroom management toggle and set it to -4db.
In Roon's upsampling set it to upsample everything to DSD and choose DSD256 as the rate. The filters and modulator are irrelevant. Make sure the local toggle for upsampling is enabled as well.

Play a track of something. Hit stop and enjoy the loud pop that comes through your speakers. I suggest not having the volume too loud.

 

[TSAVJason]

Excellent now I'm getting a better picture from you both. So yes at the moment you are both dealing with software that is not so friendly with McIntosh. It's also true that Ron doesn't feel it necessary to play in the same sand box with those 2 companies and he is a JRiver fan boy. So there is goood news o. The horizon. Ron isn't the final word and it's his boss that I deal with. After reading your posts and being aware of these issues I now have that big boss convinced it needs to be addressed and welcomed by their software engineer. Toward the end of this month I will be working with Roon and HQPlayer along with the McIntosh software engineer to get these bugs taken care of. I hope our team can get these things addressed ina timely fashion

 

[DrTone]

So yes at the moment you are both dealing with software that is not so friendly with McIntosh

I don't think @groovyd 's issue is related to software, I though he was describing a hardware issue. He was more just complaining with me about McIntosh support.

 

[groovyd]

Ok so I can't really help you guys when I have to yank information out of you. So when you've decided your rigs are no longer double top secret I'll be happy to help. I don't really have the time to keep asking questions just to get an overview of your systems.

You guys are complaining and I'm offering my help. Since my help is free and no one else is stepping up, don't you think a little cooperation would be good here?

I don't think you can provide help for my complaint. It is a hardware issue, not software but thanks for your concern. I was just stating that McIntosh support is not interested in fixing very clear firmware issues. At least not on the D100 for the issues I brought up with them and their engineers. From one firmware engineer to another. If you think it is possible for a v1.0 firmware to ever be issue free then I'd say that is unrealistic yet the D100 has never received a firmware update even though I made them well aware of an issue.