[SSL443]

   
Possibly, however if that's true then I am putting my Uber and the 4490 at the same disadvantage so it's a fair fight!

 
 
Or, it could be covering up whatever differences there are.

 

[ToTo Man]

After further A/B'ing today the 4490 sounds slightly more open, dynamic and less congested than my Uber.  This is most noticeable during highly layered and congested passages.  What other differences should I be listening out for?

 

[ColtMrFire]

  I hope I'm not going too much at a nerdy tangent here and getting even more out of my depth, but do any 4490 owners here use Audirvana+ as their music player?  Would you mind sharing the SRC settings you use for the 4490?  Or do you have the SRC in Audirvana+ disabled and let the 4490 do all of the oversampling itself?  I've always just left SRC to the DAC hardware but a lot of guys over on CA are pretty confident that the SRC capabilities of a computer system are superior to many of those that have been programmed into the DAC hardware.  It would of course be blasphemous to engage any software-based SRC on a multibit DAC, but what about a mid-priced delta-sigma model like the 4490?  Would that benefit from it or is it still best to leave alone?

 
With my 4490 I just started using HQPlayer (switched from JRiver) and its sound is clearly superior to anything else I've heard (JRiver, foobar, winamp, etc).  It's gotten pretty popular amongst audiophiles.  

 

[bixby]

@ColtMrFire
 
Do you know if it supports audio units plugins under Apple OS/X? 

 

[ColtMrFire]

I believe so.

 

[ColtMrFire]

For anyone interested in HQPlayer, I found these settings work best with Bifrost:

Backend: ASIO

Device: ASIO for usb device

Buffer Time: 100ms (helps when using other programs while music is playing)

DAC bits: 24 (I got in touch with Schiit about this program and they said set it to 24 for the 4490frost)

Filter: Poly-sinc (although sinc is much much better, more layered sound, deeper soundstage, more holographic/3D, but computer intensive. I had to switch to wasapi and run windows in minimal mode to get this to run withough glitches)

Dither: NS9 (works best with 176.4k/192k upsampling) 

Sample rate: For my 44.1k files, I set it to 176400(176.4k), for my my 48k files I set it to 192000(192k).  The reason for this is, everything should be upsampled by 2 or 4 (44.1 times 4 is 176.4), it is much more pleasing sounding.  The developer of the program said best quality is achieved upsampling as high as your DAC allows, and I agree.  Everything sounded fantastic at default 48k, but it was nothing compared to 176/192k.

Vol Min: 0.0db - Vol Max: 0.0db (setting them both at zero bypasses the player's volume control, so it is exclusively controlled by your Amp... I was using the player's volume before all the way up, but when I set them to zero, there was a noticeable uptick in sound quality)

Bifrost isn't a DSD DAC, so I don't use those settings, but people say the quality of PCM upsampled to DSD is incredibly realistic.  You can of course tweak any settings and experiment, but I settled upon these after messing around with settings quite a bit)

There is a catchall thread for this program on computeraudiophile forums that has tons of user reviews, experiences and helpful tips, plus the inventor of the software posts there (Miska).

EDIT: Sorry DAC bits should be set to 24 only for 24bit music files. For 16bit, either 16 or higher but you will have to judge the sound quality for yourself to choose.

 

[520RanchBro]

Well just ordered a B-Stock 4490, can't wait to see what it brings to my setup! Ordered a Mani too as I was just too curious as to how it sounds.

 

[ColtMrFire]

Congrats...you're in for a treat.

 

[utee05]

  Well just ordered a B-Stock 4490, can't wait to see what it brings to my setup! Ordered a Mani too as I was just too curious as to how it sounds.

Thanks for the heads up on the B-Stock. I hadn't been following this lately but saw this and now I'm going to pull the trigger. I have had great luck with B-stock items. This will go well with my B-Stock Lyr 2.

 

[ToTo Man]

I'm gonna stick my head above the parapet and conclude that to my ears and in my system, the Uber and 4490 are VERY close sonically.  There is a difference, and the 4490 is superior IMO, but boy you need to concentrate hard to hear it.  This is not to be taken as a negative.  I *really* like the sound of my Uber, and I really like the sound of the 4490, both are excellent sounding DACs.  If I didn't already own a Uber then the 4490 would be the no-brainer choice.  Even as an upgrade for Uber owners it's excellent value.  But if my goal is to climb the sonic ladder then I'm realising the 4490 is more like a sideways step in my situation.  I think I'm destined for multibit...

 

[theveterans]

IMO, multibit, at least the Bifrost, is also a side grade rather than upgrade. Then again, your ears will tell you if it's really an upgrade or a side grade.

 

[skyline315]

  I'm gonna stick my head above the parapet and conclude that to my ears and in my system, the Uber and 4490 are VERY close sonically.  There is a difference, and the 4490 is superior IMO, but boy you need to concentrate hard to hear it.  This is not to be taken as a negative.  I *really* like the sound of my Uber, and I really like the sound of the 4490, both are excellent sounding DACs.  If I didn't already own a Uber then the 4490 would be the no-brainer choice.  Even as an upgrade for Uber owners it's excellent value.  But if my goal is to climb the sonic ladder then I'm realising the 4490 is more like a sideways step in my situation.  I think I'm destined for multibit...

 
 

IMO, multibit, at least the Bifrost, is also a side grade rather than upgrade. Then again, your ears will tell you if it's really an upgrade or a side grade.

 
Yep...I think there are two options here.  
 
1)  Your system isn't going to pick up the differences and a MB isn't going to do much to change that.  So, you can either chill with the 4490 and be happy or plan to spend significantly more money to find something that will have a real impact.  And even if you do spend a ton of money, it's still no guarantee...
 
2)  You're a little bit DAC-deaf.  This would be FANTASTIC news.  Spare your wallet, sit back, and enjoy the tunes.  

 

[520RanchBro]

IMO, multibit, at least the Bifrost, is also a side grade rather than upgrade. Then again, your ears will tell you if it's really an upgrade or a side grade.

Yeah I asked some folks in the HE-560 thread how the multibit improved things, a couple said it wasn't really worth the money and it seems some people even preferred the 4490. At that point I decided I wasn't confident that it would be worth an extra $200.
 
I'm also way less sensitive to amp/DAC gear changes than most folks here.

 

[theveterans]

  Yeah I asked some folks in the HE-560 thread how the multibit improved things, a couple said it wasn't really worth the money and it seems some people even preferred the 4490. At that point I decided I wasn't confident that it would be worth an extra $200.
 
I'm also way less sensitive to amp/DAC gear changes than most folks here.

 
Heard both and to my ears, it's a tradeoff between a more technical sounding (more dynamic) 4490 or a wider soundstage with smoother highs, mids, lows of the multibit. Chose the latter since it synergizes better with K712's sound signature. For best of both worlds and even better sound, Yggdrasil is the answer.

 

[theveterans]

  Yep...I think there are two options here.  
 
1)  Your system isn't going to pick up the differences and a MB isn't going to do much to change that.  So, you can either chill with the 4490 and be happy or plan to spend significantly more money to find something that will have a real impact.  And even if you do spend a ton of money, it's still no guarantee...
 
2)  You're a little bit DAC-deaf.  This would be FANTASTIC news.  Spare your wallet, sit back, and enjoy the tunes.  

 
I can hear the difference by focusing on specific areas of the music, but it's not noticeable at first. Then again, I don't have a really resolving audio gears to discern the DAC differences to a very noticeable degree. Having heard the Yggdrasil on a different setup, I don't know if it will actually have an immediate impact with my current amp and headphones. The difference in the 4490 and MB is very minute that the MB sounds slightly smoother overall with a slightly wider soundstage while the 4490 has a more dynamic (slightly crispier highs, slightly "faster" bass), but this is just as subtle difference IMO.