[kennyb123]

Can you please link me so I can have a read?
I find DAVE sounds very smooth and the digital harshness is much reduced via HQplayer

What are you using for a server now? If you were to get a K50, I suspect much of the harshness would go away.

The Chord designer, Rob Watts, isn’t a fan of DSD. He thinks it softens the music and robs it of transient information that can never be reconstructed. What makes his DACs so wonderful is what he does with PCM. So while the DAVE supports DSD, the real magic comes with PCM.

HQPlayer can lower noise, but the DAVE itself has a tremendously low noise floor. If you hear harshness its not going to be the DAVE’s fault.

The K50 will be a great match for the DAVE. Don’t worry so much as to whether you can use HQPlayer to scale to DSD256. Once the K50 lands you will find a strong preference for feeding your DAVE only PCM.

 

[thunder 99]

What are you using for a server now? If you were to get a K50, I suspect much of the harshness would go away.

The Chord designer, Rob Watts, isn’t a fan of DSD. He thinks it softens the music and robs it of transient information that can never be reconstructed. What makes his DACs so wonderful is what he does with PCM. So while the DAVE supports DSD, the real magic comes with PCM.

HQPlayer can lower noise, but the DAVE itself has a tremendously low noise floor. If you hear harshness its not going to be the DAVE’s fault.

The K50 will be a great match for the DAVE. Don’t worry so much as to whether you can use HQPlayer to scale to DSD256. Once the K50 lands you will find a strong preference for feeding your DAVE only PCM.

I see, I am using a DX3 now. So in that case would the K50 have enough grunt to use both Roon Core and its DSP with HQplayer upsampled to PCM

 

[kennyb123]

So in that case would the K50 have enough grunt to use both Roon Core and its DSP with HQplayer upsampled to PCM

More than enough for Roon with HQPlayer upsampling to PCM. I do this now with the less powerful K30.

As far as Roon and its DSP, that should be disabled. Better to have HQPlayer become the DSP engine for Roon.

 

[andrewd01]

PCM upscaling doesn’t require much compute power. Even the EX which is designed as a player can comfortably manage as a Roon core with HQ Player PCM upscaling and not break a sweat (around 7% CPU load).

 

[yoktjah]

I miss my CX/EX combo. Antipodes is great stuff. Anyone getting the new Oladra flagship?

 

[RKClem]

I like to keep up with the alternative gear out there just because I'm interested rather than considering investing. The Grimm Audio MU1 server is interesting to me because they seem to have achieved excellent SQ from a Roon core and roon endpoint configuration. I assume it is just just standard Roon software? Excellent SQ is not something I have achieved with my CX/EX with Roon server/Roon player. I wonder what the Grimm Audio MU1 server is doing to achieve this and can it be applied to my set up?

 

[kennyb123]

The Grimm Audio MU1 server is interesting to me because they seem to have achieved excellent SQ from a Roon core and roon endpoint configuration. I assume it is just just standard Roon software?

That box only runs Roon. If it allowed Squeeze, for example, I wonder if owners would still think that Roon sounds "excellent". It's all relative so I wonder where they are coming from.

Antipodes uses a two-tier model of Player and Server so I would think this would have an advantage over a single box running Roon. When I got my K30, I thought Roon was "excellent" as it was a huge step up from running Roon on an Innuos Zenith Mk3. I could not live with Roon on the Zenith but I think I could almost live with it on my K30.

The one server that is most certainly doing something special with Roon is Wadax. But what they've shown is that it takes a significant investment of dollars to make Roon sound spectacular.

 

[Progisus]

Even roon suggests running the core and player on separate computers. This was one of the reasons I upgraded from the single EX to the K30. I personally am a big fan of roon over squeeze. Squeeze may sound different to some (better?) but for overall music curation, discovery and playback nothing beats roon. For best playback, MPD with direct play does it for me. We impatiently await this in the next Antipodes software update.

 

[kennyb123]

but for overall music curation, discovery and playback nothing beats roon.

Nothing even comes close.

 

[Triode User]

Even roon suggests running the core and player on separate computers. This was one of the reasons I upgraded from the single EX to the K30. I personally am a big fan of roon over squeeze. Squeeze may sound different to some (better?) but for overall music curation, discovery and playback nothing beats roon. For best playback, MPD with direct play does it for me. We impatiently await this in the next Antipodes software update.

No, Squeeze does not sound different to Roon, it sounds better. Much better. But I can see why people put up with Roon for the sake of its interface.

But for me it is similar to watching the telly. When I want to watch a programme I select it and watch it. I do not need all the unasked for suggestions about what other programmes I might like to watch.

I paid a lot of money for my lifetime Roon subscription but I am happy to keep it in the cupboard for now.

I keenly await the implementation of MPD which you have because if it is better then Squeeze then it will be truly stunning.

 

[coldbru]

I have the CX/EX and am also tight for space. Mine have the original power supplies and I never notice them getting particularly warm. I think you could stack EX on CX without any problems, but I would probably choose to stack the phono preamp instead. I have my TT2 DAC on my EX and have no problems with either component getting excessively warm. The Chord DAC is designed to be stacked with other TT sized components. I have also seen Antipodes marketing shots with CX and EX stacked.

The direction I got from Antipodes was — IF you stack — put the CX on top as it runs hotter. But if you are doing any upsampling you don’t want anything near the CX, ideally add some feet and give it good air flow.

 

[Progisus]

No, Squeeze does not sound different to Roon, it sounds better. Much better. But I can see why people put up with Roon for the sake of its interface.

But for me it is similar to watching the telly. When I want to watch a programme I select it and watch it. I do not need all the unasked for suggestions about what other programmes I might like to watch.

I paid a lot of money for my lifetime Roon subscription but I am happy to keep it in the cupboard for now.

I keenly await the implementation of MPD which you have because if it is better then Squeeze then it will be truly stunning.

haha, I enjoy our back and forth. A table and a couple beers would make it even better.

Now… has anyone proven mconnect doesn’t pass the stream through the app? Roon does as well.

 

[Triode User]

haha, I enjoy our back and forth. A table and a couple beers would make it even better.

Now… has anyone proven mconnect doesn’t pass the stream through the app? Roon does as well.

Yeah, if only you lived closer and without a pond in between ! I have a few guys in villages near us and we have good banter and comparing our systems.

 

[kennyb123]

Yeah, if only you lived closer and without a pond in between ! I have a few guys in villages near us and we have good banter and comparing our systems.

+1 on that

I think @Progisus may be only a few hours away from me.

 

[kennyb123]

No, Squeeze does not sound different to Roon, it sounds better. Much better.

Even much more so if one has upgraded to audiophile fuses.

Hahaha