Hey Nick. Yes, sounds confusing.

I have not studied all you can do with the switch box but I recall a lot of flexibility in design. Best to call Steve for design advice if you get serious about it. But I think the benefit of a loop described from your instructions, is that the DSP circuit is introduced into the pre (or switch box) as a loop, so anything going into the pre (or switch box) could be processed by the room correction loop.

If you are using a correction box, since room issues effect anything we put through the amp, a correction loop being common to all sources makes sense. If you want room correction for the signal from the Chord, its signal would have to go through the DSP before the amp whether through a loop, or directly...imparting anything the DSP device does into the signal before the amp.

Then, if you have only the Chord source, and you want DSP, why add a switch box? If it is RCA out of the Chord, and RCA into the DSP unit, you still have the qualities of the Chord RCA output either way. And if you want to adjust the music with DSP, it has to go through the DSP circuits, providing DSP corrections, as well as any DSP unit signature. Finally, adding the switch box adds the box and another set of ICs to the circuit also.

I hope this helps.

Will

The DSP unit is likely designed to try to correct the signal based upon measurements of the amplified sound from your speakers, right? If the room amplifies some frequency areas, and attenuates others...Then the DSP will attempt to adjust these areas to be "correct"...trying to get better balance of frequency and phase, right?

The signal has to come from a source, in this case, your DAVE. Without the DSP, your Chord output is exactly what it was designed for, but amplifying it in your room, it will be altered by room problems as well as anything in the signal path...adjusting the DAVE sound. In the best of synergistic system setups, to you, without room treatment, your room problems have now altered the Chord output.

What I pointed to before...no matter what comes after the Chord, it is the Chord signal in its pure form that leaves the Chord...then...whether room, DSP, traditional room treatment, switch box, the amp...anything after the Chord imparts their individual qualities on the Chord sound that you hear.

An amp that cannot convey the best of the Chord, or speakers, cables that are not up to the DAVE quality, or bad power....any of these individually and collectively will effect the source signal. So yes, conceptually, adding another unit to the signal path will reduce transparency to various degrees. Then it depends how good whatever those things are at what they do...how transparent and musical are they?

If your DSP unit is really well designed and made, and if it is quiet, then the question becomes: Do the improvements in room/system interaction outweigh whatever else happens from adding the DSP unit in the signal path.

Many "purists" would glibly say, anything added to the signal path is wrong. And this is true in some ways. But if your DSP makes your music sound better with little discernible harm, what is impure about a better musical experience? Whereas, if the Chord in your room sounds better without the DSP unit...either way your question is solved.

I assume that since you have DSP, you chose to try it rather than fix room problems with traditional, or esoteric treatments, or both. More options.

I use them all here.

Oh yes, before makes sense to me. I don't know anything about the RP-1, seeing guitar pedals and a Rega turntable in initial searches. Do you have a link? Since we were talking about the Switchbox/DSP after the DAC, I wrongly assumed that was where it needed to be.

But yes, if you can run it before the DAC, that seems conceptually better to me, especially if those connections can be all digital.

To help solve room issues here, I use EQ directly on the digital files, in computer, via my computer player software. So the DAC sees the files the same way as with no additional EQ/DSP, just a digital music file. In effect though, all music files have been "mastered" as a group to better work in the system/room. To me, for adding something, this seems quite clean.

In this vein, if your transport/computer/server can be connected digitally in a quality way to your DSP device, and the DSP digitally connected to the DAVE, you will have remained in the digital domain with the music files...very probably a good thing...a less complicated path that goes through less electronic manipulation....

I know I may well be missing something, but I still don't understand the switch box loop idea. If the Chord is your only source, and if you can set it up direct...digital file player>DSP unit>DAC...then RCA out of the Chord to your amp, what is the switch box about?

If you need to switch sources though, then a switch box makes sense to me.

Hey Nick,

From that link, best I can tell, the RP-1 is analog in and out, with digital internal processing. If this is true, you would likely need to connect the DAVE RCA or Balanced outputs to the RP-1 inputs, and then the main out of the RP-1 to your amp.

You have to call Steve to see if he can/will do whatever it is you would like with a Switch Box (SB). Best I can imagine, if you can get a loop arrangement from it, you would still be putting the DAVE signal into the RP-1 after the DAVE output, just in a more convoluted way.

If I am right about the all analog in and out of the RP-1, to create a loop, you would need a pair of ICs from the DAVE to get into SB input jacks. Then for the loop, a pair of jacks out of the SB, and another pair of ICs from the SB to the RP-1 input. Completing the loop, a pair of ICs returning from the RP-1 output to a pair of loop return jacks on the Switch Box. Then to get to the amp, another pair of jacks for output from the SB, and a pair of ICs to your amp.

That would be four sets of ICs and the Switch Box with its many connections between the DAVE and amp. If the ICs were really good, since the SB is built for transparency, this could be a decent solution if you need extra input sources that you could switch through the RP-1 loop.

Alternately, if your DAVE is the only source, that would require only two sets of ICs...DAVE>RP-1>Amp...a cleaner, less expensive setup, saving two pair of ICs and the Switch Box.

In the end, I think this whole thread I created was barking way up the wrong tree.

I apologize. Thanks for your help, Will.