I'm glad you've had some time to listen and rediscovered DSD!

I've not had any time to listen at all...But we're getting into the colder months, so it's going to happen soon.

I've been looking for a $100 DAC to use in my office at home. There are some options out there that even do DSD! But none that work as Roon endpoints as well. Hopefully I'll find something soon.

I miss hanging out with CDApS for random listening nights.

Hey Pal,

Sounds like you keep on having fun! Me too. I have slowed down on amp and speaker modifications as I don't hear a lot I want to change anymore. Still finding room for refinement, just more occasional. But still seductive, with a lot of synergistic refinements done, new changes, when they work, are more complete and breathtaking. Tube play is up again now for me, something I avoided for 3-4 years while doing progressive amp changes, and during the last year, a fair bit of experimenting on the HR-1s.

But my question for you.... With my Singxer and Gustard x20pro DAC, both pretty tuned up, I normally prefer 44K upsampled to 352.8 PCM in Audrivana 3.2.18. I found it to sound a bit less smooth and defined than DSD, but more nuanced and textured, more complex spacial information, and also having richer/stronger bass.... so more "real."

I don't recall why, but when I used to use DSD resampling in Audirvana, I had used the C 7th order DSD filter. Today, as with other times I retried DSD, it sounded too focussed and concentrated using DSD 256 and C 7th order. So I tried B 7th order...still too defined and without enough texture and spacial complexity to feel "alive." Then I tried B 5th order, and still having a DSD clarity, the bass remains leaner, but with pretty good tonal and attack qualities, and the textures and space improved, it is more engaging and real feeling. Compelling, this seems to indicate I was on the wrong filter for my system as it is.

So wondering, before going into all those many filter choices, what is your favorite DSD filter in Audrivana?

Thanks,

Will

Hey Pal,

At some point I stopped doing much with Audirvana settings, everything sounding pretty right here. But on occasion I check it out if the ringing, spaciousness, or smoothness sound a little too much one way or the other. I guess the last time I went through it all was several months ago after changing the 40 uF Jenson electrolytic filter caps that were associated with the Torii IV input transformers, chokes and rectifiers, to 45 uF, comparatively massive, Clarity TC film caps. After some subtle adjustments then, I have not felt the need again until stimulated by your post, I tried DSD again.

Sounding pretty good with my favored 352.8 PCM and a simple and fast Brickwall filter in the DAC, I left all the main Audirvana settings as the were, only exploring  the DSD filters. I had preferred 70K DSD filter previously on the DAC itself before, and retesting, I still do like the finer detail with it.

So 4-5 days ago, with a quick round of tests changing the Audirvana DSD filter, I seemed to gravitate most to A5. It seemed nicely musical in this setup, having more harmonic and spacial content, which supported a more natural sounding body than my previous setting of C7. With less body focus, and decent fine detail edges and decays, I have left it alone, letting myself adjust. In several more days, I will probably try PCM again and see, but I am liking this setting. I do find something cool about the blend of clarity and smoothness of the DSD resampling once I got the focus to spread out a bit.

In my adobe house, with pretty organic and irregular plaster walls, it is reflective, but with the walls a little wider at the bottoms, they angle slightly out as the go up... and appearing relatively flat up-close, they are full of dips and rises, some bigger...some very small, and when looking from a distance, you can see all the walls are quite irregular. With natural round log ceiling beams, also irregular, and irregular brick floors set in sand... and with rough sawn ceiling boards with gaps between... all together, it seems I have loads of natural diffusion. Bass modes are another matter that needed dealing with, but especially with some EQ fine-tuning, the rest is pretty amazing "by chance," the varied and complex reflections a benefit to a natural "live" sound I get. So though we all learned it is true, the room is quite obviously a big player in my system sound. And when tuned well, the balances of tone and spatial information sound very similar most everywhere in the main room, as well as from adjacent rooms. But I can hear some aspects of the sound balance from a distance easier, and this is a really good tuning tool for me.

In direct proximity, it is easier to be blown away by the sound even when it is a little off. So finally, an important determinant test for me is to listen from my bathtub down the hall from the living/listening room. Hearing the whole sound of the system/room, I hear the subtler balances of tone, as well as subtler timbral and spatial information....edges, textures, decay balances.... The relationship of the subtler sound values and how they balance together, and how they balance with the density of body, this really helps me hear and refine the whole balance in "the listening room." So adjustments based on the tub room sound are pretty vital for me, resulting in a more complete and balanced sound and soundstage at the "listening seat."

Anyway, here are my current Audirvana settings.

I still find starting the app from a RAM disk to be more complex and complete.

1st page:

DSD over PCM Standard 1.1

DSD 256
Exclusive Access
Direct Mode, Mode 1 integar

2nd:

SOX
Bandwidth 99.5
Max Length 17869
Anti Aliasing 95.6
Pre-ring 34.0
DSD 256
DSD Filter A 5th order

3rd:

Dither

MBIT+
Shape - Light
Level - Normal
max bandwidth - 24 bit

Minimize peaks
Preserve Dynamics

I have never loved Audirvana with default settings, as I recall, finding them a little overstated and contrived with what seem to me to be attempts toward "dense" "analog" sound... a little too pushy, smooth and warm for my tastes. So I love it that we can adjust things pretty  articulately if it suits us.