Which DAC did you end up buying?
I wanted to geek out with HQPlayer so needed a DAC that is basically a blank slate, the HoloAudio May KTE.
My original 10 year old music server died so I built a faster server so I can upsample PCM and DSD.
Building an Affordable High-End Silent Music Serverhttps://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=177495.msg1867916#msg1867916I was doing too much reading and found out a little knowledge is a dangerous thing so I wrote a primer so I wouldn't forget what I learned
An Upsampling Primer or Why Make More Bits?https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=183465.msg1926276#msg1926276The HoloAudio DAC and HQPlayer combo became a review
HoloAudio May KTE DAC with HQPlayer Reviewhttps://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=182724.msg1919415#msg1919415Everything in the above articles can be applied to the Bryston BDA-3. The Bryston looks like the perfect HQPlayer companion.
"Not only did Bryston enable DSD in the BDA-3, but it realized that PCM and DSD have different requirements. The company went the extra mile by designing independent signal paths to the DAC chips for DSD and PCM. According to Bryston, "Audio is processed in their native format with no conversion ensuring each song is totally bit perfect — an exact replica of the master recording."
https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/reviews/bryston-bda-3-dac-review/I would be careful with the filter type because the BDA-3 uses a minimum-phase filter and would pick either 384kHz or DSD256 (my preference) in HQPlayer.
On 2/7/2022 at 1:47 PM, mfsoa said:
"... can you please describe what happens when we take HQP data that has been filtered w/ HQP, and then send it to a DAC that has its own filtering? If I send an HQP minimum phase filtered signal to a DAC with a linear phase filter - What happens? A 50:50 split? Who wins? Are we really hearing what HQP can do, or are the HQP goodies being subsequently mangled by the DACs own filter?"Miska (HQPlayers developer) replies:
No, it is not mangled by DAC's filter, because you have plenty of "empty space" at end of upsampled frequency spectrum. You should always use linear phase filter at DAC side in such cases where you end up chaining filters like that. If you use minimum-phase filter at DAC side too, it may modify the phase response. Linear phase filter there will leave things untouched.
But in most cases when you reach 352.8k/384k input rate to a DAC, it's own digital filters are already bypassed. This is the case for AKM chips for example.
Unless the DAC is NOS R2R, it will still likely do basic sample-and-hold (S/H aka ZOH aka zero-order-hold) oversampling and run it's modulators to produce SDM type output (similar to DSD). Just like it would after it's own digital filters too.
On 2/7/2022 at 1:47 PM, mfsoa said:
Is this the advantage of a DSD dac that does native DSD - No additional filtering beyond HQP? Miska replied:
One of those yes. You also get to skip the poor sample-and-hold or linear interpolation stage that is used due to lack of DSP power to do any better. And instead you get full proper digital filters run to final modulator rate, such as 256x, 512x or 1024x of the source rate.
... AKM chips have possibility to process DSD inputs or bypass processing and just send the data straight to the actual D/A conversion.
https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/19715-hq-player/page/962/#comment-1182886 HQPlayer's filter choices are subtle, if a system isn't resolving or speakers are open baffle like GR Research or Magnepan with half the energy reflected off the front wall then the differences will be obscured. But even though the differences are subtle, they are still there and can make the difference between good and great sound.
A-B tests can reveal differences but my ears and brain gets fatigued and then confused. I prefer to listen for a week or two, then switch for another week or two, then switch again. Differences will then jump out and a choice can be made. In the big scheme of things there are no wrong choices, our local audio group taught me that.