[Kazoom]

Howdy folks,

Missed my Friday deadline and apologize profusely.  But without further delay, here is an update on where things are at and how I got there.

House Cleaning
First thing I knew I had to do was sort out a buzz in my Folsom amp.  I spent my Thursday making sure all the wires were twisted, secure and what not.

Unfortunately, after all that work, the issue was still there.  I did discover that if I put my finger on the input cap I could pick up a local radio station.  So my amp is now a receiver, not exactly what I was looking for in my new setup. 

Thank goodness I have an old multi channel Rotel amp laying around that is known for good mids and highs, so it was an easy replacement.

So with the Folsom down, the new line up is as follows:

• Tweeters - McIntosh MC7270
• Mids - Rotel RB-956AX (running a stereo pair off a 6 channel amp known for good mids and highs and not so good bass
• Woofers - Topping PA5 Plus

Prep Work and Unsolicited Product Promotion

We needed to figure out the gain from all these amps so they can be aligned properly.  Manufacturer sites have all these specs, so ez-pz.

The next on the list was to get the cross over values.  This went pretty quickly using the Clio Hal was kind of enough to lend me.  I would dive into the procedure but it happened so quickly, I can not even remember it.

What was cool of Hal, or a very clever marketing tactic, was him sending along one of his MS-6 Music Servers with the Clio software on it.  Very crafty of him as this thing sounds way better than my Linux based Raspberry PI that received high praises for measuring well on ASR.

The MS-6 sounds so much better due to Windows actually having done something right in how they handle audio.  Hal explained that Paul Allen (the VC who started Microsoft) is a hardcore audiophile and made sure they got that right. 

So if you are currently streaming with Linux or Mac, I highly recommend giving the MS-6 a try.  It is quiet and works great.  The price is nice too.  I don't think I could build my own for much less.

Another bonus was that it was plug and play and did not require adjusting any Roon settings.

So that little piece will not find itself in the box when I ship the Clio back.   

Up-sell executed successfully.   

Measuring Time

Hal promptly got to work on the first draft of the Audio Weaver design and soon I had the an AWE file to upload in my inbox.

Rookie Mistakes to avoid
Yes, I was told, but for some reason it did not stick.  I wasted a ton of time on Friday trouble shooting my mistake of connecting all the amps in reverse order.  I thought I had blown my tweeter when it was not responding to the bass signal being pumped into it.   

The connections by default are as follows:

• Ports 1 and 5 - Right and Left Tweeter respectively
• Ports 2 and 6 - Right and Left Mids respectively
• Ports 3 and 7 - Right and Left Woofers respectively
• Ports 4 and 8 - Right and Left Sub respectively

I got that sorted out and we were off to the races.  Well until rookie mistake number 2.

Rookie Mistake Number 2

Before measuring with the DSP Nexus, RTFM!  (Read The Flipping Manual) or you will experience what is known as a "PEBCAK" error (Problem Exists Between Chair and Keyboard).

There is a video that explains how things get measured and how to flip through the menus for more detail, but I will provide an abridged version to give you a feel for how this works.

That mistake only cost me about 30 minutes.

Taking Measurements


When measuring with the dspNexus, you need a phantom powered XLR mic which you plug into the front of the box.

You will plug whatever you are running REW on into the USB port on the back of the dspNexus.

Set your REW preferences

• Drivers = ASIO
• Device = "your Xmos Device"
• Sample Rate = 192kHz

The dspNexus has a "Measurement" mode that you can get to by hitting the menu button on your remote control.  Scrolling right you get to the "Test Output" option.  From here you select which output you are testing (refer to the channel assignments mentioned earlier).  I have always measured with a USB mic connected to my laptop, and my lap top connected to my DAC or an analog in, so this was new to me. I dont know if this is typical of DSPs or not, but it is really nice to work with.

You do need to tell REW which speaker you are measuring, but other than that, it sends an isolated signal to the section you want to measure and sends the mic input back to REW.

Beyond the individual channels, It also has a L/R 2, L/R 3 and L/R setting that sends a signal to all your drivers in a 2 way setup, 3 way setup or, as in my case, the whole dang side you are measuring, respectively.

This made measuring pretty quick and easy Compared to the traditional ways I am used to.

So with Hal's version 1 (nothing but crossovers set up), this is what we were working with.


The rest of the day was "wash, rinse and repeat" with Hal quickly turning around a new Audio Weaver file for me to measure with.

It should be noted that with each new iteration you need to be paying attention to how much you are abusing the CPU with the changes.  This is displayed in the AWE Server window.

For the most part of the day, the CPU was pegged at around 75%.  It was not until Hal started adding a few PEQs around version 7 or 8 did we see it hit 80%.  PEQs are costly in terms of CPU.  Mine sitting around 80% is actually really good, as I am told many guys are tapping out around 95%. 


IIR filters are much more efficient than FIR filters, so that is a place one can save cpu cycles if you find yourself running into a wall.  The upgrade should free up some of the CPU and enable more FIR implementation, if that is needed. 
@Jaytor - to answer your question from before, Hal did add in some IIR filters for bass management.  And we have been toying with FIR filters.

Actual measurements

As tedious as this work can be, I love hearing something barely listenable transform itself into that which sounds pretty darn good.  I still am always in disbelief that what I am hearing on the first iteration will actually go somewhere.  When it eventually does, then it is like Christmas for me.

Within a few hours we were on version 11 which produced the response below. 


This is a solid place for me to start playing with adding PEQs to AWE for room correction (which I will chat about in my next post).

 

[HAL]

The Audiomatica CLIO Pocket is back from Kazoom and ready for the next project.

Always fun to read threads like this!

[Kazoom]

Hello Audiocirclers!

I have been quite busy but faithfully using my little spare time to play with the dspNexus.

I am here to tell you that this thing is nuts.  After hitting a few pitfalls typical of the "unversed in audio engineering folks" like myself, it is sounding really good.  I am at a point were I have a good enough version of the Audio Weaver design to revert to when my next experiment goes horribly wrong and still be happy listening (and today I reverted version 17.6 back so I know it works).

This journey has been and still is, one heck of a learning experience with equal amounts of ways to succeed and screw things up.  It is just so dang flexible and makes you want to understand more so you can try new things.  If you enjoy revisiting your music collection every time you upgrade a piece of equipment, the dspNexus provides you that experience every time you tweak the design for the better.  I am sure it will slow down as you get closer to your version of perfection, but it is so much fun (and at points frustrating) on the way.  And if you don't like the changes, the reversion process takes minutes and you are back to your comfort zone.

Hal kept with me to achieve stability and for that I am most appreciative.  The support he has provided is exemplary.  He deserves a JD Edwards award for best customer service from a HiFi Lab.    

So lets get into it.

Impressions

There is now an extra level of clarity in terms of separation of instruments.  Compared to running Roon with decent convolution filters, the Nexus wins in this department.  And that is achieved despite using a very old Rotel amp for the mids.

Soundstage is wider, deeper and in general more defined.  Having the timing right really helps  The top of the line DACs are probably not hurting things either.

The music has more life.  I am missing some of the details I had going before, but I am confident that with time and a better measurement mic (the uncalibrated behringer is definitely the weakest link) I will surpass my previous listening experience on all fronts.

There is now a ray light at the end of the proverbial tunnel and for that I am quite overjoyed.  It still needs work, but it is definitely on its way.

Issues Discovered and Lessons Learned

While fiddling around with REW measurements and entering the generated PEQ filters into my design, I picked up a horrible bit of distortion in the woofer section. 

It went from "I wonder what the hell that is?" to "this simply wont do!" during a track I use to test bass called "Chameleon" by Trentemøller.  It sounded like a snare drum vibrating with each pulse of the bass, but there are no snare drums in that song.

We tried all sorts of tricks to make it go away, and it just would not budge.  While some other less bass heavy tracks would mask it, it was very annoying.

So after quite a bit of trouble shooting there were a couple of things discovered:

In Audio Weaver, they have modules called "second order filter cascades" (SOFs).  This is where you add the PEQ filters you generated in REW.  You can actually enter a whole array of different filter types and as many PEQ values as you want as long as you dont push your CPU beyond 95% (I am currently bouncing between 85% and  90% depending on what I try).  You can adjust the number of filters you pack into the module and turn them on and off as needed.  You can even do this during run time, but I am not sure that is a best practice.  You will get a click sound while doing so.  Not a scary pop, but more of a chirp.  It did not bother me or scare me YMMV.  Consider yourself warned.

My "distorted" design has a SOF module HAL built with PEQ filters.  I fed that into another SOF with filters I had come up with.  I was thinking maybe I should not feed a SOF into another SOF.  So I combined the two and  the distortion was eliminated in one speaker while significantly reduced in the other. 

Figuring I was on to something and pondering that maybe the order in which the filters are listed in the SOF may have an impact, I searched the googles for answers. 
I found a video from Emilson discussing Second Order Filter modules that shed light on what was going on.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SNLdhrhez8

In brief, there are two different types of Second Order Filters.  Standard ones that I stumbled across and implemented in my design, and a High Precision version (which Hal had been using).  In our 192kHz dspNexus the standard ones allow distortion through and the High Precision ones do not.

I gave the high precision variant a try and... Bingo! Distortion was gone!

New rule - only use the High Precision version of filters!

Its All About the Timing

When we first started setting this up HAL wanted to know the distances between the speakers/subs to the listening position.  I took these measurements with a tape measure as accurately as you can with a standard tape measure.  Hal plugged the correct delays for the subs into my design.

Since then I have moved the speakers around adjusting toe in realizing I might need to revisit the distances.

Now I do not know how exact this really needs to be, but if hooking your amp up directly to the drivers is an improvement over using 6 ft speaker cables, then i would think getting the timing as accurate as possible matters.  So that I did.  Off I went to the local home depot to get a decent laser tape measure that I mounted on my wife's camera tripod and marveled at the accuracy.    

My left sub is the furthest away so I adjusted the timing from there, I also adjusted for the slight difference in how far the speakers are from the listening position (the delta between the two speaker distances was less than 2cm, but it was a difference none the less). 

I likely will repeat this process when I get seriously close to a "Final" design, but for now, they are within a +/-1.5mm of perfection (at least according to the fine people at Bosch Laser Tape Measures).

Test Tracks and Further Impressions to Support my Previously Stated Impressions

Well it is not all dialed in, but the sound stage and separation of instruments is at a new level for my system. 

The version of "Cantaloupe Island" on Herbie Hancock's "Dedication" album is a great indicator of sound stage.  When he starts hitting the keys the sound is everywhere.  Far to the left, right, and behind you.  It literally sounds like it is down the hall behind me on the right at times.  That track should be filling your room like surround sound. 

Before the Nexus it was wide, but now it is more prominent everywhere and even more locatable. 

My next sound stage track was Peter Gabriel's "Growing Up".  This track can really go off on a clear sounding system, but now it has really opened up and is bouncing all over the place.  Peter Gabriel takes his audio engineering seriously (there is one song with 5 different microphones my opera singer buddy really likes).  You know your system is performing when Peter Gabriel songs take on a whole new life you did not know they had before.

Pin-pointing the location of all the instruments in Henry Mancini's "Pink Panther Theme" is easier than it ever has been, its like I could shoot a spit ball from 30 ft and hit the stand up bass player between the eyes.

For reference, there is a great set of test tracks that I use listed at the end of this room correcting convolution files tutorial from Obsessive Compulsive Audiophile https://drive.google.com/file/d/17BwTGv933w4id3B3PFHy2zjyijtgZLDX/view  he does a great job of explaining what you should hear from each track to validate your system is set up correctly.

I will include an expanded list of songs I test with in my recap.

Post Script of this Post

So there we are.  I have a listenable, not yet perfect design that will carry me through until I achieve that awe inspiring sound I have been chasing for over 25 years.  I am confident that the dspNexus is the right tool to aid in my quest.

My next post will be a recap where I re-visit my check list to see if my initial goals were achieved, what I love, what I don't love (there are couple things) and anything new I may have come across between now and then.  I will include graphs and maybe even a picture or two.

Until then, I am going to keep playing tunes, crashing the system and chasing that "final" design that inspires awe.

 

 

[Kazoom]

Howdy folks!

I have had quite a bit of time to play with the Nexus and it is time for my final write up.

It has been a very pleasant journey and many thanks and kudos for HAL’s continued support!

Goals Met

Lets start with my original goals and if they were met:

Single volume control for the whole system with a remote

This was achieved.

I still need to use my pre-amp to manage the many sources I have in my system, but I have that set at 12 o'clock and control the volume through the Nexus.

My turntable is my only true analog source, but the Nexus only has one USB in, one Digital RCA (S/PDIF) and one Analog in to work with. 

I am less concerned with Audio Nirvana from my video sources and am happy using the fiberoptic out from my projector, but with no fiberoptic "in" on the Nexus, I am forced to use on of my DACs via the Pre-Amp.

A fiberoptic S/PDIF port would make a world of difference and free up the analog in for me to play with the RIAA functions for my turntable.  Not a showstopper, but I think there is a lot of opportunity I will miss in using the Nexus as a phono-stage.

Room Correction for all sources, including analog

Definitely achieved. 

My vinyl has never sounded better, and my AV, even when routed through my Topping or Schitt Gungnir has taken on new live.  Whether I was watching David Byrne’s “American Utopia”, Roger Waters “This is not a Drill”, Metallica “Through the Never” David Gilmour “Live at Pompeii” or any NPR “Tiny Desk Concert” it was sublime.

The improvement to vinyl was so profound that my wife mentioned it might be time to upgrade my Dennon DL 103 cartridge.  I knew what she really meant was that I should buy a Small Audio Manufacturing “Reference” Turntable and a Hana ML cartridge.  The turntable is en-route as I type.   

I have a collection of around 2000 LPs most of which are Jazz.  I am really looking forward to re-discovering them.

This turntable can accommodate multiple tone arms, so having the pre-amp in between works out when I splurge on a second tone arm.  I will eventually use my two Parks Audio phono stages (Budgie with step up transformer and the Puffin) to accommodate that.

Move more of the bass to the subs

Accomplished.

HAL setup the sub crossovers at 50Hz.  So the subs are more in play.  One thing to note is that the bass is significantly improved.  This is primarily due to the timing alignment.  With the Nexus, if I move my subs around I just need to measure the distance from the listening position to the subs and speakers, enter the values into AudioWeaver and presto! it is properly time aligned.

Easy and affordable upgrade path

Accomplished.

This is met in spades.  As you may recall from my thread starter, I am using a pretty janky method to connect the amps to the speakers (speaker cables into cheap connectors) as well as using my six channel Rotel amp to drive the mids.  Despite these shortcomings I am thrilled with the sound and can only imagine what connecting amps directly to the speakers will sound like.  My next goal once I recover from the turntable purchase is to buy a couple of three channel Hypex or Purifi based class D amps and place them directly behind the speakers.

Higher quality DAC for my BluRay player

This is accomplished. 

I can connect my Blu Ray using the RCA S/PDIF directly to the Nexus and as I stated earlier, the DAC in the Nexus is definitely higher quality and an improvement over my Topping D90 or my Schitt Gungnir.

Ability to learn more about sound engineering

Oh my, did I learn, and am still learning. 

The ability to control all aspects of the signal path with AudioWeaver has opened up a whole world of possibilities.  While there are certain things I just wont touch, seeing the end to end chain visually has immersed me into all that goes on in getting the signal just right.  The power of being able to add as many PEQs as I want to flatten out the response is not available with any other product I know of.  Most DSP implementations only allow for 10 PEQ adjustments, I hear that one Nexus user has over 45 PEQ adjustments flattening out their response.  If you have any kind of OCD, the Nexus will not disappoint.

Fun is an expectation

Ok, this journey is fun.  Very fun.  Very frustrating at times, but so rewarding once you figure it out and bust through a barrier.

I want to add that HAL was there to help throughout and a big part of what made this so much fun.  Again, Kudos to HAL!   

As an early adopter, I hope to discover challenges and opportunities that lead to product improvements and solutions

I do not know if Danville Signal is paying attention to my thread, but I do know that HAL has sent a few of the issues we discovered over to them.  A few of these concerns should be addressed with the upgrade to more powerful chips.

Anyway, here are the challenges I see with this early version of the DSP Nexus:

•Power on/off and Standby Mode Pop Noise
This is a major concern.

Every time you turn the Nexus on, off or go into or out of standby you get a scary pop to the speakers.  You always need to turn off all the amps before turning the Nexus on.  This is an annoyance I do not believe belongs in a $3000 piece of kit. 

There is another Nexus owner out there with some pretty spendy Beryllium tweeters who rightfully is very concerned as he starts to set up the Nexus. 

I really hope that Danville Signal addresses this in the upgrade as I suspect this is something that will keep others from taking this journey.

•FIR Filters are not advised
This should not be an issue after the upgrade, however using these led to all sorts of weirdness from 2 seconds of odd sub rumbles in between songs to very audible distortion in the woofer section.   Stick to IIR with the early adopter versions.

•S/PDIF out not working
This is not something that I am overly concerned with right now so I did not apply more than 15 minutes of troubleshooting so could very well be on my end.  Danville was informed of this issue.

•Nexus Freezes
This one I figured out.
If your PC/Laptop is connected via USB to the Nexus (which is often the case when playing in AudioWeaver), after re-boot/power on, there is a good chance your Nexus will freeze up.  Turn off your amps, unplug the USB and restart.  I have yet to burn a final AudioWeaver Design to my unit, so I do not know if that will remediate this issue.  I am also of the school of thought that is ok leaving their system on 24x7.  I am blessed with very cheap electricity and have never had an issue with any of my equipment as a result to leaving it on.

And of course, I am looking forward to hearing the improvements afforded by active crossovers

Expectation met!

Major improvements.  The imaging is incredible.  A lot of this can be attributed to the better DAC and switching to HAL’s MS-6, but getting the timing right has opened up the system beyond where it ever was. 

You know where everyone is on the stage, instruments show up in pinpoint locations, your listening room becomes the room they are recording in.  Close your eyes and you are in the studio, club or concert venue.  Even less than optimal recordings come alive, it does expose the lower quality, but even then, these recordings are more listenable than before. 

All the overused cliche audiophile reviewer buzz words are present, but now I feel like I know what they really mean.

In Conclusion

I am very happy I took this journey.  While the Nexus is really a heck of a tool for speaker designers, this is one of the few gems out there for audiophile types that does not have diminishing returns.  When closing that final 5% of the way to perfection, the Nexus has provided the biggest jump forward I have experienced with any of my audio purchases. 

In my opinion it is the most significant improvement I have made in my 20+ years of chasing audio bliss.  It significantly improves everything across the board and gives you the control to take it as far as you want.  I am really looking forward to the upgrade and adding hearing what FIR filters can do with the added processing power.

My Test Track List

I wanted to include my test tracks list as I personally am always interested in what other folks use and what they are listening for.

Turboweekend, 'Sweet Jezebel' on Ghost Of A Chance - This tests your room correction and quickly identify any unwanted ringing resulting from your PEQs being wonky.  I got this from Obsessive Compulsive Audiophiles (OCA) Test Tracks.

Pink Floyd, 'Time' on The Dark Side of the Moon - I, and 99% of the world know this song so well that any differences stand out.  I noticed a whole new level of life and power with the Nexus.  Especially in those early bass notes right after the clock chimes.

Norah Jones, 'Little Room' on Not Too Late -Another one from OCA.  This makes sure your toe-in/balance is correct.  Norah is dead center in this track.

The Beatles, 'Her Majesty (2019 mix)' on Abbey Road (Super Deluxe Edition) - Another one from OCA.  If your toe-in/balance is correct then Paul should be walking between your speaker, not in front or behind, but directly in between them.

Henry Mancini feat. Monica Mancini, 'The Pink Panther Theme (extended version)' on Ultimate Mancini - Another one from OCA.  This is a great imaging track.  Instruments are easy to point out on the stage with this song.

Commodores, 'Nightshift' on 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: Best Of The Commodores - Just a very well Engineered track.  I listen to this for hearing how well the different instruments are separated.  Every instrument is clear and in its own space.

Herbie Hancock, 'Cantaloupe Island' on Dedication - This is one of the best sound stage tracks I have heard.  When he starts going off on the keyboards, the sounds will be all over the room, behind you and down the hallway.  Great sound stage test track

Black Sabbath, 'Black Sabbath' on Black Sabbath - Another OCA recommended track.  The thunder storm is above and the rain is hitting where it is supposed to hit.  OCA believes this is one of the best engineered albums off all time I have no reason to doubt his assesment.

Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, 'Flight of the Cosmic Hippo' on Flight Of The Cosmic Hippo - Great bass clarity track.  Victor Wooten reaches deep somewhere around the 2.5 minute mark.  Those deep notes are clear and tight when your subs are properly integrated.

Roger Waters, 'Three Wishes' on Amused To Death - This is a great sound stage song.  When the system is set up right, the woman's voice at the beginning comes from far left of the speakers, the chorus is above and the genie is powerful and clear

Trentemøller, 'Chameleon' on The Last Resort - This will put all your bass to the test.  Most bass issues will show up with this track.

Tool, 'Chocolate Chip Trip' on Fear Inoculum - Sound stage and clarity.  The drums roll off to the left and right and around you.  On my system they are coming from 4 feet in front and 10 feet outside the speakers.  The drums sound like an actual drum kit is in your room.  Love this test track.

Willie Nelson, 'God's Problem Child' on God's Problem Child - Good all around test for how balanced your systems sounds.  The bass is deep but balanced with the mids and highs nicely.

Jacques Loussier Trio, 'Little Fugue In G Minor' on Jacques Loussier Plays Bach: Encore! - Just a fun track that adds a drum kit to a classical song.  Well engineered and you can hear the bow hitting the strings.

Yosi Horikawa, 'Bubbles' on Wandering - If you have not heard this song, it is an auditory adventure.  Not an everyday listening song (at least not for me) but the various balls bouncing around is distinct and clear.  You here them bouncing and rolling across the soundstage.  There is a lot going on in this song and the system should be able to distinguish between all the activity.

Baba Blues, 'Help me through the Day' on Excavations: Blues Is a Rainbow - These guys play through a PA system, so the crunch and resonance on the guitar notes is quite exaggerated and is a great indicator of how clearly my system is dialed in, especially in the mids and tweeters.  Very hard to describe, but once you hear it, you will not accept less.

Any Peter Gabriel Track.  His music really opens up on a good system.  I like "Growing Up", the song is all over the room when you are dialed in.  When you are not it can be a little on the blurry side.

Thanks Everyone

I hope this thread helps those deciding on trying out the DSP/Active route and provides a little guidance.  It is quite a lot to take on, but considering that I successfully pulled it off, then I think anyone can pull it off. 

As the marketing states - "..convert a very good loudspeaker system to a much better loudspeaker system regardless of the initial cost."

(this is good segue for HAL to call out what the folks at Magnepan told him during a recent visit at Capitol Audio Fest)

I will leave it at that and happy to answer any questions you may have either here or in PM.

[HAL]

Kazoom,
This a great tutorial on how any user can get started with guidance with the EA dspNexus 2x8!  Thank you very much for all the time and effort to describe your journey with the system and get improvements in their system with existing speakers. 

This has been a long process to help define, test and support a system that brings this level of sound quality to music listeners to get them closer to the sound of the original recordings.  As an EE and music lover, this makes me very proud of the results of the system.

Here is the story about Magnepan employees visiting the HAL room.  Since principle people in Danville know principle people in Magnepan, when they were told I was using MG10/QR speakers they said, why not get a pair of 1.7i's as the MG10/QR was rapidly replaced by the MG10.1/QR with improved sound quality.  Basically, they did not sound that good.  From listening to the original crossovers and measurements they needed a lot of changes to redesign the crossover and with an 80Hz low end, they need subs for anything approaching something full range.  Thing is the used pair of MG10/QR's cost $400, so were a bargain to start the process.

I knew that GR-Research and Rythmik Audio had 8in servo subs and servo amps from the past and now with improved servo drivers so 4 could be run in parallel.  The look of the smaller baffles was something a lot of customers over the years have commented on with the 12in subs.   The mods get the servo sub system to extend to 30Hz.

Now with the dspNexus and servo subs, there was no problem redesigning the MG10/QR's DSP crossovers to correct the things I measured that were not very good.  This took a lot of EQ and time delay to correctly integrate the speakers and subs.

When they came in, it was easy to see they were from Magnepan, so got them seated and played Infected Mushrooms, Bliss on Mushrooms.  A very dynamic track with fairly modern electronic and acoustic instruments.  I played half the track and they were intently listing.  When they looked at each other the facial expression was a bit, what just happened?  First thing they said is they were familiar with the original MG10/QR and this system sounded really good.  To the point we got Magnepan buttons and very good feedback. My response was, this is not your grandad's pair of MG10/QR's!

Danville Signal is about 1 hour from Magnepan.  My suggestion was to take the 1.7i's to Danville and let us work on a DSP crossover.  We will see what happens.

[danvillesignal]

I do not know if Danville Signal is paying attention to my thread..... (Kazoom)

I want to think everyone for their kind words. I was fortunate to meet many of you at CAF.

I want to assure everyone, that I always read these posts. As was mentioned in this thread - the dspNexus was envisioned from the start to be a growing platform. The DSP, ADC & DACs are all implemented as modules.

Al Clark

[Kazoom]

Glad to see you on here sir, and now I know.   

I hope my posts are helpful feedback for you.  I obviously really love your product and appreciate the efforts you and your team put into bringing this to the consumer market.

I did add some clarification to my post above about the freezing issue.  I neglected to state that happens only during startup or reboot.  Once I isolated the issue, I did not have any random freezing issues as my post seemed to suggest.  This may already be documented somewhere, but I just did not catch it.

It looks like you and HAL had a great show in DC. 

I am really sorry I was not able to make it, would have been great to meet everyone.

[HAL]

Kazoom,
Thanks for stopping by today and hope my ramblings did not drive your friend to crazy!

Glad you liked the local restaurant on the water.  A nice place to dine and watch the water on both sides of the building.

Glad you are enjoying the EA dspNexus 2x8 system and hopefully very soon with the new dspBlok to try your new ideas.

Best,
Rich

[Kazoom]

Thank you HAL, we both had a good time.  She did find it very interesting how far this can all go and that restaurant you recommended definitely scored any needed extra points.   

Reading through the thread, I figured it is high time I toss out a few updates to my journey for folks out there considering this route.

Lots of words as always, but I try to break it up so you can find what you actually care about.  I made a few "upgrades" to my system that should be noted, I employed a tweak that Rich suggested to the DSP DAC settings that made a very audible difference. 

This thing just keeps getting better. 


Update to AWE file for a better DAC experience
To adjust your DAC settings, open your AWE diagram and find the “General Purpose Input” block.  At the bottom of that diagram there are 5 blocks, the middle one is called “Danville_DAC_Filter1”  Select that one and set both those boxes to "4". 

Load that into your dspNexus and enjoy.  My wife noticed it right away and was quite happy, which in turn makes me happy.  😊

For further improvements, as soon as the DSP Block arrives, I have a settled on a strategy for implementing FIR filters based on the process Obsessive Compulsive Audiophile employs which I will update the thread on as I play with that.

A Change in Amplifiers
My MacIntosh started cooking tweeters likely due to an oscillation issue in the amplifier, so that is going into the shop.    While replacing tweeters is never fun, buying new amplifiers to meet my needs is a challenge I enjoy taking on especially when I was wanting to get rid of speaker cables all together (and my janky speaker cable coupling setup) connecting the amplifiers directly to the drivers.

While I am blessed with a most tolerant wife, I am not blessed with a most tolerant bank account.  So my dream of adding the Benchmark ABH2 was crushed quickly (I would need 4 of those bad boys).  But thanks to the NX-Treme speakers being 96db efficient, I do not need any 1000w powerhouse amps and decided on adding 3 more Topping PA5s (already had one very capably driving my woofer section) with the idea of upgrading to Buckeye 3 channel Purifi amps in the future.

Lets Talk Analog
One of my higher-ranking goals of putting the DSP Nexus into my chain was bringing room correction to my analog sources. 

The Nexus is so successful at this that I pulled the trigger on a Small Audio Manufacturer Reference turntable which just spun me up in the world of high-end vinyl playback.  The Nexus is flexible.  Very flexible.  I have an MC cartridge going into an SUT and into the analog in which I have set in the analog in (ADC menu under EQ) to RIAA and it is working very nicely with all sorts of gain settings to get the most out of the cartridge. 

I found out that Al of Danville has all sorts of experience in analog explaining why this feature is so well implemented.  But if you want to add a specific phono stage you love, or need one capable of connecting multiple tonearms/cartridges, just flip over the ADC setting from RIAA to Flat and there you go, plug your phono stage in and Bob is your uncle!

Of course, the SAM Reference exposed a need to upgrade my Denon DL 103 and while cleaning my records, I discovered I had enough Mono recordings to justify adding a second tone arm with a mono cartridge.  So, I will need either a new phono stage (got my eyes on a Gold Note PH10), and I have acquired Dad’s old school Akai Reel to Reel, meaning I might be integrating my very transparent Swiss built Rowen pre-amp back into the mix to run all my analog sources.

On a side note, if you are looking for a turntable, I highly suggest checking out the SAM line up.  Solid value at half the price and in the opinion of many more knowledgeable than I, better than the usual suspects you read about amongst the vinyl forums.

Cool Technical Stuff to Come 
I am holding off on any major measurements and moving of equipment to sort out pesky room modes until after the dspBlock arrives.  But once that gets here, expect posts on implementing FIR filters, opinions on adding a phono stage vs the imbedded RIAA, implementing a UPS strategy in hopes of cleaning up power without spending way too much on power cords, and any other tips and tricks.

If any dspNexus owners out there have opinions or tricks of their own, please chime in.
 

[HAL]

The new ADSP21569 production dspBlok with Alpha test software is up and running in my EA dspNexus 2x8 system.  Will be testing it with your software as I need to migrate it to a new baseline design.

Once done, will run your latest crossover block diagram with my system and see what throughput I get.

Update:

Your updated block diagram is running at 45.1% throughput. 

[Kazoom]

That is great news HAL.  Quite an improvement over the near 90% utilization I am currently at.

This should open up some doors in what is possible.

Good times ahead!