New miniDSP 2x8 / 4x10 card

JohnR · « **Reply #20 on:** 23 May 2011, 02:45 pm »

Thanks, I'll update as I can. I guess it's pretty new in the field. I do have the 2x4s although back and forth comparisons won't be feasible.

nwboater · « **Reply #21 on:** 24 May 2011, 01:17 pm »

Quote from: JohnR on 23 May 2011, 02:45 pm

Thanks, I'll update as I can. I guess it's pretty new in the field. I do have the 2x4s although back and forth comparisons won't be feasible.

Sure appreciate it John. Understand the difficulty in A/Bing the units, but wondering if you have used the 2x4 in a full range system or just with a sub?

Thanks,
Rod

JohnR · « **Reply #22 on:** 24 May 2011, 03:42 pm »

Hi Rod, yes, I use a pair of 2x4s, one per channel, for a full range system -

http://www.hifizine.com/2010/12/prototyping-4-way-open-baffle-speaker-with-the-minidsp-2x4/
http://www.hifizine.com/2011/03/refining-a-4-way-open-baffle-speaker-minidsp-2x4/

I've at this point copied over my settings to the 2x8 plugin. Tomorrow I'll be connecting it all up and confirm that it works as expected.

BTW I'm writing an overview article on it - I don't suppose you'd be interested in reading/commenting on a draft?

nwboater · « **Reply #23 on:** 25 May 2011, 12:29 am »

Hi John,

Glad to hear of your rather extensive experience with the MiniDSPs. I had previously seen your article on using them with subs, but had not seen these two. At the moment I've only skimmed them, but they are certainly worthy of much more study. Even though I'm not using open baffle speakers there is still a lot of other information in them that I'm sure will be useful to me.

I'd be honored to read and comment on your draft of the 2x8 article. Thanks for asking! I am nowhere near your level technically but if you feel it might be worthwhile please pass it on. Don't know if you can do that in a PM. If not let me know and I'll shoot you my email address.

Thanks,
Rod

JohnR · « **Reply #24 on:** 25 May 2011, 07:35 am »

Thanks Rod (and Norman) - I'll have a draft sent to you fairly soon.

Here's the board up and running:

jtwrace · « **Reply #25 on:** 25 May 2011, 11:13 am »

John,

What's all the way to the right?

JohnR · « **Reply #26 on:** 25 May 2011, 03:17 pm »

It's a Teralink X2 USB to SPDIF converter. That feeds into the miniDIGI (digital I/O) daughter board at the lower left.

JohnR · « **Reply #27 on:** 25 May 2011, 03:25 pm »

Oh, there's also a board from miniDSP called a miniStreamer that can do the USB to SPDIF conversion - this was just the easiest way to get the digital I/O going for now.

pjchappy · « **Reply #28 on:** 26 May 2011, 12:41 am »

This looks very interesting (I have a Mini-DSP in-a-box).

What do you plan on doing for a case? For someone that plans on doing a stereo 4-way set-up down the road (a pair of tri-amped speakers and 2 subs), what would be the benefits of this vs. having 2 Mini-DSPs in-a-box? Would you consider the direct digital input to be a strength?

Thanks. . .and I'm looking forward to your impressions.

Paul

JohnR · « **Reply #29 on:** 26 May 2011, 01:44 am »

Hi Paul, good question about the case, I got a "look" yesterday when the new addition to the stereo was revealed

I hadn't thought about it much but now that you ask I do have a case in the workshop that's about the right size. Someone on the miniDSP forum gutted an old DVD player or something for it.

Advantages of the 2x8: you don't have to switch the USB connection to adjust the other channel. Even better, you can link left and right channels so you don't have to make the same adjustment twice. A big convenience factor there. 96k internal processing, so high-res is open to me now to explore. Balanced ins and outs, which can be useful. I would recommend getting the digital card. Lots to explore there still, e.g. upsampling on the computer w/ dithering volume control and/or the inbuilt digital volume.

I'm still exploring but so far I think soundwise it's a nice improvement. I can't say if it's the 2x8 board itself or the digital I/O as I changed both at the same time... I'm getting a small amount of noise but most of it's from the amps - the curse of using efficient drivers!

pelliott321 · « **Reply #30 on:** 6 Jun 2011, 01:17 pm »

John thanks for all your good work on the mini-dsp. I have Maggy 3's with stereo subs that are just begging for this treatment and I have been wrestling with what active xover for the last 9 months. I was about to go with the mini's for a quick (and inexpensive) fix and discovered the 2X8 when I visited the website to order. Then with more searching I found this circle.
I would also like to read your new article if you do not mind

JohnR · « **Reply #31 on:** 7 Jun 2011, 03:11 am »

Hi, I just published the article a couple of days ago - haven't had a chance to tell people about it yet -

http://www.hifizine.com/2011/06/tour-of-the-minidsp-2x8/

nwboater · « **Reply #32 on:** 7 Jun 2011, 03:20 am »

Quote from: JohnR on 7 Jun 2011, 03:11 am

Hi, I just published the article a couple of days ago - haven't had a chance to tell people about it yet -

http://www.hifizine.com/2011/06/tour-of-the-minidsp-2x8/

Excellent article John! Very informative and helpful and done in your very clear easy to follow style.

Thanks for making this available.

Rod

JohnR · « **Reply #33 on:** 7 Jun 2011, 03:35 am »

Thanks Rod

I've moved onto writing the next article already

Tyson · « **Reply #34 on:** 7 Jun 2011, 04:13 am »

How's the sound quality of the 2x8 vs the 2x4?

JohnR · « **Reply #35 on:** 7 Jun 2011, 05:47 am »

Well, I never had the digital card with the 2x4 ...

pelliott321 · « **Reply #36 on:** 7 Jun 2011, 02:48 pm »

Well after reading your article john I pulled the trigger and ordered the 2X8. Now I need to come up with a 3rd amp for the mids. I am bi-amping now. I have a 150watt d class amp I will use in the mean time, but the sound quality is questionable, but it might be alright with the limited freq range of the mids approx 500 to 2K

JohnR · « **Reply #37 on:** 8 Jun 2011, 11:41 am »

Please let us know how you go! I think amp quality is a bit less critical in an active system as they're covering a more limited frequency range. Just an impression so far.

pelliott321 · « **Reply #38 on:** 8 Jun 2011, 01:42 pm »

one of the things I have been thinking about and do not know the answer to. Right now I am bi-amping with stereo subs so I have three sets of amps connected to my preamp (200 ohms output impedance. So I have three parallel loads of at least 50-100k each. When I go active this will go down to one load the 2X8DSP. How will this change things? My gut reaction is that it will be better.

JohnR · « **Reply #39 on:** 8 Jun 2011, 01:53 pm »

Hi, it won't make any difference. It's not like a loudspeaker. In this case the load with the devices in parallel is well within what the preamp can handle.