Interesting Stuff I Found

I've been getting a crash course in DACs. This video has been particularly informative. I'm still coming to grips with the need to have two DACs in a single unit.

T+A DAC200 Review - Two DACs in one box!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYxNda_aaKI

The DAC in my Esoteric CD player is more than adequate for my needs however having just invested in my first music server (Baetis Ref 4) I thought I would purchase a newer DAC.

Has anyone else gone down this rabbit hole? My guess is that any solution one may have today will look dated in only a few years.

btw here is a review on the BAETIS

https://www.audiokeyreviews.com/the-reviews/baetisaudio-reference-4-mingo

Hello I’m Bill Woodard a recent AAC signee. Hope to meet everyone in short time but split time between ATL and Charleston right now.

The timing of you post had me shaking my head as I purchased a new DAC yesterday. I don’t exactly need the new one but wanted to try something different.

I currently use a Chord Qutest and will be comparing it to a Mojo Audio Mystique X SE. I stream Qobuz through Roon with my own ripped files as well.

DSD and MQA compatibility have been sticking points for some DACs, but MQA looks to be dead. Roon and other software can decode the DSD if your DAC cannot handle it, not optimal but not too big a worry for me.

That streamer you bought looks quite nice. I would look at a DAC that can take advantage of the I 2S or AES outputs. I think I read it had those.

thanks for the reply - please provide a followup after you get more time with. your new equipment!! -Scott

Pardon me for taking a little liberty with this topic. First, I discovered today that I am the third person in the club to purchase a Baetis Streamer/Server. I hope we can bring our joint observations to the attention of the club when time allows.

Second - I have started on (for me) an epic journey to load my CD library. This is the first chance I have had to move from CD into a music library so the loading process is a steep learning curve. How many CDs are we talking about? Hum, I wish I knew. At one point I had three thousand and then two friends dropped off their collections (1K each). Finally I've been buying a few large box classical collections. So the answer is an unqualified... "alot."

One of the advantages of purchasing from Baetis is the customer service which the owner offers. I knew that many had said this was first class and invaluable. What I didn't know is that without this help I would not be as far along as I am.

For those who don't know, there are hardware and software solutions which you must carefully put together to affectively input a very large quantity of CDs. Hardware starts with either a single load CD/DVD loader or a multi disc loader from a company called Nimby. Friends who have attempted this amount of loading warned me that unless I wanted to dedicate every weekend to the task for months that I should go the multi loader approach. A wise decision as since about four o'clock today I've loaded over two hundred CDs.

The last piece of the puzzle I needed before data reached my new Baetis machine was access to CD metadata. Remember when this was free? Apparently this has changed. Single disc lookups are still free but attempting to access the library of one company in a continuous process (aka Batch Load) raises a red flag that shuts down your access. There may be a work around but I'm on a timeline that's limiting my decision making so I've paid ten cents per disk for access to this meta data.

More to come on this quest when I get a chance. Wasn't it all so much easier when we opened up the LP cardboard cover, wiped off the dust from the vinyl and then settled in with the large print album credits to enjoy the music and the information on how it was made?

After most of a weekend with my Baetis streamer/server I am confidentl in saying that it has brought my system (Parasound Integrated/Parasound JC1 Mono Blocks, T+A D200 DAC) to a new level and that is what I hope for in all major changes to my audio system. My observations will probably be echoed by other owners of this equipment - very improved soundstage which brings a separation of instruments in recordings.

Using Copland's Fanfare For The Comman Man, a piece I've witnessed used at Audio Club meetings, the audio image has a clarity that I've never heard from my equipment. The horns and percussion are very musical and more importantly are another step toward being "actual" - as in there isn't enough space in my listening room for you guys to stand and play.

Part of the weekend has been a delightful conversation with another Audio club member who easily verbalized the benefits I was hearing from the Baetis. We agreed that the unit no doubt benefits from a design that allows for the functionality of a computer without anything which is unnecessary for audio reproduction. There is no display as the unit relies on interface with a phone or tablet or networked computer. I am more than happy to live with this hardware decision to gain the improved sonic performance.

The next step in this DAC upgrade is to evaluate a third party software called HQ Player. Anyone using this? I'll leave a link to a YouTube Review of this $300 (approx) software below. It is available as a free trial via download. Looking forward to comments by others on this software.

$300 software vs $5,650 upsampler! HQPlayer review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1IMnBvpfk0

I finally got HQplayer working just last night. I run Roon from a headless Mac mini to an Allo USB sig streamer running Ropiee. I didn't realize I had to activate the client in Ropiee to use HQplayer.

I didn't want to go to bed last night, the improvement was quite noticeable. I have a Qutest which is only able to upsample to 705.6khz via USB. Specs say 768 should be available but that fails with white noise after a minute or so, a known occurrence with the Chords and HQplayer.

I'm running sinc-M filter with LNS15. I tried polysinc -M and closed form- M with NS9 and NS5 dithering. Detail retrieval and air seems improved over standard Roon playback. The only drawback is it is fiddly and a bit slow to respond when changing tracks or settings.

This guy laid out his thoughts on the different settings and I thought it was good starting point.

https://audiobacon.net/2021/03/17/hqplayer-better-than-a-5000-upscaler/4/

Thanks for the link on HQPlayer. I too am a Roon user and run a Roon Nucleus Plus. I run HQPlayer on a separate computer on my network and upsample everything to DSD256. My DAC is a Holo May KTE and can handle it. I use an Ultrarendu set up as an NAA outputting a USB signal to the DAC. My system is not the holy grail of digital music, but it sounds pretty good to me.

I hope that all of that isn't too complicated for everone, but I welcome questions. 

I am a member, but seldom make it from Marietta to Decatur for the meetings.

Best regards,

John Wyant

Thanks for comments on HQ Player which I installed today (trial version gives you thirty minutes a day to test with). The result - wow! At a club meeting we used Copland's Fanfare For The Comman Man as a test track. I've taken the hint and also use it as a reference. My setup allows me to easily switch back and forth between HQ Player ON and OFF. I need a little more time using the available filters but so far I am very very impressed. The product leaves me wondering if future DACs will incorporate it as standard equipment.

I now have approx 3k of classical albums ripped to my Baetis SSD. Once I review these for missing album art (which will likely take months) I will start selling my collection on EBAY. The time for going to the wall of CD storage to look for something to enjoy for the evening is over. While my Esoteric CD player was my only source this was understandably my nightly routine. Now that the combination of the Baetis and T+A D200 DAC + HQ Player (BTW HQ Player website shows the D200 DAC as what they used for development) actually outperform the Esoteric, my need to keep CDs is gone.

One aspect of the Baetis/D200 combination which I had not foreseen is the de-emphasis of record labels. Where I would listen to recordings because they were from TELDEC, TELARC or maybe the very well recorded Mercury box sets, I now lack the ability to easily use this as a listening selection basis. Yes, the info is still in my database but it's not as obvious as holding a CD booklet in your hand which clearly displays the album label. What a shame. Thinking back on the days when buying a vinyl record from the Angel label promised an elevated listening experience, I find picking a recording from a long list to be much less satisfying.

I've carefully followed advances in the server/DAC marketplace for years. Reading articles in The Absolute Sound and individual opinions on online forums. I held off on a purchase until this year because I was concerned about what I learned at the onset of "computer audio" and that is electronics causes noise. Yes - plenty of people I knew were using Mac Mini's or headless NOC's to access their audio files and everyone claimed the results were good enough to drop your CDs. I wasn't convinced. If I could clearly hear the difference in speaker wire and interconnect upgrades then I wanted a server constructed in a manner which also emphasized audio quality. Year after year The Absolute Sound's roundup of servers included the Baetis brand and after talking with the owner I was convinced that less is more when it comes to the hardware needed for server/streamers. The Baetis product has eliminated any hardware not directly needed for audio.

Some members may recall the winter social gathering I attended at the BBQ place in Tucker last year. I joined the club for one reason, to learn what others could tell me about servers/streamers and DACs. If you were at that meeting you may recall this new guy (me) stopping conversation to ask if anyone knew of the Baetis brand. The only reply I received was, "What's a Baetis?" Now, many months later and many comments I have taken in from club demos and talking between members I can say a big thanks for helping me take this step.

I'm all in for a DAC shootout if one can be arranged. For that matter I'd be more than willing to help in a demo on Baetis.

Warm regards.

I'm glad to see that you're having fun with HQPlayer and your Baetis device. If the perceived improvements are durable over days and weeks, it sounds like you have a winner. I have observed that the big improvements in DACs over the last few years seem to be in reconstruction filters.

On your EBAY statement, I personally struggle with the notion of ripping music and then selling the physical media. To my mind, if I sell or give away the physical media, I no longer have a right to retain the data that was on it. The content is copyrighted, and I don't have permission from the copyright holder to duplicate it.

I'm fuzzy on applicable laws in the US covering this sort of thing. Perhaps it's more of a moral question?

I sleep a little easier knowing that if the FBI comes knocking on my door, I still have the physical discs in storage for every album that I've ripped to my digital music library. :-D

David - Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I'll leave the issue of reselling media for another discussion so that we continue comments on DACs but again, thanks for providing your comments. -Scott

I have been out of commission with my main stereo due to a/c failure on that floor. The night before, I did find a downside of HQplayer. It will render poor recordings in a harsh light. I have a lot of 60s garage rock compilations and they sound much better without the HQplayer upsampling. I could change the HQplayer settings but it is much easier in Roon to switch back out of HQplayer when needed.

Just picked up a Bricasti M1 Series 2 DAC this weekend myself. (Anyone interested in my prior DAC-Mytek Brooklyn Bridge?)

Maybe a shoot-out is in the works?

I'm a Roon fan and have never tried HQPlayer. Interested in your findings.