AMP8

Thank you everyone. I am really looking forward to the T+A amp. If my DAC is any indication then I know I will like this amp. I am confident from other amps I have tried that the AMP 8 will have more than enough power for me.
 
Agreed. I'm sure the AMP 8 will have more than enough power. The problem with the AMP 8 is that people don't take it seriously enough because of the size and power spec. It sounds way more powerful than the specifications would suggest and is very dynamic as well.
 
Randy,
You tried many DACs before choosing the A+T DS8. Would you mind sharing which were the other DACs you tried?
Also, would you recommend the A+T DAC even without HQPlayer?
 
Yes, I would recommend the T+A DAC 8 DSD with or without HQPlayer. It used 4 BurrBrown chips for PCM and their own chipless 1 bit converter for DSD. HQPlayer is just another music playback software/engine that is renowned for both it's customization and upsampling capabilities. The T+A just happens to be first on HQPlayers list of recommended DACs. Besides amazing DSD abilities it can handle virtually any resolution you could throw at it up to DSD512, even using a 48 base clock.... that is 24.6MHz... simply wow. For those who don't follow the numbers DSD64 is 2.8MHz (44.1 base clock), DSD128 is 5.6, DSD256 is 11.2... you get the idea...

Hmmm, DACs I have used... McIntosh, Teac, NuPrime, Marantz, Pono, Denon, Oppo, Wyred 4 Sound DAC-1, Wyred 4 Sound DAC2v2 SE, Benchmark DAC2 HGC, Benchmark DAC3 HGC,.. hmmm, seems like I am forgetting a couple... the T+A DAC 8 DSD is in a higher league in my opinion!
 
My Amp 8 is on it's way. I am looking forward to getting this little amp in my system. It appears to be universally reviewed as an amazing amp, I guess even more amazingly because of its size... every review and every person I have talked to mentions to not let it's size fool you.
 
Randy, I’m excited for you to receive your new amp. I hope you love how it integrates into your system and am looking forward to reading your thoughts.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Randy Myers said:
Yes, I would recommend the T+A DAC 8 DSD with or without HQPlayer. It used 4 BurrBrown chips for PCM and their own chipless 1 bit converter for DSD. HQPlayer is just another music playback software/engine that is renowned for both it's customization and upsampling capabilities. The T+A just happens to be first on HQPlayers list of recommended DACs. Besides amazing DSD abilities it can handle virtually any resolution you could throw at it up to DSD512, even using a 48 base clock.... that is 24.6MHz... simply wow. For those who don't follow the numbers DSD64 is 2.8MHz (44.1 base clock), DSD128 is 5.6, DSD256 is 11.2... you get the idea...

Hmmm, DACs I have used... McIntosh, Teac, NuPrime, Marantz, Pono, Denon, Oppo, Wyred 4 Sound DAC-1, Wyred 4 Sound DAC2v2 SE, Benchmark DAC2 HGC, Benchmark DAC3 HGC,.. hmmm, seems like I am forgetting a couple... the T+A DAC 8 DSD is in a higher league in my opinion!
Click to expand...


I made a small mistake, there are 8 Burr-Brown chips for PCM, not 4 in the T+A DAC 8 DSD.

Thank you Sean. I am looking forward to it. Every review I read gets me more excited waiting :)...
 
Randy,
A few more questions:
1. Is the T+A DAC 8 DSD a roon-ready device?
2. Can you use an Ethernet cable to connect it to your server?
3. You mentioned built your own Windows server to run HQplayer Can you provide any details?
Thanks!
 
Hello nicoff,

Well Roon Ready is more of a term for music servers then DACs, unless you are talking about a combined unit that is a server or streamer and a DAC. Roon runs on my custom music server and the server sends the digital signal to the T+A DAC which in turn converts it to analog in preparation to sending it out to the pre-amp. Units such as the T+A DAC 8 DSD can also be used as a stand alone pre-amp if you prefer (I prefer using my ARC pre-amp).

So I guess you could say that it is Roon ready as such because you can use Roon. Roon Ready really refers to the ability to run Roon Core, therefore referring to a music server/computer.

I do use Roon, but it runs on the music server/computer as the organizer, meta data, information provider, controller. I then have Roon send its signal to HQPlayer as the over clocker/playback engine. To use Roon and HQPlayer it is highly recommended to use a Windows machine. T+A DAC 8 DSD appears to only work with Windows from HQPlayer. Here is the list of recommended DACs by HQPlayer:

Recommended hardware:


The T+A does not have Ethernet inputs therefore it can not be attached to your server via Ethernet :)...

attachment.php


The only way to get DSD into the DAC is through the USB connection and a Windows machine is required to play DSD256 and DSD512 as indicated by the chart below from their owners manual:


  • USB Socket for connecting a PC or MAC computer.
  • At this input the DAC 8 DSD accepts digital PCM stereo signals with sampling rates in the range 44.1 to 384 kHz
  • Digital DSD stereo signals from 2,8 /3,1 MHz (DSD64) to 22,6 / 24,6 MHz (DSD512)**
  • 11,2 / 12,3 MHz (DSD256) and 22,6 / 24,6 MHz (DSD512) only with a Windows PC.
  • If you wish the DAC 8 DSD to convert audio files from a Windows PC connected to it, you must first install the appropriate drivers on the computer.
  • No drivers are required if you are using a MAC computer.

HQPlayer is very demanding software and therefore requires a fairly robust Windows computer to perform at its best. I highly recommend very high quality power supplies (Gold Standard is the best). When I re-configured my machine to be a dedicated music server I removed all unnecessary software and verified that nothing that was not absolutely required was running. I use Roon Headless Server version and HQPlayer. I loaded the T+A Windows drivers and choose these from the HQPlayer menus when setting it up.

I should be getting my NVidia card back from our one son this weekend therefore I will also install NVidia's latest drivers. HQPlayer can use the NVidia Cuda Cores to off load some of the processing, and the card I am getting back has, I believe, 256 Cuda Cores on it.

There are some companies that offer pre-configured Windows music servers. I could not recommend any in particular, but certain lean toward high performance machines. Of course realize that these companies will charge many times more than you could build a machine yourself.

I seriously do not worry about USB. For the highest best digital music processing you will want to use USB. Ethernet does not give any advantage at this level and in many ways can hinder the system. I also choose to use a Wyred 4 Sound Recovery unit to assure the best USB signal leaving my server gets to my DAC.

It sounds a ton more daunting then it really is...
 
Randy Myers said:
Hello nicoff,

Well Roon Ready is more of a term for music servers then DACs, unless you are talking about a combined unit that is a server or streamer and a DAC. Roon runs on my custom music server and the server sends the digital signal to the T+A DAC which in turn converts it to analog in preparation to sending it out to the pre-amp. Units such as the T+A DAC 8 DSD can also be used as a stand alone pre-amp if you prefer (I prefer using my ARC pre-amp).

So I guess you could say that it is Roon ready as such because you can use Roon. Roon Ready really refers to the ability to run Roon Core, therefore referring to a music server/computer.
Click to expand...
Randy - I don't use Roon so I have much less expertise about it than you, but with all due respect I don't think your definition of "Roon Ready" is correct. From what I can find the term refers to devices which can be used as Roon Endpoints which includes many network players. Roon Core can be run on a PC server like you have but the term Roon Ready refers more specifically to devices at the output. I'm sure there are some other members that can add more clarity to this than I can.
 
Now, that I think about it, you are probably right; Roon Server is the term for a device that can run Roon Core.... never the less, my point to Nicoff is that the DAC does not actually run any version of Roon. It receives the signal further up the line then Roon. Therefore it would not be truly classified as Roon Ready, nor does it have to be, the computer is on Roon duty.

It is funny, when I wrote that reply I was in the middle of working on code, but needed to get my mind off it for a few... my mistake :)... but I had to chuckle about that.
 
audio.bill said:
Randy - I don't use Roon so I have much less expertise about it than you, but with all due respect I don't think your definition of "Roon Ready" is correct. From what I can find the term refers to devices which can be used as Roon Endpoints which includes many network players. Roon Core can be run on a PC server like you have but the term Roon Ready refers more specifically to devices at the output. I'm sure there are some other members that can add more clarity to this than I can.
Click to expand...

I agree with audio.bill’s observations.
Let me rephrase my question: when using Roon, does the T+A show as a zone?
 
Of course it does, if you install the Windows driver and select it in Roon audio, as you would with any device and Roon. I assume it does on a Mac. I would not be able to use Roon otherwise.

In my system thread, because of other peoples request I did a bunch of screen shots of my Roon and HQPlayer settings. T+A Zone in Roon is showing and T+A device is showing in the HQPlayer settings.

http://www.audioshark.org/audioshark-members-systems-101/new-photos-randys-system-9365-page20.html
 
No, in the DAC8 DSD there are 4 STEREO DAC BB chips, which means 8 DACs. They have those gold covers over them.
 

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I know I am probably reading it wrong, but I swear that it says eight Burr-Brown converters on their web-site.... I guess that will teach me to try and be helpful and giving as full of explanations as I know how....

" eight 32-bit converters from Burr-Brown in a double symmetrical circuit"
 
Randy Myers said:
I know I am probably reading it wrong, but I swear that it says eight Burr-Brown converters on their web-site.... I guess that will teach me to try and be helpful and giving as full of explanations as I know how....

" eight 32-bit converters from Burr-Brown in a double symmetrical circuit"
Click to expand...

From a review ; you are reading it right, the Burr Brown is PCM only


"For PCM conversion, T+A uses their Quadruple Converter circuit, which uses a total of four DACs per channel in a double-differential configuration claimed to perfectly cancel out converter errors and nonlinearities while increasing dynamic range by 6dB. On the DSD side, a proprietary T+A discrete-component design is used, avoiding the conversion to PCM performed by most converters."https://www.stereophile.com/content/ta-elektroakustik-dac-8-dsd-da-processor
 
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