miniDSP - Q4 2022 Newsletter

Hello Visitor,

We hope you're doing well,

From adding TIDAL Connect to releasing some new application notes and WISA streaming for the Flex Eight, miniDSP keeps growing. We hope that you're enjoying it as much as we do! 

As usual, feel free to contact us if you have any questions, our team will be here to help! 

DevTeam

  Flex Eight for Multi-Way Speakers

The miniDSP Flex Eight has only been out for a few weeks and we're already seeing some multiway speaker designs popping up left and right. Some of you have reconfigured your Linkwitz Lab Designs thanks to the great help of long-time member @Dreite, while others have even shown off their work at a community tradeshows. Thanks to your feedback we keep improving our platforms so please keep innovating and sharing your newest speaker designs with all of us!

For those of you wondering how to start, we've just released an extensive application note here to walk you through the steps of matrix mixer configuration, time alignment and REW measurements. With the optional Dirac Live license to top it off, you will be left wondering how this tiny box gets so much done! 

The Flex Eight is now available for order on our webshop for 599 USD. Check out the datasheet  and web manual for more details. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

 miniDSP + WISA

It’s no news to anyone that uses our products that things have to be connected by…. wires. We’re aware of this but of course, it’s a necessary part of our innovative product range that provides advanced DSP for home, studio and car audio.

Until now.

With modern wireless technology making strides into high-resolution lossless audio transmission, miniDSP has started incorporating this technology into the product range. The Flex Eight will shortly have an optional upgrade purchase for an 8-channel wireless transmitter that can be paired with WiSA-certified speakers. Let us explain what WiSA is and why we’ve adopted it.

WiSA (“Wireless Speaker and Audio Association”) is a set of standards for wireless audio transmission over short distances (as in, within your listening room). Unlike streaming audio over your normal Wi-Fi network, WiSA is specifically designed for audio – this means there is low latency (transmission delay). What’s more, the latency difference between speakers is guaranteed to be very low indeed – less than one microsecond – ensuring no issues with soundstaging or timing between speakers.

The version of the WiSA standard that we’ve adopted runs 8 channels of 24-bit audio at either 48 or 96 kHz. This is a perfect match for the Flex Eight, which has 8 output channels at 96 kHz (standard version) or 48 kHz (Dirac Live version). Note that this is not suitable for home theater applications: all inputs are stereo and the Dirac Live version has two channels of Dirac Live processing.

With the Flex Eight + WiSA option, you can transmit high-resolution audio seamlessly and losslessly to up to eight WiSA-certified speakers, including subwoofers. Here is a list of WiSA-certified speakers. Because the Flex Eight also has analog outputs, you can also build a hybrid system (e.g. stereo WiSA speakers and analog out to a subwoofer) or wireless audio to multizones. With its flexible range of digital inputs (Bluetooth/USB/TOSLINK/SPDIF), this tiny box is the easiest way to implement subwoofer integration & Dirac Live room correction to your Bang & Olufsen, Buchardt, Klipsch and System Audio WiSA speaker system (to name a few).

Of course, it’s early days yet, but we’re excited about growing the miniDSP product range with this rapidly advancing technology. We expect the Flex Eight WiSA-capable version to be available around End of November. Stay tuned to the product page! 

 SHD Series + TIDAL Connect

Following a few weeks of back and forth, we've achieved TIDAL Connect certification thanks to the help of our friends at Volumio. All SHD Series processors can now be upgraded to the new build from within the Volumio Settings page. To all our customers with TIDAL, we hope you enjoy this free upgrade!

 miniDSP Device Console

Here is a short update on what our software team have been up to in the meantime:  

- miniDSP Device Console (DC) is now available in Beta test to Flex Customers: As promised, we are releasing miniDSP DC in Beta to new groups of customers to make sure our support team can provide the best level of support to our large community. Thanks again for your understanding. Here is the order of releases: 

FLEX Eight (Done) - > FLEX series (Now) - > SHD Series (Early November) - > DDRC-24 (TBD) - > 2x4HD (TBD)

In order to upgrade your miniDSP Flex to use Device Console, you will need to first download and install the necessary firmware from your Flex User Downloads page. The package will include detailed instructions, please be sure to follow these instructions carefully. 

Have fun and as usual, please report any issues to our support team. 

- New firmware upgrade: With miniDSP DC now handling multiple platforms and supporting over-the-air updates for both DSP and MCU, we realized we could improve the granularity of updates. From Beta4 onwards, firmware updates will be handled separately from Device Console updates – you will be prompted for a firmware upgrade only if there is one available for the actual device you have connected. Yet another new useful feature for this powerful platform.

- Web User Manual repository: While the Device Console isn't yet released for the SHD Series/DDRC-24/2x4HD, owners of these platforms can already start reading the new manuals from our Web User Manual repository.

 News from the LAB

So what else have we been up to in the miniDSP Lab? 

On the software side, we're working hard to simplify the Dirac Live activation process. Thanks to our new web powered architecture, we are able to port Stripe payment processing directly into miniDSP Device Console. Dirac Live upgrade license purchases will soon be made directly from the Device Console for a much easier process that doesn't require any downtime. Stay tuned for that update!