TOPIC:

Dear Community Members,

The MiniDSP SHD got very positive reviews regarding the audiophile quality of its DAC. I'm interested in using this device to benefit from the Dirac room correction, Volumio and the DAC. The issue is that the SHD only has 4 channels of output, allowing it to run no more than 2-way active speakers. Is there a way to drive the 3- or 4- way active speaker by using only SHD devices? I'm thinking about using two of them, with the numerical output of the first SHD plugged into the numerical input of the second SHD. The first SHD would be used as the Master of the system for Dirac, volume, and connections to the ways 1 and 2 of the speaker while the second SHD would be used only for ways 3 and 4 of the speaker. Do you think it makes sense? Many thanks for your feedback!

Best,
Olivier.

I think that would work but be aware that it would be 3 ways only. Also the PC cannot communicate with more than one device, so this would require swapping the USB connection and some discipline/rigmarole/hassle with reloading the correct configuration every time.

In the case of a pair of 4-way speakers, the only (more expensive) alternative I see is using a SHD studio for Dirac, Volumio, and volume, and then plug to of its two numerical output two SHD, i.e. one for each speaker.

What a pity that miniDSP did not design their SHD with 6 or 8 analog outputs! There would be a complete solution in a unique box!

Doesn't matter what they make, someone will want something different. Stick around for a while you'll see

Using 2 right now, 1 studio as master, feeding two powered sub daisy chained, and an analog SHD.
The slave SHD then feeds my midbass' and a passive block between mids and tweeters.

It works very well, but can be messy during tuning if they share the presets on the same computer.
So I finally went with two laptops, 1 per SHD, the master software is on my source for target adjustments while the slave is just tuned flat.
The slave IR sensor has to be masked, tape inside or just something in front it works too.

Thought about using 2 slaves, but it would be painful to tune as I like to do it per L/R pair.
But I can't wait for the 8ch or even 6ch version, as I'd like to optimize the mids/highs.
Waiting for an okto dac too, to go with a ddrc88 since I doubt the 8ch would appear very soon.

By default, I also considered the Okto Dac 8 pro for feeding a 3- or 4-way system. The issue is what to plug between the numerical source and this DAC! The DDRC-88D is not suited for my needs because it already requires 8 channels as inputs. I wonder if the needed hardware would not be instead the nanoDIGI 2 x 8 B...

Olivier.

The 88BM optional plugin supports multi way with their regular matrix.
Didn't play with it yet but it should be straightforward.