TOPIC:

All I want to do is room correction between preamp and amp. I have CD player with DAC, preamp with DAC, and want to use Audirvana With Qobuz for streaming. I don’t think I want another SHD DAC in the loop? Also I want to connect SHD with XLR only, left and right, in and out. Is this logical and doable?

There are several ways of connecting it:

1. SHD between preamp and amp with XLR
2. CD player digital out to SHD, USB out from Mac to SHD, analog out from SHD to power amp
3. CD player digital out to SHD, Audirvana stream over UPnP to SHD, analog out from SHD to power amp
4. CD player digital out to SHD, USB out from Mac to SHD, digital from SHD to DAC/preamp, XLR from DAC/preamp to power amp
5. CD player digital out to SHD, Audirvana stream over UPnP to SHD, digital from SHD to DAC/preamp, XLR from DAC/preamp to power amp

dduncanwa wrote:

All I want to do is room correction between preamp and amp. I have CD player with DAC, preamp with DAC, and want to use Audirvana With Qobuz for streaming. I don’t think I want another SHD DAC in the loop? Also I want to connect SHD with XLR only, left and right, in and out. Is this logical and doable?

One question to ask would be whether you still need your existing pre-amp at all, since unless an SHD doesn't have enough inputs it could replace your pre-amps functionality. This would seem the most logical thing to do. If your CD player has a digital output you could also connect this to an SHD and use its DAC instead of that in the CD player itself.

Also note that Dirac processing happens in the digital domain, so even if you use the analogue inputs and outputs on an SHD, the incoming signal is digitised, processed, and then converted back to analogue.

You could use SHD Studio. This comes without dac. Connect your sources to the SHD Studio and the SHD Studio to the digital input of your pre amp. I'm using mine with an integrated (incl. dac) amp.