TOPIC:

I just started setting up my new SHD. At the moment I have not done any room measurements so it is just operating as a pass-through device with the connection sequence disc-player --> SHD --> Benchmark DAC. The DAC detects and displays the bit depth and sample frequency. When I play a red book CD with the player connected directly to the DAC it shows 16 bit 44.1 kHz as expected. When the signal goes to the DAC via the SHD it is detected as 24 bit 96 kHz. Even with no disc in the player it shows 24/96. Does this mean that the SHD is upsampling? I checked the manual and the settings available in Volumio and could not find anything relevant.

In your case yes, there is upsampling going on. I believe the output will be 96 kHz no matter what the input, so if you fed your SHD Studio (I assume) a 192 kHz signal I believe you'd find it downsampled to 96 kHz instead.

Checking the product page shows that 96 kHz is the internal sample rate used by the DSP in the SHD Studio:

www.minidsp.com/products/streaming-hd-series/shd-studio

Thanks for the quick reply.

Let me ask you a humble question. What is the point of upsampling? Wouldn't it make more sense to keep the source sampling rate?

Or why can't I, as a customer, decide for myself what to do with the signal. We are not in a dictatorship here. 😜

@devteam 

hamish1000 wrote:

I just started setting up my new SHD. At the moment I have not done any room measurements so it is just operating as a pass-through device with the connection sequence disc-player --> SHD --> Benchmark DAC. The DAC detects and displays the bit depth and sample frequency. When I play a red book CD with the player connected directly to the DAC it shows 16 bit 44.1 kHz as expected. When the signal goes to the DAC via the SHD it is detected as 24 bit 96 kHz. Even with no disc in the player it shows 24/96. Does this mean that the SHD is upsampling? I checked the manual and the settings available in Volumio and could not find anything relevant.


I have the same issue. I already checked all the settings and followed the recommendations, although it did not help. But for me, correct work is very important because it affects my efficiency and productivity. Moreover, I have other priority tasks that require urgent solutions. I'm preparing a documentary article and it takes a lot of time. It's great that I found examples and it helped me a lot. Because it’s difficult to prepare on my own, especially on topics that not clear for me.
 

It's not an issue.  That's the way it's designed to work.

Dave.

ADAM wrote:

Let me ask you a humble question. What is the point of upsampling? Wouldn't it make more sense to keep the source sampling rate?

Or why can't I, as a customer, decide for myself what to do with the signal. We are not in a dictatorship here. 😜

@devteam 

As you haven't had a reply to this I'll say I believe that it is advantageous for DSP for the input signals to be upsampled to 24/96. It isn't about being 'dictatorial'.

ClarenceRainwater wrote:

hamish1000 wrote:

I just started setting up my new SHD. At the moment I have not done any room measurements so it is just operating as a pass-through device with the connection sequence disc-player --> SHD --> Benchmark DAC. The DAC detects and displays the bit depth and sample frequency. When I play a red book CD with the player connected directly to the DAC it shows 16 bit 44.1 kHz as expected. When the signal goes to the DAC via the SHD it is detected as 24 bit 96 kHz. Even with no disc in the player it shows 24/96. Does this mean that the SHD is upsampling? I checked the manual and the settings available in Volumio and could not find anything relevant.


 

I have the same issue

Please read my answer in post 2 of this thread if you haven't already. As Dave says, this isn't any sort of 'issue'.

Hi Hamish... It's not an issue at all.. in fact it's actually how it's supposed to work.  The native resolution for the shd is 24/96 if you have it connected to an external dac and it's(the shd) not receiving any external signal, then the 24/96 native resolution of shd is what will be communicate to the external dac.

​​​​​​When you're not feeding any signals into your mini DSP unit it is still connected to your benchmark and when I say "connected" what I actually mean is the digital clock inside of your shd is interfacing and communicating with the clock in your benchmark device and when your benchmark device displays 24/96 if it's connected to the mini DSP that means that the mini DSP is acting as master... (Aka...the device that is setting the clock rate in the chain)and  the clock inside of your benchmark is acting as "slave". So whatever resolution the mini DSP clock sets,  is what will show up on your benchmark device.   This displayed  resolution also serves a secondary purpose,  it's providing you visual  confirmation that a secure connection between the two digital devices exists while simultaneously  identifying which device is acting as master and which is "slave" in the chain.  
 

Does anyone know if the SHD resamples a 24/96 stream that’s fed to it or does it just use it as provided?  Does it remain bit perfect?

Im asking because I’m interested in trying HQPlayer with my Roon install.  If Im going to apply filters, upsample (limited to 24/96) etc is the SHD just going to mess it up?

rortmanns wrote:

Does anyone know if the SHD resamples a 24/96 stream that’s fed to it or does it just use it as provided?  Does it remain bit perfect?

Im asking because I’m interested in trying HQPlayer with my Roon install.  If Im going to apply filters, upsample (limited to 24/96) etc is the SHD just going to mess it up?

These questions have already been answered.  The SHD isn't going to "mess up" anything.
The SHD operates with an ASRC...asynchronous-sample-rate-converter.  Everything, even 96khz, gets resampled to 96khz.

Dave.

I believe the DSP is calculated/applied at 32 bit internally as well, so up and downsampling in amplitude (rather than time) between 24 bit and 32 bit will be happening too.

Re. be being bit perfect, the output of an SHD is never going to be bit perfect if any DSP has been applied, and if it's not going to be there seems little point using an SHD in the first place.

HQPlayer isn't something I've ever looked into properly but the main potential use I've come across is significant upsampling to then be used in conjunction with a non-oversampling DAC.

I’ve only had the SHD for a week or so now so I’m still getting my head around it.  I was always worried about what it would do to the audio quality.  I’m currently only using it as a crossover for the subs while I watch a bunch of YouTube videos in REW and MSO.  I’m also running in new subs, new mains and a new power amp.  The mains have changed a lot since I first listened, in the first few hours you could hear them change.  I was never real sure about runnings these things in was actually ‘a thing’.  So far the sound is excellent, I’m really enjoying building this new system.

So far the SHD is working pretty well for me.  I was thinking about going with HQPlayer because it does upsampling etc and since the SHD runs at 96KHz out I may as well upsample my content to 96.  I’m not sure what SHD does, what the conversion to 96KHz is doing.

I don’t use the SHD DAC for mains, only for the subs.  I use an MSB DAC for my mains.  

I bought a tuner the other day, next step will be to try the ADC in the SHD to plug in my tuner.

@rortmanns it sounds like you already have loads of variables to play about with so I'd suggest you just forget about HQPlayer for now.

You shouldn't be using the SHD just for subs.  You'll introduce a large relative latency doing that.
The proper way would be to use it for both mains and subs.

I'm confused by some of your language.  It seems to me you have a bunch of entrenched ideas that need to be set aside. 

Dave.