TOPIC:

Question for those familiar with both devices.

I'm currently using a RPi4 w/Volumio feeding a Topping D90 DAC. I'd like to add Dirac Live processing to my system.

Is there anything to be gained by going with the SHD Studio other than simplifying my setup by eliminating the RPi4? Or to rephrase, will I lose anything by going with the DDRC-22D? 

Other than the streamer, the biggest functional difference of the SHD Studio is that it has 4 independent out put channels rather than two, which should you ever make the (wise) decision to integrate a subwoofer into your system you would appreciate.

Checking out the specs of the two units the SHD Studio has what appears to be a more capable DSP chip but to what extent this may affect performance I'm not sure. 

Personally I'd probably pay the not much extra to get the SHD model. Being newer it is more likely to be supported for longer as well as the points above, and it will also be a more attractive item to sell on if you ever find yourself wanting to.

I'm going to go the SHD Studio route.  Nice thing about my stand alone RPi4 is that I have it connected to a large screen that displays the Volumio interface.  Seems that I'll lose that functionality, but I can live with that.

@Ultrasonic (Hi), Did you mean the SHD Studio has four independent outputs or is that a typo? I thought the studio has two channels off each digital output. 
AES 1 and SPDIF 1 each have ch 1 & 2
AES 2 and SPDIF 2 each have ch 3 & 4

The SHD also has these digital outputs but additionally four independent analogue outs for each channel.

@mac, for info I started with a 2x4HD immediately upgraded to DDRC24 then so happy with the product bought the SHD. Can't imagine many owners wanting to sell. Appreciate your topping is a fine DAC but you could always get the SHD, sell the topping, use volumio or squeezelite rather than the Pi and have one do it all box instead of three. Use a tablet for your display.

Just ordered a SHD Studio. I think that's going to work out best for me. I do like the Topping D90 DAC and may opt for their PRE90 if I find I'm lacking gain after I get the Dirac setup.

P. S. I'm also a Qobuz subscriber and appreciate that the Volumio version supplied with the SHD supports native integration w/o additional cost.  Or so I hope. 

Im sure you’ll get on fine with it. I see on Audiosciencereview the D90 is rated even higher than the SHD. It would be interesting experiment to compare (without Dirac) both DACs. 

I've recently gone through several DACs in my LX521.4 based system. The Topping D90 (AK4499) was the best betwen RME ADI-2 (AK4490EQ) and SMSL SU-9 (ES9038PRO). 

mac wrote:

P. S. I'm also a Qobuz subscriber and appreciate that the Volumio version supplied with the SHD supports native integration w/o additional cost.  Or so I hope. 

I use Qobuz too and you're right that you don't have to pay any additional Volumio subscription fee for the Qobuz integration. (You do have to continue to pay for your Qobuz subscription of course.)

asx77 wrote:

@Ultrasonic (Hi), Did you mean the SHD Studio has four independent outputs or is that a typo? I thought the studio has two channels off each digital output. 
AES 1 and SPDIF 1 each have ch 1 & 2
AES 2 and SPDIF 2 each have ch 3 & 4

The SHD also has these digital outputs but additionally four independent analogue outs for each channel.

Thanks for checking but I did mean exactly what I wrote, which was to say the SHD Studio has four independent output channels (the 1, 2, 3 and 4 that you refer to). By important contrast the 22D only has two (1 and 2), which means it can't be used to generate different signals for main speakers and subwoofers, or high and low frequency drivers in a 2-way active speaker.

You are right that the digital outputs on both the SHD and SHD Studio each carries two of the output channels as you describe, but this doesn't change the underlying functionality.

@mac will you be able to use an ethernet connection with and SHD Studio if you get one? I'm just asking in case you'd need to use WiFi as you may find this functions worse than you're used to on your Pi.

I've got an Ethernet connection via a Wi-Fi bridge. Do you know if using a USB WI-FI dongle (automatically) enables hotspot connectivity on the SHD?

I'm also curious about the internal artechure of the device - if it actually has an internal RPi (v3/v4) and if it uses a miniSHARC for processing. I'm anxious to get my hands on it to find out. 

I forget exactly which 'mini-computer' board it uses but it's not a Pi.

If you have an ethernet connection to use I would do so and forget about the dongle.

If it helps at all, the SHD has its Ethernet port on a nano-Pi. This PCB also holds the SD card that has Volumio on it. (Ive read this from Dev team in another thread)

asx77 wrote:

If it helps at all, the SHD has its Ethernet port on a nano-Pi. This PCB also holds the SD card that has Volumio on it. (Ive read this from Dev team in another thread)

Ah, yes, it might be a nano-Pi - I was remembering it certainly wasn't just a simple Pi4 or Pi3 etc.

www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.p...treamer.4286/page-10

Post 199 of this thread has SHD Studio board pictures. As you can see it does not use a miniSHARC module but rather a single integrated PCB using an updated 4th gen SHARC DSP compared to the miniSHARC (21489 vs 21369). I believe the original SHDs used a nano pi neo2 but per the thread linked below in 2021 this was changed to a neo3.

www.minidsp.com/forum/announcements/1889...1-099-for-shd-series

Michael