TOPIC:

Hello all,

Planning on a SHD Studio pairing with Topping D90SE, powering a pair of genelec. Anyone running similar setup, especially the SHD Studio with Topping D90SE?

Would the sound quality be better than the SHD model itself?

Appreciate the sharing, please,

Thanks,
Steve

I have no experiences with the D90SE, other than knowing that it is one of the best measured DAC's ever. Do the Generic's accept AES in? If so, I would pair them without a DAC in between. Otherwise you would have multiple conversions (and digital volume control's) in series, that most certainly does not improve sound quality.  Personally I run a pair of Dynaudio Core 7's directly from the SHD Studio. I use the double AES outputs to drive the left and right speaker.

Be aware that a key feature of the SHD is that it has four independent DAC channels rather than the two of the Topping. This will become significant if you end up wanting to add a subwoofer to your system (which I'd encourage).

Ultrasonic wrote:

Be aware that a key feature of the SHD is that it has four independent DAC channels rather than the two of the Topping. This will become significant if you end up wanting to add a subwoofer to your system (which I'd encourage).

Not sure if that is relevant for SHD Studio user. 

Stouthart wrote:

Ultrasonic wrote:

Be aware that a key feature of the SHD is that it has four independent DAC channels rather than the two of the Topping. This will become significant if you end up wanting to add a subwoofer to your system (which I'd encourage).

SHD Studio = 0 dacs 😉

I know. However I deliberately referred to the SHD (not SHD Studio), and the OP also asked "Would the sound quality be better than the SHD model itself?".

The genelecs does not have digital in unfortunately.

The external DAC approach would also allow me to upgrade in the future if need to. But at the moment I am keen to try the D90SE due mainly to its impressive specs.

As for subs, not an issue as I can always add another DAC if I need to. But I also like the all in one approach of the SHD too. Dilemma indeed...

If you're going down the studio speaker route then one longer term consideration may be that the SHD Studio has AES/EBU digital outputs whilst the SHD does not. On the other hand bear in mind that if you're ever likely to want an analogue input then these are only present on the SHD. Also note that the SHD and SHD Studio both run at 96 kHz internally and this is what they output so the handling of higher sample rates than this by the Topping would be moot. As I suspect would it's handling of MQA although I'm not certain about this.

I can absolutely see why you're tempted by the Topping by the way and don't know what I'd do in your position.
 

Ultrasonic wrote:

Also note that the SHD and SHD Studio both run at 96 kHz internally ....
 

Except when using Dirac, which I believe is 48 kHz, yes?

I know moot issue, since 48 vs 96 and SHD vs. Topping DAC's are all transparent in the real world.

rvsixer wrote:

Ultrasonic wrote:

Also note that the SHD and SHD Studio both run at 96 kHz internally ....

 

Except when using Dirac, which I believe is 48 kHz, yes?

No, I don't think that's right. It's true for the DDRC-24 but the product pages for the SHD series state that they operate with an internal sample rate of 96 kHz, and I'm sure I've seen it said that the digital output is always at this sample rate too. I don't have an easy way to check with mine to confirm though.

I'm running the SHD studio with D90SE, no idea if it's any better than the SHD since I've never tried. All I can say is that it works fine. 

Cool. Not sure if you are using the volume control of the D90SE. But if you do, even when using the MiniDSP only for Dirac, please make sure to set the SHD's volume to -10dB. Dirac needs 6-10dB of headroom to do its job without distortion.