TOPIC:

Hoping that I'm not the only user who wants legacy device support for their MiniDSP....

I found the following user manual on MiniDSP's website when searching for legacy support on Google:
www.minidsp.com/images/documents/SHD%20S...Legacy%20Support.pdf

This manual very clearly implies that they will continue to support these older versions of MiniDSP SHD firmware, for those of us with older computers: on page 2:
"This is the Legacy Support version of this manual. It describes use of the original Dirac Live (“Dirac Live 1”) with the SHD Series processors. miniDSP continues to support this version for the benefit of customers unable to run the latest versions of Windows and macOS"

I emailed the support team asking for help to install the older version so that I could use my personal computer to configure the device.  As it stands right now, I have to bring my work laptop home from work to configure the device with Windows.   

I explained that on my personal laptop, I am running OSX 10.11.6.  And since later versions are known to break some of the audio I/O functionalities on my particular model, I cannot upgrade. (2011 MBP)

They keep insisting that they will not support older models of OSX due to limitations with Dirac requiring OSX 10.14.   So I explained that I don't care about DIRAC at all.  As far as I'm concerned, I'd rather DIRAC be removed from the device entirely.   They just keep responding that the issue is with DIRAC and they can't give me an older version of the SHD firmware simply because of DIRAC integration... 

Has anyone else had the desire to downgrade their SHD to be compatible with an older computer?  Please tell me that they actually have an area where we can download older versions of the firmware... I simply cannot understand why there would be a legacy support manual published if they do not actually still support these older operating systems.  

For the time being, I can continue to bring home my Windows computer when I need to make configuration changes... It's just very inconvenient.   
Ultimately, I'd like to have the option to revert to an older firmware for legacy support.  If there are audio-capability related trade-offs OTHER than DIRAC, then I would like to understand these trade-offs and weigh my options.  But it would be nice to at least have the option. 

I’m completely sympathetic to your frustrations. I just want to say that I don’t think you’ll ever be happy with miniDSP. Whether it’s the inexplicable lack of Tidal Connect support, this firmware stuff, your USB connection, etc., etc., they are never going to make this right for you. Whether you truly understand the product or whether you concerns are valid isn’t really the point (e.g. 24/48 from Tidal is plenty good, especially when like 90% of the library is 16/44 anyway), the point is that miniDSP is a stubborn, tedious company by nature. If your starting impression is this bad then they are only going to drive you absolutely crazy from this point forward.

Do you not have copies of the older software/firmware on your computer?
For the time being, simply revert your unit back to whatever software combination works best for you.  This is not difficult to do.

Dave.

notman post=60114I’m completely sympathetic to your frustrations. I just want to say that I don’t think you’ll ever be happy with miniDSP. Whether it’s the inexplicable lack of Tidal Connect support, this firmware stuff, your USB connection, etc., etc., they are never going to make this right for you. Whether you truly understand the product or whether you concerns are valid isn’t really the point (e.g. 24/48 from Tidal is plenty good, especially when like 90% of the library is 16/44 anyway), the point is that miniDSP is a stubborn, tedious company by nature. If your starting impression is this bad then they are only going to drive you absolutely crazy from this point forward.

Notman, thanks for the response.   It's extremely discouraging, but I will still give them a few days to make things right. 

Dreite:  No I do not have older versions of the software!  If I did I wouldn't be asking for the download location!  I cannot revert the unit without the legacy support software!!! 
 

I'm sure they'll get you sorted out.
Until then I suggest to put away the attitude.  I was simply querying regards older software because you didn't mention it in your first post.

Take care.

Dave.

I cannot revert the unit without the legacy support software!!! 

I think you might be trying to do/asking for the wrong thing. I just installed the current version of the SHD plugin in an El Capitan VM and it connects to the SHD and allows me to select preset, input, even turn DL on and off. If it works in a VM I guess it should work on your laptop. Try it?
 

Dreite,

Sorry if you felt you had an attitude towards you.  I'm really at wit's end with MiniDSP support team...
Based off the responses I've gotten so far, I don't have much hope that they'll get this worked out.   

So far, every issue I've had pop up and managed to fix with this unit has been no thanks to the support team.  Either they claim that it's 100% impossible that there's a fault with the unit... (as is with the case of my USB connection issues)
Or if the issue is clearly a configuration-based one, they simply insist that I'm the only user to ever have the issue that I'm asking about... (as was the case with my inability to get Volumio to connect to the internet for 3 weeks, where they insisted that there was no way to reset it externally)
Then I research it online to find that many others have had similar issues and support was just feigning ignorance.  So all of the fixes to my problems have come from the community, not support.

Actually, funnily enough, the solution for the Volumio connectivity issue was actually posted to the support forums by the MiniDSP dev team themselves!!! 
But somehow they didn't link me to that post at any point of the 10+ post long email support thread and just kept telling me that no other users ever have had the same problem and there's no way to reset Volumio...
I've never had a support team refuse to actually provide support and just gas-light the end user like this. 

IN THE END THE ISSUE IS THAT IF YOU HAVE A USB CABLE LONGER THAN 2 FEET YOU NEED TO USE A PASSIVE DOCK AS A BUFFER BECAUSE THE SHD HAS TERRIBLE USB PERFORMANCE UNLESS EVERYTHING IS JUST PERFECT FOR IT!!!!

Now we'll see if they actually respond to the fact of their false-advertising for Tidal support... I'm not about to come out of pocket to send them the unit for repair if it won't actually ever support the advertised functionality that I thought I was purchasing.  

Thanks,
-David

Um.... earlier you said you can use the Windows PC. If that's not working there's not much point mucking about with an obsolete OS.

bro you don't even know... With the amount of spy junk they put on my work PC.... 

the 2011MBP is actually my personal daily driver.   I've upgraded everything at this point, RAM, SSD.  New battery, new key board.  Totally worth it.  it's significantly more reliable and just about as fast as my 2020 POS Dell Windows PC from work.  

I'd MUCH rather have the option of not needing to bring my work PC home to connect to my DSP over USB.  

What version are you looking for? I bought the Mini dsp shd many years ago as well and I just recently updated mine to the newest firmware update and I'm using DIRAC 3 without any issue but I did the update for my SHD hooked up to my new Asus laptop running windows 11,  with an INTEL i9 , 14core processor with 64gb DDR5 ram .   It's probably in the top five fastest laptops on the market right now so obviously that's a bit of an Overkill .  However,  I still have several of the old firmware files saved in my old laptop's backup drive. Which version do you need? Do you have a date or firmware #? I might be able to pull it off of my drive and upload it here. But, the dev team is right about one thing...Dirac live is sort of intertwined, so to speak with the entire system.  so I don't think I can be removed on itself. The best you can do is turn it off. But a lot of those old firmware's were very buggy,  especially the first few so you would really lose a lot of functionality if you want to go that route .  For certain you would lose the ability to connect roon.  So It wouldn't work too well as a streamer at that point. You would be limited to using only volumio and I don't think that those really early versions even had qobuz capability . So it might be easier just to  buy an Intel NUC i3 and load Windows 10 on it..only.  this will prevent you from having any bloatware, and use that only for music. You can buy used NUC i3 on Amazon for $300.  Here is a zip from 2019... if that helps   heres is the link to google drive shd firmware zip file. drive.google.com/file/d/1hkMt2OHRlIw8hy7...jXy/view?usp=sharing

All,

Please note that funnily enough, the solution to all of my Mac connectivity issues seems to have been adding a passive USB hub in-line to my connection.  
Special thanks @GBR and JaapDeventer for the solution.  
www.minidsp.com/forum/shd-series/20134-e...ter-what-i-try#60142

This is totally mind-boggling and made no sense to me at first.  I'd have thought that lengthening the connection and adding more bits in-between could only be a bad thing.   Shows what I know!   
The USB hub must be acting as an extra buffer and making up for the overly-sensitive USB connection on the SHD!!! 
I've never experienced having to finagle the connection so much with other audio devices... But at least now it seems to work!

I haven't fully tested all of the functions that I enjoy with my Windows PC yet.... I'll get around to that soon and report back.  

Just FYI, "passive" USB's hubs are not really passive.  And, the SHD doesn't require/use any power on its USB connection anyways.
Maybe the "sensitive" suspect USB connection is your Mac and not the SHD??  

I love it when audiophiles work through issues methodically and objectively rather than all the hand waving rhetoric.  

Dave.

dreite wrote:

Just FYI, "passive" USB's hubs are not really passive.  And, the SHD doesn't require/use any power on its USB connection anyways.
Maybe the "sensitive" suspect USB connection is your Mac and not the SHD??  

I love it when audiophiles work through issues methodically and objectively rather than all the hand waving rhetoric.  

Dave.

Dave,

No, it's definitely not just my Mac.  

And yeah, I'm aware it's acting as an op-amp buffer for the circuit.  

Ultimately, either my Mac or PC are very intermittent over USB if I try to use a cable longer than 3ft, without using the hub to help buffer.   You can refer to the other threads that I linked if you're curious about the full path that got me here.... 

The Mac is a little bit worse than the PC... But that could be easily chocked up to the age of the USB ports on the older computer!

Anyway, this behavior in general seems somewhat strange to me, considering all of the other USB audio devices that I've used don't exhibit the same behavior. 

Makes me think that SHD is just overly sensitive.  Or their driver support is lacking.  Or some combination of other software mumbojumbo that I don't understand.