T+A dac8 dsd

[Bikeman71]

I just ordered a T + A DAC8 DSD. The reviews on this thing are off the charts! Many say it outperforms the Chord DAVE when fed upconverted DSD512 from HQ Player.

Anyone running this DAC or HQ Player? Apparently HQP takes a computer w serious horsepower to upconvert to DSD512...anyone have suggestions on a PC up to the task here?

[audio bill]

Brent - I'd respectfully suggest checking out the HQPlayer thread at the Computer Audiophile forum for suggestions on suitable PCs. The developer of HQPlayer is a regular participant over there and responds directly to related discussions. From what I've read the current recommendation is for one of the latest Intel i7 processors along with specific video cards whose processors can be used to support the required processing for high rate DSD conversions with the recommended HQPlayer algorithms.

[Bikeman71]

Bill - Thanks for the advice! Yes, I've read all 57 pages twice, and most on that site are well beyond my knowledge in the realm of computer audiophile understanding...most are building their own machines. I'm thinking of going w a gaming machine with the i7 7700k and doing a level of isolation with the Sonore micro-Rendu.

[markol]

Originally Posted by Bikeman71

I just ordered a T + A DAC8 DSD. The reviews on this thing are off the charts! Many say it outperforms the Chord DAVE when fed upconverted DSD512 from HQ Player.

Anyone running this DAC or HQ Player? Apparently HQP takes a computer w serious horsepower to upconvert to DSD512...anyone have suggestions on a PC up to the task here?

Hi Bikeman71,

Regarding the PC you'll need for DSD512... Good thing about HQPlayer is option for CUDA Offloading (Using nVIDIA GPU for part of computing/processing) helps a lot! Therefore assembling a PC for that is something like: I7/Xeon Skylake family, min 16GB RAM DDR4, SSD or even better, SAMSUNG M2 960 PRO SSD ( one that goes straight to the MB similar like RAM), and Of course, nVIDIA QUADRO.. I hope this helps pointing in which direction to look at.

Marko

[Bikeman71]

Originally Posted by markol

Hi Bikeman71,

Regarding the PC you'll need for DSD512... Good thing about HQPlayer is option for CUDA Offloading (Using nVIDIA GPU for part of computing/processing) helps a lot! Therefore assembling a PC for that is something like: I7/Xeon Skylake family, min 16GB RAM DDR4, SSD or even better, SAMSUNG M2 960 PRO SSD ( one that goes straight to the MB similar like RAM), and Of course, nVIDIA QUADRO.. I hope this helps pointing in which direction to look at.

Marko

Thanks! The crazy thing is my new Lenovo yoga 910 laptop seems to fit the bill in most regards...i7 7500u kaby lake processor (2.7-3.5 GHz), 16GB RAM DDR4. The difference is the graphics card...it comes with the integrated Intel HD graphics. Thoughts on how this unit might handle DSD512 upconvert?

In the HQ Player settings, there is a checkbox for CUDA offloading. Would that only work with the nVIDIA GPU card?

Thanks a million, guys!

Brent

[Douglas]

Brent...Congrats, I have read the reviews and this DAC seems to be something special. You should also consider using something like a Bryston BDP-3 as a player. The Bryston also enables you to use AES / EBU output for PCM and USB for DSD.

[markol]

Originally Posted by Bikeman71

Thanks! The crazy thing is my new Lenovo yoga 910 laptop seems to fit the bill in most regards...i7 7500u kaby lake processor (2.7-3.5 GHz), 16GB RAM DDR4. The difference is the graphics card...it comes with the integrated Intel HD graphics. Thoughts on how this unit might handle DSD512 upconvert?

In the HQ Player settings, there is a checkbox for CUDA offloading. Would that only work with the nVIDIA GPU card?

Thanks a million, guys!

Brent

Yes, CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) is NVIDIA's API for parallel computing... simply, lots of GPU cores for other than video processing... i.e

[Bikeman71]

I found what looks to be a terrific solution designed specifically for my use case....super exciting:
https://www.smallgreencomputer.com/c...erver-hqplayer

[audio bill]

Originally Posted by Bikeman71

I found what looks to be a terrific solution designed specifically for my use case....super exciting:
https://www.smallgreencomputer.com/c...erver-hqplayer

I also saw that recommended at Computer Audiophile!

[cma29]

Originally Posted by Bikeman71

Bill - Thanks for the advice! Yes, I've read all 57 pages twice, and most on that site are well beyond my knowledge in the realm of computer audiophile understanding...most are building their own machines. I'm thinking of going w a gaming machine with the i7 7700k and doing a level of isolation with the Sonore micro-Rendu.

AA members are dedicated folks