DSP Plugin / Parametric EQ plugin for Minimstreamer

[Linn_agnostik]

(26-09-2014 11:45)DavidHB Wrote:  

(26-09-2014 11:02)Linn_agnostik Wrote:  I've been using minim server for a solid year+ now, streaming from my synology NAS to my Linn ADS1 without a hiccup. I've installed minim streamer and tried it, but thought the SQ somewhat worse than native streaming.

This is interesting, as others with Linn players (including Simon) have a different impression. I know that this is all subjective, and very much a matter of personal preference, but is it possible for you to say what you mean by 'somewhat worse' in this context? What format(s) are you transcoding?

I used flac:wav24 and then simple wav, a while ago, while minim streamer was still an integral part of minim server (ver 0.7x something). Then I felt that the sound, especially of acoustic, singer-songwriter music, became somewhat more disjointed, ephemeral if you like. As if bodies became less real.. The difference was minuscule mind you, but as I had no problem with the default non-transcoding setting then I switched back.

The same transcoding previously on Squeezebox Touch yielded HUGE improvements, night and day. I recall asking a question to a Linn employee on the Linn forums and the answer I got was that the DS ecosystem processed flac natively, so there was no CPU overhead/penalty.

Go figure - Linn states no audio improvements in the different Davaar releases, but I tried installing the latest 19 version and couldn't downgrade fast enough back to davaar 14, which, for me at least, is head and shoulders above in SQ. YMMV of course.

My rig is relatively high resolving, but a smidgen lacking on presence, so any steps that change that balance are heard immediately. This I hope gets resolved on tuesday with my new pre-amp! wohoo!

Also, one important thing which is probably a differentiator between my impression and yours is that I do not use the ADS built-in DAC - I pipe it out to an external DAC, using spdif... On the other hand, any conversion to pcm (flac-pcm or wav-pcm) happens inside the ADS box...

I'll give it another listen during the weekend and report back..