Mini dsp madness

preface: I have a mini DSP nano digit and 3 balanced dacs and a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20. and way too many speakers I want to control

question: can I get another mini DSP on the same pc

Are asking about how MiniDSP’s software would handle a second NanoDIGI being attached to your PC? Or are you looking to add a different miniDSP device? You best bet might be to make a post on the miniDSP forums.

mini dps got back to me with this

(Unfortunately you will only be able to control one nanoDIGI at a time… The bridge used for communication between the PC and DSP unit will limit you to one unit I’m afraid… (i.e. 1 x USB connected at a time).

Devteam)

What if you virtualized two separate environments on the same system and make sure to assign them different usb controllers? That might work, but definitely wouldn’t be convenient

i would but im not trying to run a vm just for that but that looks like the only option
i
edit: im doing it, it will solve an issue with my 18i20 and 2i2 (they share the same driver)the 18i20 wont work with discord, and the 2i2 dont have spoidf or a matrix audio control mixer

Not a lot of activity here on the Mini DSP but lately I’ve been thinking about dipping my tow in the water here. They’re relatively cheap compared to the amount of money the hobby sucks up on other things and given the amount of toys they bring I wonder if it’s worth a try.

Primarily I’m looking at optimizing my system, since my preamp doesn’t have a sub out and my sub doesn’t have a pass through function. Was looking to see what I could gain from passing the right frequencies to both the speaker am and the sub.

Questions are, thus;

I have a Schiit Freya + and I’m wondering how much of the tubieness will I lose going through the Mini DSP? Maybe the answer is none, just get the split frequency? Maybe a better question is how much alteration to the low level signal (loss of quality) is introduced by the Mini DSP.

Given the ability to do measurements and room correction, might be a nice toy but if there is a tangible improvement, seems like it’s certainly worth a try.

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No miniDSP experience among the braintrust?

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Any digital crossover like that is going to resample the input and run it through a second DAC.
Frequency composition won’t change, it’ll still sound “tubey”, but I wouldn’t do it if you have a high quality DAC in the system.
You’ll lose some resolution because of the resampling, but getting the low frequencies out of the primary speakers might offset that.
There might be some phase shift depending on the quality of the filter in the miniDSP, but an analog crossover would have the same issue.

Personally I don’t like the concept of unnecessary transitions back to digital, and I’d probably look for an analog solution, someone must sell an analog crossover in a box, if not DIY is pretty doable.

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I’d been looking at an inline DIY as well. I’m with you on everything you said. My only solace was that… it’s cheap compared to the bucket full of money other things cost so trying it wouldn’t break the back.

I think DIY is the more elegant and audiophile way to go. There’s a lot of filter calculators available on line.

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My (personal) “aversion” to miniDSP and the like is the extra ADC and DAC conversions. If you have a good DAC, the goodness gets thrown out the window. How much of a difference does it make? I have no idea but fundamentally it doesn’t sound palatable to me. You may not care about such things. A crossover before the Freya may be a better option. You lose the Freya’s tubyness but for a sub that’s probably a good thing - tighter bass. If I was looking at a crossover, I’d likely go with something meant for the car environment due to the huge selection and availability of high quality solutions. But you would need to also buy a 12V power supply.

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Oops - that’s an idiotic statement. Crossover before Freya means you loose volume control on the sub :rofl: Def after Freya.

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