Dirac Live 3 with Bass Control (DLBC): A look and listen with the Integra DRX-8.4.

I talked about the use of Dirac Live 3 in late 2024 after upgrading my receiver to the Integra DRX-8.4 which integrates the full-bandwidth DSP room correction as part of its feature set. Many modern multichannel receivers these days have Dirac as a feature included like the Onkyo TX-RZ70 or Pioneer Elite VSX-LX805 (both offering 11-channels amplification like the Integra). I have to say that I love this Integra unit with all its multichannel bells and whistles - not to mention great sound as well, of course.

I mentioned in the previous article that Dirac Live Bass Control (DLBC) is available as an upgrade for US$299 which activates the license on your account when you run the Dirac Live Room Correction Suite, unlocking the "Bass Control" module.

So, let's activate that and get into this with a look and listen to what DLBC brings to my set-up and of course some results in my room. (For reference, here is the official DLBC manual, and Dirac's Frans Rosencrantz's 2020 article "Bass Control, Where Did My Bass Go?".)

Lenbrook's MQA: The Next Generation - QRONO, FOQUS, and other AQWARD things. And listening impressions from the non-audiophile press.

Happy new year, audiophiles!

Other than a quick comment here and there in 2024, I'm glad that I didn't spend much time on MQA-focused material. The last we talked at length about MQA was over a year ago in December 2023 with the final sale of MQA to Lenbrook at the bargain basement sale price. My, how time flies! As much as I would love to never think/write about MQA again, this thing won't disappear. 🧟

So I figured at the start of 2025, since there could be some MQA-related stuff later this year with possible new product announcements and such, let's anticipate a bit and consider the developments in this continuing saga.

The name "MQA" persists as part of Lenbrook's "MQA Labs" as the name MQA Ltd. has been re-registered to a food sales agent in the UK. Through 2024, we've been seeing the word "QRONO" hitting the news a few times already. In late 2024, there have been more articles in the audiophile press such as this in The Absolute Sound, and What Hi-Fi?. So, let's talk about what this seems to be about and what they're trying to do.

Game PC Update: nVidia RTX 4070 Super GPU. That "game console vs. PC" debate; twilight of the consoles? Upcoming RTX 50XX GPUs. And graphical diminishing returns in the Art of Gaming.

I know, that's a massive title! But sometimes there's a bunch of stuff to talk/think about before the holidays. 🙂

With recent holiday sales, like I did recently with the Server, I thought it was time to finally update that GPU in my GAMING rig. Although I had updated the CPU last year to the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X (~US$150) 8-core processor, I was still playing with the old-skool nVidia GTX 1080 GPU that I got back in 2017. 

Clearly, after 7 years and a few generations, it was time to get a modern gaming GPU; yeah I have the RTX 4090 but that's for the workstation rather than gaming, in fact, I haven't even installed a single game on this workstation!

As you can see, I got the ASUS GeForce RTX 4070 Super Evo OC Dual-fan model, currently ~US$600 (~CAD$800). The RTX 4070 Super variant was released in January 2024, not long ago and I figured would make for a good contemporary card with longevity for upcoming games and should last me into the 2030's. It's equipped with 12GB of GDDR6X which should be adequate for awhile. And because it's the dual-fan model, it's not as long as the 3-fan cards; this is important because the enclosure I'm using has a limit to the length of large graphics cards it can accommodate.

Part II: 3e Audio - A5 Stereo and A7 Mono Class D + PFFB, TI TPA3251/3255 Amplifiers - power, distortion, and the subjective. (And a few photos for Swifties.)

Let's continue with Part II of the evaluation of 3e Audio's A5 and A7 Mono amplifiers. See Part I last time for the initial discussions, features, pictures and measurements around output impedance, frequency response and stereo crosstalk.

This time, we'll finish up with further measurements of output power, distortions, subjective discussions, and summary.

Unless a product can be purchased, there's probably no point publishing the results! So I timed this post to correlate with the opening of the 3e Audio AliExpress store for these products.

Home Server update: Windows Server 2025, 24H2 codebase, and the Intel i7-7700K CPU

Hey everyone, as I finish listening and writing up the second part of the 3e Audio Class D amplifiers review probably correlating with the release of the product soon, I thought I'd put a "quickie" post up this week on an update to my home SERVER computer.

As discussed in 2017, here at home, there are 3 main computers (WORKSTATION, SERVER, GAMING) that form the foundation for my day-to-day "digital" life and to some extent for the family as well. Over time, each of the machines get upgraded as needed. Last year, I stuck in the nVidia RTX 4090 GPU into my Workstation for AI/LLM work. Plus I upgraded the Gaming machine CPU (GPU upgrade soon 😁).

Other than replacing aging hard drives and updating the 10GbE network card, the Server really hasn't needed much attention over time. With the release of Windows Server 2025 OS in November, I figure this would be a good time to update the workhorse.

Part I: 3e Audio - A5 Stereo and A7 Mono Class D + PFFB, TI TPA3251/3255 Amplifiers - Features and initial measurements.

Every once awhile, a manufacturer will connect to see if I might be interested in testing out one of their upcoming products. Recently, 3e Audio (their mission being to Enhanced, Exceed, Enjoy) based in Shenzhen reached out for an honest, independent, evaluation of their new amplifiers. As usual, most of my hardware discussions are based on objective results which I believe significantly reduces personal subjective biases and advertising hype - no YouTube videos where reviewers make silly facial expressions to draw attention to the thumbnail image here folks. 🙄

You probably haven't heard of this brand, but the engineering-focused company has been around for a number of years selling boards to the DIY market with DSP, power supply, and Class D amplifiers. In August, they announced the release of their line of five fully-assembled "A5x A7x Series Next-Gen PFFB Amplifiers". In the picture above, we see the pre-release A7 Mono (260W into 4Ω 1% THD+N, single TPA3255, PBTL) and A5 (150W x 2 into 4Ω 1% THD+N, dual-TPA3251, PBTL) models sent here for evaluation.

As you might know, in this blog over the years I've been covering a number of these very reasonably priced TI TPA chip amps from the early generation TI TPA3116, to the early TPA3255 models (like the AOSHIDA A7), to the very high performance Topping PA5 MkII+ (TPA3251), to the recent inexpensive and higher powered Fosi Audio V3 Mono (TPA3255) with Post-Filter Feedback (PFFB). The inclusion of PFFB to 3e Audio's amplifiers is not new for this company as this feature has been available in their DIY boards since at least 2022. 3e Audio is aiming to exceed the performance of others that have come before; of course, we'll see about that on the testbench!

I'm not sure exactly what date 3e Audio will make these amps available or the prices. At the time of these tests, I was told that they will be taking orders on their AliExpress store in early December 2024. Final prices might change, but I was told that the amps will range from US$199 for the A5se (140W x 2 into 4Ω, 1% THD+N, single-TPA3251, BTL), to US$300 A7 models with power supply.

MUSINGS: The need for full-range sound (likely with subwoofers) in audiophile systems. [And Ojas New Ageism?]

"As an audiophile with an eclectic taste in music, I feel that life is too short not to enjoy the full audible frequency range."

That statement above is just an audiophile's (my) opinion. While I know some audiophiles debate about the need for the use of subwoofers, it has always been a "must" for my reference systems over the decades. Obviously, it's not really my business what anyone else buys or enjoys for themselves. My only intent in this post is to remind audiophiles that most of our passive speaker systems, including relatively large floor-standers, are frequency bandwidth limited (for human hearing).

I know that there are some audiophiles and well-known reviewers out there who have expressed aversion towards the need for full-frequency reproduction - basically flat frequency response down to 20Hz - as a priority. Since robust low-frequency reproduction below 40-50Hz commonly requires an adequate subwoofer, it's surprising to me that the idea of having one isn't more universal among audiophiles, and there are often comments like this warning of issues that come across as dissuasive.

Dirac Live 3: A look & listen with the Integra DRX-8.4 - the process, microphone placement suggestion, tweaking, and multichannel/Atmos results.

As discussed years ago with my sound room set-up, I believe room correction DSP is very important and has become part of my routine whenever I make significant changes in room layout or when I incorporate new equipment. I would argue that an audiophile who has not seriously spent time trying this likely has not heard the best sound in their room from their system. Simply put, you'll notice a level of control and audible difference way more than just swapping hi-fi DACs, amps, etc. hardware.

With the arrival of the Integra DRX-8.4 receiver recently, I started using the included Dirac Live Full Bandwidth license embedded in the hardware. As I had done in the recent past with Acourate and Audiolense XO, let's dive into the steps I used to get Dirac running and the results I achieved. Hopefully this discussion could be useful for those of you thinking of trying out Dirac.

I'll document the steps I followed, issues I ran into, and tips to overcome problems.

Integra DRX-8.4 Multichannel Receiver: Overview, features, build, a few pre-out measurements...

Obviously, value is an important consideration for consumers when it comes to buying and enjoying products. As discussed over the years, I'm not an audiophile who's particularly interested in the luxury aspect of these machines. To me, the ideal of achieving "high fidelity" sound does not care about MSRP or some other determinant of whether a product is artificially exotic/elite, thus "High End Audio" (a.k.a. High Priced Audio) is meaningless to me unless there is evidence of improved sonic performance (whether from plain increased objective fidelity or incorporating technical features) correlating with higher asking price. As such, I believe audiophiles should seriously think about the value of modern AV receivers which over time have also incrementally shown improved sound quality by incorporating higher quality DACs, newer DSP room correction technologies, and potential benefits like balanced connections.

In my opinion, this also means the divide between "home theater" enthusiasts and "audiophiles" is largely artificial when it comes to sonic performance. Subjectively, we're all aiming for an excellent audio experience with high-fidelity to the source with utmost clarity (including time-domain coherence), low distortion, high dynamic range, excellent reproduction of nuances, while achieving realistic/intended soundstage. Objectively, a high quality AV receiver these days should not have difficulty providing hi-fi performance compared to many very expensive products (like the Dan D'Agostino Momentum monoblocks US$80k/pr as an obvious example - other than high power, there's nothing particularly good), plus typically these AV companies provide way more features and modern amenities. The R&D firepower behind these companies are substantial compared to the small-business shops that typically make products for the esoteric 2-channel audiophile niche. Over time, as I hope audiophiles increasingly consider enjoying the new multichannel recordings and remixes, moving into "immersive" audio, these multichannel receivers should be seen as serious options.

The only utilitarian difference between home theater enthusiasts and audiophiles is whether video playback is needed.

In this post, let's start with having a look at the item pictured above, the Integra DRX-8.4 multichannel receiver. (Discussions and measurements of AV receivers are not new on this blog with previous posts on the Yamaha RX-V781 and Onkyo TX-NR1009.)

Despite being the current flagship receiver from Integra, the price is "only" US$3,200 or about CAD$4,000. I bought this item through standard retail channels online because I was interested in it; no company incentives.

MUSINGS: Words, worldviews, and the multimodal expansion of AI. [Let's have some fun with generative AI in 2024.]

"If language is as inextricably tied up with consciousness as it seems to be, then the continuing diminishment of our inclination to use it to express in letters the times in which we live could mean that an element of human consciousness itself is on the verge of disappearing."   --- Anonymous

I saw this interesting comment above during my readings across the Internet this past week. I guess it triggered in me some thoughts around writing articles these days with the rise of audience engagement with video, the bold new world of AI "generative" technologies, and trust in the sources we read/listen/watch. In this post, let's just "shoot the breeze" with some meandering musings around these themes and navigate through some complex ideas... 🤓

Years ago, during the heat of the MQA Affair, I talked about writing these blog pages using a pseudonym. That was in response to MQA's issue around anonymity; perhaps they were paranoid that I was an industry player or working for a competitor. These days, in the face of increasingly sophisticated artificial agents roaming the Internet, foreign influences, machine-generated content (including artificially generated audio and video), I think it's quickly becoming old-fashioned to worry about just mere human anonymity having nefarious intent!

Now that my writings have spanned more than a decade, I trust that readers know that I'm actually very much a "real" guy behind the keyboard who's passionate about audio reproduction, sharing my perspectives on the high-fidelity pursuit as an audiophile of the early 21st Century. I have my philosophical views, thoughts on the importance of objective hardware fidelity and adequacy, the importance music itself as the origin of the art we admire and the emotions evoked rather than attributing too much of this to the hardware.

Furthermore, I trust my writings have been internally consistent in presenting my audiophile worldview, built up based on objective fundamentals. Comparatively, I think this is quite different from what we typically read elsewhere coming from most magazine writers. My beliefs are often at odds with the interviews given by Industry experts, and I hope these accumulated articles have been vastly more in-depth than superficial opinions on social media.

DIY: Archimago's "RED DRAGON" Speaker Cables - Canare 4S11G (OFC, Star Quad, 11AWG). [And fascinating Townshend video with Wireworld in the mix.]

Alright friends, time for another fun and easy audiophile craft project! 🙂

Among the cables we use in audio, I would argue it's most fun fooling around with speaker cables as a DIY project. This is not necessarily because it "sounds different" (after all, this recent blind test didn't show a difference between $27 12AWG OFC zip cord and a $20k Gryphon set as discussed here, right?).

No friends, within reason, speaker cables have never really been proven to sound all that different from each other unless there are clear effects designed into them (stuff like the MIT cables with "articulation control" filter box come to mind). Rather, these are "fun" to make if you have time because you and your visitors can see the cables. A nice looking, relatively thick set can look impressive compared to generic thin wires. While we might measure and find good numbers, or subjectively hear nice-sounding music regardless, appearances cannot be underestimated in the world of the audiophile; after all that's been said and done, we don't need to pretend that it's all for improving sound quality, right? 😉

And so, for fun and curiosity, I found the Canare 4S11G which is the Oxygen-Free Copper (OFC) variant of the well-known 4S11. Many cables claim to be OFC, but the conductor here is certified Japanese Industrial Standard JIS-H-3510.

I reached out to AVshop.ca here in Canada and grabbed 25' (CAD$3.16/ft or just less than USD$2.50/ft) of this wire to play around with. Here's the result of a little DIY, what I'll call my "RED DRAGON" speaker cables. Because red is cool and dragons are auspicious and marketing departments seem to think "mythical creatures" cables 😯 appeal to audiophiles:

GUEST POST: A Raspberry Pi Music System that Punches Above its Weight - Wax by Jeffrey Barish

[Hey everyone, the community of Raspberry Pi audio applications has grown tremendously over the years! SBC's similar to the Pi running on Linux OS are almost ubiquitous inside streamer components these days. Jeffrey Barish recently contacted me about his novel software which looks like a fantastic system for managing a music library that imports art, rich metadata, and other information that can be run in a small all-in-one box with DAC output! Here's his write-up and introduction to Wax.]

Using a Raspberry Pi as the basis for a music system is not novel. Raspberry Pi OS is based on Linux, so at least 20 audio player programs should be compatible. If you listen only to pop and you are satisfied with a program that allows you to simply select and play an album, then you will probably be satisfied with almost any of these programs. However, if you are a serious music lover – and especially if your collection includes classical music – then you are probably looking for more.

Serious music lovers like to know something about the music they are playing. They like to know the identities of the artists performing the music. These capabilities are available in some proprietary solutions, but those products are expensive, they might require additional components (e.g., a DAC or disk drives), and some require that users pay an ongoing fee. This article describes a new program for the Raspberry Pi that provides an inexpensive solution with these and many more capabilities.

Pacific Audio Fest 2024: Part III - parting thoughts, audiophile education, speaker:amp price ratio & the future?

Hypothetical scene in Seattle...

Another year, another Pacific Audio Fest in the annals of audio shows. Looking back, this show would be the 6th of this sort I've attended and subsequently discussed on this blog over the last decade, let's see:

Vancouver Audio Show 2015

Vancouver Audio Show 2016

Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2019 - final RMAF
[Pandemic Years]

Pacific Audio Fest 2022

Pacific Audio Fest 2023

It's interesting reviewing some of those others over the years. I think most audiophiles will recognize that over time, not really much has changed, has it? Sure, the companies come and go, we've seen the ebb and flow of themes both in this blog as well as at the shows (for example, jitter was more of an uncertainty when AudioQuest introduced their JitterBug device in 2015). We've seen the rise of "high-end" computers and streamers (also discussed here), and these days I noticed that the companies are not as aggressive in the marketing as these products mature. Streaming may have reduced the need for local libraries, or simply that consumers themselves are comfortable with digital audio quality, the lack of sonic difference (and the "Bits Are Bits" reality).

The Dolby Atmos Music Target Curve. And on being an audiophile "tonmeister".

[For the post this week, let's take a pause from the Pacific Audio Fest 2024 discussions (last 2 weeks). Next week we'll have a Part III discussion about audio shows.]

Standardization is generally good.

I've discussed in previous posts that Dolby Atmos defines loudness characteristics for recordings and this has helped preserve dynamic range in multichannel/Atmos albums following their guidelines. Likewise, we can benefit from standardization of the frequency response as this will allow us to better "translate" the sound from the studio into our sound rooms. This idea is not new for audiophiles. The ill-fated (with good reason) MQA promised that we could experience the "sound of the studio", but they never could deliver in a large part because there was never any standardization for essential parameters like the frequency response, among other failings. In the same way, back in the day (~2014), this was the promise of hi-res audio by Neil Young and Pono that you would somehow get the "finest digital copy" and this would represent the sound the artists intended from the studio; clearly they overpromised and under-delivered by 2015.

It's one thing to standardize between the studio and home ("inter-system") playback, but it's also important to standardize "intra-system" - that is, between all the speakers in your set-up when you're doing multichannel such that each speaker is calibrated to the same timbre. This is important in a multichannel layout since we do not want "objects" moving through space changing tonality because of mismatch between speakers around the listener. The Dolby Atmos Music Target Curve is Dolby's recommendation for the music studio frequency response. This curve evolved from the X-Curve, an 'X'perimental frequency response based on some early empirical work exploring the performance of actual theater sound systems starting in the 1970's, and evolved over the years. See this paper for more details, note some similarity of the Dolby Atmos Music Target Curve to the SMPTE 202M - 1998 X-Curve.

As with all things in audio, nothing wrong with asking whether this curve is the "best". 🤔

Pacific Audio Fest 2024: Part II. [About that MACHINA DYNAMICA, and mental health. 🫣]

PAF'24 - the balcony shot on a Sunday afternoon as things start to wrap up...

So let's continue with the September 6-8, 2024 Pacific Audio Fest show-and-tell (Part I last week) at Seattle. These are my visits to the rooms on Sunday September 8th. You've probably seen from my previous show reports that Sundays tend to be less busy than Fridays and Saturdays. Often this is not a bad day to visit because it means that the crowds are smaller, you'll be able to linger a bit longer to enjoy the music, are more likely to be able to request music, and the reps are easier to access if you have questions (or concerns). It's also a good day to make deals since many rooms would rather sell you the gear than pack stuff up and take home that evening. I know some folks scored some barely used room treatments.

Let's spend some time on Wing 2 of the main floor, and then the larger 2nd Floor "Cascades" rooms to finish off. As with last week, all prices are in US dollars unless specified otherwise.