AuraEngine: Perfectionist off-line mega-tap digital filtering - with hybrid-phase transient detection & blending.

As you know, while digital oversampling filters have been around for ages (4x oversampling available back in the '80s), audiophiles probably got more interested in digital filters thanks to Bob Stuart, and Meridian by 2009 talking about "apodizing" filters. DACs started allowing different filter options. And spin-offs like MQA took things too far utilizing poor designs through the 2010's (and still looking for a reason to exist).

Years ago now, I spent quite a bit of time talking about digital filters across articles like this and contemplating things like pre-ringing here. There were also discussions of using the intermediate phase setting as a compromise. And we even ran a blind test to compare strong pre-ringing vs. no-pre-ringing minimum phase settings.

While I think I've exhausted my time exploring such things at the base level, ever-more-precise filtering options have been available for audiophiles to use. HQPlayer has many realtime software-based playback settings including DSD transcoding. Companies like Chord/Rob Watts have taken their stand on using ultra-tap-length linear phase filters (to the point of extreme IMO).

Off-line upsampling of high precision can also be achieved using software like Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster (PGGB) in 2021 -  I see they have a PGGB+ version now with DSD and up to "ludicrous" 256-bit processing.

Well friends, it's 2026 and the other day I was contacted by Toxa Dev about his new ultra-accurate upsampling system called AuraEngine (current version 1.2.2) available on Github; full source code published and freely released for non-commercial use. You can also download and run the pre-built Windows portable app here. Notice that there are three downloads available: Starter 1M-taps, Standard 10M-taps, and Reference 30M-taps. Pick your level of obsession err... weapon against weak upsampling!

Magic Beans Audio: True Target. DSP correction fine tuning, concepts, and effects.

In my previous post, I discussed target curves and gave examples of curves you might want to consider when implementing DSP correction in your sound room.

While the use of full-range target curves is not uncommon, as discussed, there are those who advocate against doing so and would insist that only partial corrections in the bass frequencies up to the Modal+Transition Zones should be applied. There are of course some good reasons for this line of thinking which will be addressed.

As you can see in the comments last time, I had a long discussion with Joe Mariano (aka Joe N Tell) of Magic Beans Audio about his product called True Target. I continued my discussions with Joe via E-mail and he provided access for me to the Pro version which allows export of the curves to Room EQ Wizard in order to have a deeper look under the hood at how the system works.

The picture above was taken right before one of my measurement sessions with Magic Beans highlighting some "tools of the trade" used to perform the tuning.

Let's talk about the Magic Beans* True Target app. 

[Standard version regularly priced at US$249 should suffice for the vast majority of users, Pro version US$399 allows up to 128 channels and unlimited daily calibrations.]