DOS Upgrade => ++Sound Quality

[Bernd Lahmeyer]

10 days since I installed the new firmware on my pair of Golds and the sound coming from them is undoubtedly superior from any previous firmware. The sound is blowing me away, the textural subtleties, air and musicality that I am hearing remind me of the Kharma/Nagra/ASR system I had before scaling down. This is not a placebo effect, I have been playing recordings I know very well and the up-quality was also immediately recognized by my son, who is a classically trained composer and cellist. I feel like I just upgraded my speakers to something much superior, in short, Im quite happy about the firmware and couldn't care less for Roon RAAT, it doesnt sound nearly as good as Audirvana over wired UPnP.

This is my system setup:

SSD MacMini --> Audirvana + SonarWorks DSP --> UPnP Ethernet --> Phantoms Gold

On the sampling controversy, Audirvana sends 24/192 and I think that via UPnP Ethernet it doesnt get downsampled. Of course, there is no way of knowing this now, its just my guess.

Hi, how do you get SonarWorks DSP to work with Audirvana and send it to UPnP input of Phantom?

I know Phantom suppors UPnP and Audirvana plays to UPnP renderers.

But how does SonarWorks work also?

Is it a plugin?

Yes, SonarWorks generates a AudioUnit/VST plugin and Audirvana seamlessly supports it. This feature and audibly better sound quality were the definitive deciding factors for putting the final nail in Roon's coffin, as much as I like its interface... Roon cannot do pure software DSP that I am aware of...

I am using Sonarworks and Roon, but had to sacrifice UPnP. I run the Audio through a Focusrite Scarlett 8i2 and Toslink to the speakers. Sonarworks I am using as a VST plugin in the Ableton Lite DAW coming with the Scarlett. Ableton and Roon are running on the same Windows10 server. A disadvantage is volume control. For that reason I have two remotes in the room. An advantage is that this setup enables me to use Sonarworks easily as well for my record player and an old CD player, which does not have digital out. The setup is very stable.