DSP in ND Streamers?

Posted by: sunbeamgls on 03 February 2016

Noticed this from Roy George in the Connect article about Mu-so Qb.  Does anyone know what this means in an ND context please?

"when the finished tune is agreed, it can then be uploaded into the product in a similar way that Naim’s ND- and Uniti products can have their DSP audio tuning adjusted as part of firmware upgrade – ‘only rather faster’, says George."

Posted on: 03 February 2016 by Andrew Everard

I think it simply means that, as part of firmware upgrades, sometimes the audio DSP is also updated/upgraded (as, for example happened when the DSD compatibility was introduced and there was also an overall improvement in sound quality).

I guess the 'only rather faster' bit refers to just changing the audio DSP at the R&D stage, which would be a quicker upload than a full firmware upgrade.

Posted on: 03 February 2016 by sunbeamgls

Thanks Andrew, but I was wondering what they meant by DSP?  Is that a very broad term that includes D to A?  Or is there some signal manipulation going on?

Posted on: 03 February 2016 by Andrew Everard

Yes, it includes all kind of digital processing, including the buffering and de-jittering carried out as part of the digital-to-analogue conversion within the ND models.

Posted on: 03 February 2016 by Harty601

My understanding is that all the said boxes (Muso / NDS / NDX / 272 etc) contain Digital Signal Processing that can be tweaked / improved during firmware upgrades.

I'm not sure where the DSP sits exactly in the signal path -- but I would have thought it would be upstream of the DtoA conversion (given that it is DIGITAL signal processing). I'm sure some of the other forum members will be able to give far more technical detail.

Harty

Posted on: 03 February 2016 by Eloise
sunbeamgls posted:

Thanks Andrew, but I was wondering what they meant by DSP?  Is that a very broad term that includes D to A?  Or is there some signal manipulation going on?

If you read https://www.naimaudio.com/site...te-paper_oct2010.pdf Naim call everything happening in the SHARC processor the DSP Section - that includes RAM buffer / jitter removal, oversampling and digital filtering.

Posted on: 03 February 2016 by Harry

A part of updating the FW on an ND player involves flashing a new DAC DSP onto it - at least according to the display. Sometimes the DAC DSP code is not updated but it still gets reflashed.

Some people hear sound quality differences for some updates, some don't. According to my unreliable musical memory, the very first DAC DSP that launched in the NDS sounded the best. It only lasted about a week. The latest iteration for the NDS sounds pretty close - and most enjoyable.