McIntosh C47 Firmware V1.00

3 Reasons I don't want to be forced to use JRiver:

1) HQPlayer with it's poly-sinc filters and upsampling to DSD sounds spectacular and far superior to JRiver.
2) Roon visual interface and rich metadata is far superior to JRiver and it can control HQPlayer. I have a rather large collection of digital albums around 12,000 or so, the Roon metadata is spectacular.
3) Jim Hillegass


I've ordered a SMS-200 to use in NAA mode hopefully linux works better with the C47. If not I'll start look at other DACs for music and leave the DAC in the C47 for TV, gaming etc.

Well, there you go......
 
I've ordered a SMS-200 to use in NAA mode hopefully linux works better with the C47. If not I'll start look at other DACs for music and leave the DAC in the C47 for TV, gaming etc.

I used to use my Linux based Roon core as my endpoint as well and didn't observe any peculiarities with sample rate changes. The C47 doesn't chirp or click when it changes resolutions like other DACs I've used.

I will say though it would be very hard for me to perceive a half second delay unless I was listening to contiguous music, which wouldn't involve a sample rate change to begin with.
 
Why the disdain for J River? As a professional Audio engineer, I find J River a step above the rest, its simple, no fuss, and most of all it just works?
Isn't that what we all want? Simple solutions that just work?

My issue with JRiver and programs like it is I'd either need to connect a laptop to my system or remote desktop to a computer I kept connected to my system. IMO, this is just a bit of a messy way of doing things. I'd much rather use some form of dedicated bridge, be it a Sonos, Roon endpoint, Raspberry Pi, etc (I've used all with great results).

Note this has nothing to do with sound quality, only workflow.
 
My issue with JRiver and programs like it is I'd either need to connect a laptop to my system or remote desktop to a computer I kept connected to my system. IMO, this is just a bit of a messy way of doing things. I'd much rather use some form of dedicated bridge, be it a Sonos, Roon endpoint, Raspberry Pi, etc (I've used all with great results).

Note this has nothing to do with sound quality, only workflow.

I use my old 2010 MacBook Pro with a 3tb SSD in it as my music computer, just sits next to the turntable, I use it for streaming my radio stations etc because I live rural and I cant get any radio stations on my tuner in my area....
Then I use Remotix on the iPad which is a very smooth remote desktop app......job done....
 
I use my old 2010 MacBook Pro with a 3tb SSD in it as my music computer, just sits next to the turntable, I use it for streaming my radio stations etc because I live rural and I cant get any radio stations on my tuner in my area....
Then I use Remotix on the iPad which is a very smooth remote desktop app......job done....

This is basically what I did for several years. To be honest I didn't have much of a problem with it until I got a Sonos (so it was easier for my wife to use) and understood how much easier it all gets. It's good there are so many options for how to do this that suits various needs.

At this point, I find Roon so fantastic I can't even remember what it was like before I started using it. People complain about its price; I'd pay more if they asked.
 
This is basically what I did for several years. To be honest I didn't have much of a problem with it until I got a Sonos (so it was easier for my wife to use) and understood how much easier it all gets. It's good there are so many options for how to do this that suits various needs.

At this point, I find Roon so fantastic I can't even remember what it was like before I started using it. People complain about its price; I'd pay more if they asked.
Yeah I guess its whatever is convenient and whatever you're into.
I just use what I have, for me personally I am completely happy with my setup, I have other interests I like to sink all my money into so the desire to get into anything else as far as music servers go just isn't on my radar....

That's not to say I don't look at what other people are doing....It's pretty interesting looking at other setups...
 
I used to use my Linux based Roon core as my endpoint as well and didn't observe any peculiarities with sample rate changes. The C47 doesn't chirp or click when it changes resolutions like other DACs I've used.

I will say though it would be very hard for me to perceive a half second delay unless I was listening to contiguous music, which wouldn't involve a sample rate change to begin with.

I've been in contact with SOTM already and if it doesn't work when I get my sMS-200 they will make it work. I still haven't heard back from McIntosh, odd that they simply don't care. At least offer to help the software developers work around the issue. A little disheartening.

It might be that I've watched the Roon team work with their clients and my expectations have gotten too high.
 
If you must have native DSD, I'd return it and get a micro rendu.

I love the build quality of the SMS-200. I'll give them more time to figure it out. The microRendu and dietPI distro both work properly with native DSD. Certainly they can reverse engineer the dietPI distro.
 
I love the build quality of the SMS-200. I'll give them more time to figure it out. The microRendu and dietPI distro both work properly with native DSD. Certainly they can reverse engineer the dietPI distro.

It has not been my experience that DietPi works with native DSD. In fact, I've had problems with it and DSD, weird volume issues. I might give a later version a try as I enjoy tinkering with rPis, but with the rendu I suppose it doesn't much matter for me.
 
It has not been my experience that DietPi works with native DSD. In fact, I've had problems with it and DSD, weird volume issues. I might give a later version a try as I enjoy tinkering with rPis, but with the rendu I suppose it doesn't much matter for me.

What linux kernel is on your rendu? I'm trying to figure out why it works.
 
DSD256 with ASIO on windows is pretty tempermental. In fact all native DSD formats are. DOP is way more stable.

HQPlayer will play one song converted to DSD256 and then is done and requires a restart. Roon is better, it works but has clicks and pops.

When doing DOP on ASIO there are more clicks and pops on track change compared to DOP on WASAPI. So McIntosh still has some fixing to do either in firmware or in the ASIO drivers.

I've contacted McIntosh with regards to their broken ASIO driver. Native DSD will cause a major popping sound on transport stop. This happens in all the software I've tried. This is clearly a driver problem and seems to be quite common in the Native DSD DAC world or at least for companies who's DAC driver are an after thought.

I'm really hoping McIntosh is a little more invested in the DAC technology in the C47, C52, C2600, D1100 and Wadia DI322 and will actually address the issue. Fingers crossed.

So far the recommendations of running JRiver but do a double pause instead of stop isn't acceptable as when an album or track ends on it's own it's still a hard stop and will induce a possible speaker damaging pop if the volume is too loud. No owner should be forced to use only one type of software and/or run to their computer before an album ends to hit double pause.

The other recommendation is not do Native DSD256 as the files are really too large anyway. If these preamps really aren't DSD256 capable or not capable of doing it cleanly and properly don't advertise them as such.

I hope other owners will contact McIntosh and voice their concern as I feel my email requests, much more polite than this post, have fallen on deaf ears.

I know almost all owners probably don't care about DSD256 but the upsampling with Jussi's HQPlayer is truelly exceptional and can really achieve the Analog sound we all strive for without having the break the bank on a high end DAC.
 
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To add a minor, yet odd, issue to your list, I'm using a c47 with firmware v1.03, and yet it still says c52 when connected via usb. I get that maybe it's the same firmware as the c52, but it'd be nice to be correct, unless I'm missing something.
 
Hi folks,
today i conducted our german distributor of McIntosh products for a newer firmware for my C47. I have still V.1.01. The distributor mailed my the new firmware, but this firmware can only be installed by an Windows computer. I have an iMac with Audirvana 2.0 on it for music playback. So my question is: when i install the firmware with an Windows PC on my C47, can my iMac handle this firmware?
 
Hi folks,
today i conducted our german distributor of McIntosh products for a newer firmware for my C47. I have still V.1.01. The distributor mailed my the new firmware, but this firmware can only be installed by an Windows computer. I have an iMac with Audirvana 2.0 on it for music playback. So my question is: when i install the firmware with an Windows PC on my C47, can my iMac handle this firmware?
Yes. The PC is only used to update your C47 firmware. This has will not affect your ability to use your iMac to play music via Audirvana.
 
So, does the new firmware effect the performance when music is played via my iMac through the C47?
I can't comment on that because I don't have a C47. But, generally speaking, any firmware update "should" have a more positive affect when compared to the version preceding it.
 
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