Improving Mac Profiles for DPS 2.0 – Full Featured Release

[Dan Rice]

Improving Mac Profiles for DPS 2.0 – Full Featured Release

As many of you know, the Full Featured version of the DPS 2.0 Plugin product is coming soon. While the current free version of 2.0 has limited profiles, It does have all the Mac Device profiles in the Built-in Speakers “Listening to:” category. We want to make sure these profiles are constantly improving. That’s where your feedback is needed.

We’re curious if generational changes in the manufacturing of these popular devices may have introduced any subtle differences in how they sound with our profiles. Also, we would like to hear from you if you detect any differences between our DPS 1.x audio enhancement engine and the advanced DPS 2.0 engine. This sort of thing is obviously very important to us. Let us know which profiles might need tweaking!

For those of you using these Mac Device profiles (ex: Macbook Air, Macbook pro 17′, etc) on the full 1.x version, we urge you to uninstall the 1.x version and try the free 2.0 version for mac available here.

We are looking for feedback to improve these profiles ahead or our full featured release. Thanks in advance for your help!

[andreas]

Ok – i think here is the right place for my humble opinion on soudn difference between teh two version. Before i say anything it is important for me to say that it is my subjective impression only. So take out of it whatever helps.
It is difficult to really compare as what You compare comes from memory partially. The difference is not so big that it is totally obvious – but rather small things that also can be wrong remembered…

Having said that i want to go to the setup: I am using teh phoenix profile with an external usb audio device and some speakers.
I chose the phoenix for 1.x as it had a very clear an open sound and most of the other setups sounded too muffled – after al it is some HiFi speakers i am driving.

When i now compare 1.x to 2.0 i would say that it very much depends on the songs i hear. This is interesting as there is no clear result. But for most things i hear 2.0 sounds better with phoenix.
On the plus side there is much more dynamics, especially with calm and bright sounds. Often the sound ‘opens up’ liek a little bit of surround added. in this bright and sharp environment also single bass tones come clear and dark.
Theer are also songs where i would prefer the 1.x This is the more base related stuff, especially techno or something with much and continuous deep tones. These are not so strong with 2.0 then they were with 1.x I get the impression they lack some power and also the do not come out so clear and distinguished. They are rather fading into each other a bit. Not to understand me wrong: It still sounds great – but in my impression the 1.x sounded better here.
In rare cases i encountered another phenomenon that i can not clearly describe when it happenes. In some brigt passages with a fast sequence of high tones i got the impression as if it lost rhythm. When there originally was a clear succession of clear bright strokes it now sounded a little out of phase – like if some of the tones would try to overtake the others creating a bit of a chaos. Listening example here would be Freestyler by Bomfunk MCs – not the start but a little later.
What i cannot say is if this is due to the profiel or due to my setup routing DPS through soundflower. But that effect is not here with 1.x – and it is with 2.0

But apart from these little things (You asked for them!) i do love the improved sound of 2.0. Will be very curious for the new profiles and maybe soon a full version 😉

[Dan Rice]

Andreas,

Thank you so much for this great feedback. We really do rely on your ears. We have a great team and a lot of audiophiles on staff, but in the end what really matters is the experience our users have with our products.
I just spent a couple of minutes listening to the Bomfunk MCs, and I’m glad to have had that experience. Honestly, I didn’t hear the phenomena you are describing. Which profile did this happen with?

Thanks,

Dan R.
DPS Support

[beez1717]

I compared my old first generation retina MacBook Pro to my new 2016 retina MacBook pro’s sound, and I noticed something interesting: The old Retina MacBook Pro sounds BETTER with DPS on when using the profile from 1.x in the 2.X than the new MBP WITHOUT DPS installed. Because I don’t have the option to install profiles anymore on the new MacBook Pro with 2.X, I can’t tell you how it would directly compare at the moment. I can tell you that the laptop does have a richer and wider sound profile than my old laptop. It does however benefit greatly from the plugin. Overall on the latest MacBook Pro, DPS has helped boost the bass a bunch, which is a godsend to me.

I have mild-moderate conductive bone hearing loss, which means the tiny bones in my ears don’t vibrate like they are supposed to. That means that I don’t hear the lower frequencies as well as the others. Using DPS, I am able to restore the lost sound that I hear. I’ve noticed that if I cup my hands behind my ears, I can get close to normal hearing, but only in one direction so, I guess you know what it’s like now.

The way I’d describe the difference with DPS on the mid 2012 Retina MacBook Pro, and the latest one, is that the plugins sound like they are doing the exact same things on each laptop. The newer laptop however has better so9und overall, and so the plugin overall sounds better to me when configured to its best.

Finally, I am looking for a sound profile that would give the most accurate reproduction of sound on speakers when recorded via a microphone that has a wider sound profile than the speakers. To me that means if you were to play a sine wave/square wave that covered the entire range of sound the speakers to play, the volume, and quality of the sound should stay constant. In short, if you chose profile A on speakers A, and profile B on speakers B, and C on C,they should sound identical. I know this would be extremely hard to do but it’s just a thought.

[andreas]

Dan,

Sorry for the late reply.
I am very curious now for the 2.1 version and the profiles included. I had played a bit with the equalizer controls in 1.0.7 mainly strengthening the very low base around 40 Hz and it will be interesting to hear the new version with more options.

I am aware every system is unique, especially when it is up to enhancing sound quality from ostly bad sources at often bad speakers. My setup is about playing bad source (mp3 with the typical low quality) to a good speaker system. DPS does this job extremely well and makes the bad source files acceptable when played to some speakers showing the weaknesses. Personally i could imagine this is a major target group for DPS – people who hear the difference, usually have and like good quality but for some reason either have source data or computer who is not capable. Those who do not hear the difference will not care and take the low quality of mp3 on bad speakers as long as there is some sound coming out.
So i guess Your target group is primarily people who care about sound and quality and so i assume it will not be so rare that they do have an adequate sound system connected but do use DPS for enhancing some low quality itunes or mp3 collection.

For doing this i have come to the profile ‘phoenix’ as it gives a very clear sound. I used some other speakers where i used the ‘los Angeles’ profile as i had to add more bass there but the findings i reported above were all for the profile ‘phoenix’
I got really better results for all the “clear” music with light tone and dynmics. Good example would be Pink Floyd / High Hopes (with that bee at the beginning).
The most improvement in sound quality i got with Maya Jane Coles / Comfort.
This song sounded somehow ‘swampy’ with the old 1.0.7 and is really sounding good now because it is much sharper and more distinguished (sorry for the strange words – difficult to describe the emotional quality of a sound)

Teh issue with the tones out of order i described is probably due to my setup and not to 2.0. I am using a usb sound interface wher ethe speakers ae connected to. This worked directly with 1.0.7 — with 2.0 it does not any more (sound distorted) which i could solve by routing it through soundflower. Personally i could assume that there is still some partial delays so things get maybe a bit out of phase. As i do not know what DPS really does i can not judge that. But it happens rarely – only if there are sharp tones in quick succession (Bomfunk MCs being a good example). I will look what 2.1 does and will report. What it sounds is like if you take several tracks of a song and play some of them with a slightly (very slightly) faster speed (or slightly out of phase) It must be milliseconds or something, but you can hear it like a slight echo.
But as i said nothing to worry about as i assume it is because of the rerouting and not because of any profile

All teh best
Andreas

[Author]

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