Soulution, early adopter of Leedh Processing

Joel

Well-Known Member
Sep 13, 2013
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Hi all,

Soulution is going to upgrade their DA converters with a revolutionary digital volume processing.

"soulution introduces « Leedh Processing » to its D/A converters 760 and 560

soulution is the first high end electronics manufacturer world-wide who was allowed to license «Leedh Processing» for its D/A converters 560 and 760. «Leedh Processing» is a highly innovative algorithm for increasing or decreasing the volume level of a digital music signal. The patented «Leedh Processing» algorithm does this without adding any artefacts to the digital music signal.No information will be lost while adjusting the volume. This results in revealing even thinnest details and a tremendous richness of micro dynamics otherwise unavailable from digital music playback and usually associated with analog/vinyl music reproduction. Existing units of 760 and 560 can be upgraded for the new «Leedh Processing» volume control feature.
«Leedh Processing» has been invented by Gilles Millot of Acoustical Beauty, a French niche manufacturer for high end loudspeaker systems who already holds several patents for his innovative designs and technologies. The innovative «Leedh Processing» algorithm is not limited to applications in high end audio. It will also do its magic in lower quality, mass market products or even in applications outside audio."

I had the opportunity to try the first proto PCB at home and compared it with Ypsilon PST100 MK2 and Robert Koda Takumi K10, the digital volume controller designed by Acoustical Beauty and Engineered has outclassed the big analogue preamps in terms of quality of attenuation.
It has been really impressive listening to the purity of sound delivered by such device compared to very good analogue devices which add their own colors and also more distortion in volume processing... The sound of my playback chain never sounded so natural...
Audirvana has also contracted the Leedh processing and next version with high end volume processor should be released within two or three months.
The Leedh processing also enables more performing upsampling techniques, but it's too soon to tell now. It's definitely a technical breakthrough in the field of digital processing, and perhaps the death of analogue preamps... (Gilles Milot also works on a A/D conversion for analogue sources).

Cheers,

Joël
 

LL21

Well-Known Member
Dec 26, 2010
14,411
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Very interesting...did you get to compare digital attenuator to analog? Or was it the whole piece of equipment by Soulution?
 

Joel

Well-Known Member
Sep 13, 2013
138
7
323
www.audiophile-magazine.com
Soulution only demonstrated the new digital volume controller against its old one.
I honestly think the comparison against analog would have led to similar results but Soulution’s interest is not to demonstrate that its preamplifier becomes completely useless for digital users. The interest of an analog preamp still resides in its versatility and ability to handle analog inputs.
But with a good À/D conversion upgrade of the 760 DAC, it could perhaps become completely useless one day.

The demo against branded preamps has been done at Soulution, CH, and Dartzeel and it seem the digital processing has been the winner each time...
 

rsorren1

Well-Known Member
Sep 6, 2013
365
133
348
Dallas area
Joel, I got the chance to hear this digital volume controller on the 7-series Soulution DAC at Michael Reinhard Audio, Zurich, Switzerland. The 760 DAC fed latest 700 monos and Magico Q7 MkII. The demonstration consisted of hearing the 760 DAC with it’s standard volume control vs the same 760 DAC with this new digital volume control. The new control is selectable from the 760 DAC configuration front panel. NO CONTEST. The new digital control was more open, detailed, smoother, than the standard. Easy improvement to hear. When I was in Munich I spoke with Cyril Hammer about it. I suggested that the new control was so good that they would negatively affect sales of pre-amps. Cyril’s comment was that for those who have turntables or who feel a pre-amp adds additional performance gains, these customers are still buying pre-amps and I agree with that. The digital volume control is a winner. The 760 DAC was impressive and among the best digital I’ve heard.
 

Pb Blimp

Well-Known Member
Oct 30, 2017
518
25
140
USA
Hi all,

Soulution is going to upgrade their DA converters with a revolutionary digital volume processing.

"soulution introduces « Leedh Processing » to its D/A converters 760 and 560

soulution is the first high end electronics manufacturer world-wide who was allowed to license «Leedh Processing» for its D/A converters 560 and 760. «Leedh Processing» is a highly innovative algorithm for increasing or decreasing the volume level of a digital music signal. The patented «Leedh Processing» algorithm does this without adding any artefacts to the digital music signal.No information will be lost while adjusting the volume. This results in revealing even thinnest details and a tremendous richness of micro dynamics otherwise unavailable from digital music playback and usually associated with analog/vinyl music reproduction. Existing units of 760 and 560 can be upgraded for the new «Leedh Processing» volume control feature.
«Leedh Processing» has been invented by Gilles Millot of Acoustical Beauty, a French niche manufacturer for high end loudspeaker systems who already holds several patents for his innovative designs and technologies. The innovative «Leedh Processing» algorithm is not limited to applications in high end audio. It will also do its magic in lower quality, mass market products or even in applications outside audio."

I had the opportunity to try the first proto PCB at home and compared it with Ypsilon PST100 MK2 and Robert Koda Takumi K10, the digital volume controller designed by Acoustical Beauty and Engineered has outclassed the big analogue preamps in terms of quality of attenuation.
It has been really impressive listening to the purity of sound delivered by such device compared to very good analogue devices which add their own colors and also more distortion in volume processing... The sound of my playback chain never sounded so natural...
Audirvana has also contracted the Leedh processing and next version with high end volume processor should be released within two or three months.
The Leedh processing also enables more performing upsampling techniques, but it's too soon to tell now. It's definitely a technical breakthrough in the field of digital processing, and perhaps the death of analogue preamps... (Gilles Milot also works on a A/D conversion for analogue sources).

Cheers,

Joël

Very interesting.....MSB is also trying to obsolete the preamp with their new "constant impedance" volume control for the Select and Reference DAC which is alleged to be superb. I have not tried it yet because I love the way the 721 sounds on my analog rig and my Soulution amps have such low input impedance (I am a little concerned with the MSB Reference's 150 ohms driving 2000 ohms of the 501s) but the 760 with just 2 ohms output impedance would drive anything.
 

Joel

Well-Known Member
Sep 13, 2013
138
7
323
www.audiophile-magazine.com
Joel, I got the chance to hear this digital volume controller on the 7-series Soulution DAC at Michael Reinhard Audio, Zurich, Switzerland. The 760 DAC fed latest 700 monos and Magico Q7 MkII. The demonstration consisted of hearing the 760 DAC with it’s standard volume control vs the same 760 DAC with this new digital volume control. The new control is selectable from the 760 DAC configuration front panel. NO CONTEST. The new digital control was more open, detailed, smoother, than the standard. Easy improvement to hear. When I was in Munich I spoke with Cyril Hammer about it. I suggested that the new control was so good that they would negatively affect sales of pre-amps. Cyril’s comment was that for those who have turntables or who feel a pre-amp adds additional performance gains, these customers are still buying pre-amps and I agree with that. The digital volume control is a winner. The 760 DAC was impressive and among the best digital I’ve heard.

So we shared more or less the same listening tests.
The issue is that it’s quite difficult to believe till you haven’t heard the difference.
Nevertheless, the upsampling application should allow to go further with all PCM files, and DSD processing still needs to be developed.
What is really incredible is the ability to address significantly the usual poor performance of high end digital sources but also cell phones or entry level devices. That is going to change the game...
I hope Audirvana will be able to release its new version quite soon to allow introduction of this technology at a wider scale.
 

Joel

Well-Known Member
Sep 13, 2013
138
7
323
www.audiophile-magazine.com
Hi Paul,
Yes I heard about MSB last achievements. My understanding is that both MSB and Leedh achievements are complementary.
So I cannot imagine the performance of one D/A converter featuring both techniques...
I think Gilles Milot will contact them sooner or later as they have already worked together in the past.
 

Alpinist

Well-Known Member
Jun 17, 2014
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Very interesting.....MSB is also trying to obsolete the preamp with their new "constant impedance" volume control for the Select and Reference DAC which is alleged to be superb. I have not tried it yet because I love the way the 721 sounds on my analog rig and my Soulution amps have such low input impedance (I am a little concerned with the MSB Reference's 150 ohms driving 2000 ohms of the 501s) but the 760 with just 2 ohms output impedance would drive anything.

Hi Paul,

I was wondering if you’re going to try comparing your MSB Reference DAC with versus without your Soulution 721 preamp? I don’t think the amps’ 2,000 ohm input impedance should be a major issue (13x). How is your system sounding, now that you have all the key pieces in place?

Best,
Ken
 

Wilmington

Well-Known Member
Apr 5, 2013
14
2
308
Dear Joel,

Do you know anything about the way the Leedh algorithm will be implemented in Audiorvana? Not a version of it for example but the real thing, so to say?
 

Joel

Well-Known Member
Sep 13, 2013
138
7
323
www.audiophile-magazine.com
No idea. The new version is quite ready to be released but I don’t know how the upgrade will be proposed to customers. I just know there are still business negociations in progress between Leedh and Audirvana about licensing...
 

Pb Blimp

Well-Known Member
Oct 30, 2017
518
25
140
USA
Hi Paul,

I was wondering if you’re going to try comparing your MSB Reference DAC with versus without your Soulution 721 preamp? I don’t think the amps’ 2,000 ohm input impedance should be a major issue (13x). How is your system sounding, now that you have all the key pieces in place?

Best,
Ken

Dude congrats on the Select Dac II!!!!!!!! You are going to really be happy. I plan to eventually check things out without the Soulution preamp but frankly my system is so enjoyable right now I am just taking it one day at a time. I want to be extremely familiar with the system before a I make any tweaks. As far as the Reference/Soulution match goes, I am much more confident in the digital side of the Reference driving the amps than the analog since it is entirely passive but I may be surprised.
 

Alpinist

Well-Known Member
Jun 17, 2014
530
143
280
USA
Dude congrats on the Select Dac II!!!!!!!! You are going to really be happy. I plan to eventually check things out without the Soulution preamp but frankly my system is so enjoyable right now I am just taking it one day at a time. I want to be extremely familiar with the system before a I make any tweaks. As far as the Reference/Soulution match goes, I am much more confident in the digital side of the Reference driving the amps than the analog since it is entirely passive but I may be surprised.

Thanks Paul! I can’t wait to get it in my room. I’ll be running with the Renderer input module and I’ve already ordered a Roon Nucleus Plus. I’ll be ordering a NAS soon too. So how are you liking yours? Which input module are you using? A friend of mine had a long conversation with someone who purchased the Select II DAC and had a Soulution 725 preamp. He said the difference with and without it was indistinguishable. So he ended up selling it because he didn’t need the extra features. But the great news is there is no degradation in sound quality with the 725, which says a lot about the quality of the preamp. So I guess you can run with or without preamp without any sonic penalty.

All the best,
Ken
 

Pb Blimp

Well-Known Member
Oct 30, 2017
518
25
140
USA
Thanks Paul! I can’t wait to get it in my room. I’ll be running with the Renderer input module and I’ve already ordered a Roon Nucleus Plus. I’ll be ordering a NAS soon too. So how are you liking yours? Which input module are you using? A friend of mine had a long conversation with someone who purchased the Select II DAC and had a Soulution 725 preamp. He said the difference with and without it was indistinguishable. So he ended up selling it because he didn’t need the extra features. But the great news is there is no degradation in sound quality with the 725, which says a lot about the quality of the preamp. So I guess you can run with or without preamp without any sonic penalty.

All the best,
Ken

I am spinning CD's for now but will go to renderer eventually. Waiting for performance news on the new Antipodes CX which has isolated ethernet. I am familiar with one guy who sold 725 but he was running the 711 which has much higher input impedance than 501's (10,000 versus 2,000) and I don't think he was running a analog rig which may need some gain. He also had the Select II which has half the output impedance (twice the ladders) as the Reference so I am not as confident. (I still listen to about 75% TT.) I will eventually give it a go and hope to be surprised. Was your guy running 501's and an analog rig?
 

Alpinist

Well-Known Member
Jun 17, 2014
530
143
280
USA
I am spinning CD's for now but will go to renderer eventually. Waiting for performance news on the new Antipodes CX which has isolated ethernet. I am familiar with one guy who sold 725 but he was running the 711 which has much higher input impedance than 501's (10,000 versus 2,000) and I don't think he was running a analog rig which may need some gain. He also had the Select II which has half the output impedance (twice the ladders) as the Reference so I am not as confident. (I still listen to about 75% TT.) I will eventually give it a go and hope to be surprised. Was your guy running 501's and an analog rig?

Hi Paul,

That’s terrific, what transport are you using? Did you get the Reference Transport? I would love to have that. I think you’re right about the guy with the 725 preamp having a 711 amp, which has a higher input impedance than your 501’s. I think you may need to keep the 721 for an impedance buffer but this isn’t a bad thing at all when you consider the quality of the 721 preamp. They aren’t many preamps out there that cut the mustard compared to MSB’s analog output module. Is your analog output module RCA or XLR? I’m getting XLR for mine.

Best,
Ken
 

Pb Blimp

Well-Known Member
Oct 30, 2017
518
25
140
USA
Hi Paul,

That’s terrific, what transport are you using? Did you get the Reference Transport? I would love to have that. I think you’re right about the guy with the 725 preamp having a 711 amp, which has a higher input impedance than your 501’s. I think you may need to keep the 721 for an impedance buffer but this isn’t a bad thing at all when you consider the quality of the 721 preamp. They aren’t many preamps out there that cut the mustard compared to MSB’s analog output module. Is your analog output module RCA or XLR? I’m getting XLR for mine.

Best,
Ken

I am mainly using an Oppo from another system as a temp player and I also have the Quad USB but my plan is to go 100% renderer. The 501's are balanced input only so xlr analog out. Keep me posted when you receive the Select II.
 

Alpinist

Well-Known Member
Jun 17, 2014
530
143
280
USA
I am mainly using an Oppo from another system as a temp player and I also have the Quad USB but my plan is to go 100% renderer. The 501's are balanced input only so xlr analog out. Keep me posted when you receive the Select II.

Thanks Paul. Will do.

Best,
Ken
 

Wilmington

Well-Known Member
Apr 5, 2013
14
2
308
Now that Audirvana for Windows is here is there any info whether Leedh volume control was licensed for use in it?
 

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