Merging HAPI - Merging Audio Device

[UliBru]

Recently I have switched from a miniDSP U-DIO8 to a Merging HAPI to feed my digital TACT amplifiers. I'm happy with it.
Merging has released a new Win10 driver software at Okt. 8, 2020 - the Merging Audio Device MAD.
The driver is an ASIO driver but it also offers a bridge to WDM Windows sound.
Thus it is possible to feed the Hapi (or other Merging hardware) by music players which only offer connections to Windows sound.
So in AcourateConvolver you will find additional Bridge inputs in the input channel list.
Then you can start AC and play music e.g. directly from Spotify.
It is no longer necessary to use AsioBridge (which has its own problems).

[Ackcheng]

Thanks Uli,

Do we need a new version for AC or it works as is?

Arthur

[UliBru]

AC works as before

[In-Ear]

Hi Uli,

sounds good. So you have the Hapi Base Module as HW? Do you hear any sound improvements compared to miniDSP? Price is some factors above..

The MAD enabled implementation of Spotify to AC would be very interesting, as Spotify seems not to be willed to develop an ASIO output for their desktop app. But a good Raspi-solution with Spotify and SPDIF out would cost less than 200 EUR, so pricewise might be better options for a spotify implementation..

ASIO Bridge seems a little unstable to me for my "black box" convolver PC solution and frankly I never understood their UI completely..

Best regards,

Jörn

[UliBru]

Jörn,

I have got a Hapi incl. ADC/DAC by luck. So I'm happy with it. Switching between HAPI and U-DIO8 takes too much time to compare them directly.
So I'm simply happy with the Hapi.

And yes, the AsioBridge can behave very strange.

[Ackcheng]

Just to report back. I am also using Hapi with Acourate convolve. But I am having problems getting MAD to work properly. MAD causes distortion. So if you are having problem try the old Ravenna ASIO driver. It works flawlessly.

[Ackcheng]

Just to update since MAD 2.2, Acourate Convolver is working fine again.

In my auto setup, I created a .bat file to launch at start. I had to make sure that MAD is loaded before AC so I added timeout /t 30 to delay the start of AC by 30 sec

@Echo off
Timeout /t 30
start "" "C:\Program Files\AudioVero\AcourateConvolver\AcourateConvolver.exe" /autorun "C:\Users\Arthur\Documents\AcourateConvolver\Merging Audio Device\1.cfg"