okto researh dac8 PRO User Manual

okto researh dac8 PRO

Product Information

The DAC8 PRO v1.5 firmware is a software update for the Okto Research DAC8 PRO Digital-to-Analog Converter. The update includes bug fixes, new functions, and enhancements to the device’s performance. The update introduces an Okto Research ASIO driver and an Advanced submenu with three new entries. Additionally, it reduces or eliminates thumps during sample rate and format changes, enhances DSD compatibility with Linux, and introduces per-channel audio indicators on the main screen.

Changelog:

• Equalized delay for all the AES/EBU input channels
• Enhanced DSD compatibility with Linux (2 and 6-channel DSD playback now supported)
• Reduced or eliminated thumps during sample rate and format changes
• Introduced Okto Research ASIO driver (only compatible with FW v1.5 and newer)
• Added Advanced submenu with 3 new entries (covered in the Owner’s manual)
• DPLL width – 2nd harmonic THD compensation – 3rd harmonic THD compensation
• The remote button with the ‘Select’ function no longer triggers menu entry from the main screen. This change prevents entering the menu accidentally when changing volume or switching inputs using an Apple Remote or other remotes with the ‘Select’ button located between the ‘Up/Down’ and ‘Left/Right’ buttons
• Per-channel audio indicator on the main screen (instead of the play / pause icon)

Product Usage Instructions

To update the firmware of DAC8 PRO v1.5 firmware, follow the below steps:

Windows:

1. Uninstall the DIYINHK driver if it is present
2. Restart your PC
3. Go to https://zadig.akeo.ie/ and download and run the Zadig utility
4. Find OKTO RESEARCH DFU (Interface 3) in the dropdown menu. If needed, enable the toggle List all devices under Select menu.
5. Select WinUSB option above the large button and then click the button. After the process finishes, close Zadig.
6. Download the firmware update package from https://oktoresearch.com/assets/dac8pro/fw/dac8pro_fw_15.zip and extract file dac8pro_fw_15_win.exe
7. Run the file and wait for the update process to complete. If the process ends up with an error message, please refer to the Troubleshooting section.
8. Verify the successful completion by turning on the unit with a rotary control press, which should bring you to the updated main screen
9. Press and hold the rotary control to turn the unit off, and then unplug it from mains for 5 or more seconds. After power cycling, the unit is ready for use. Remote control will need to be paired again and all the menu settings will need to be manually restored.
10. Download and install Okto Research ASIO driver from the following link: https://oktoresearch.com/assets/OktoResearchUsbDriver.zip. The following picture displays info tab of the driver control panel
    showing new revision after a successful firmware update.

Mac OS:

1. Download the firmware update package from https://oktoresearch.com/assets/dac8pro/fw/dac8pro_fw_15.zip and extract file dac8pro_fw_15_osx to your home folder
2. Add permission to execute the file by opening terminal in the respective folder and running the command chmod 755 dac8pro_fw_15_osx
3. Right-click on the file to execute it and authorize the operation and wait for the update process to finish
4. Verify the successful completion by turning on the unit with a rotary control press, which should bring you to the updated main screen
5. Press and hold the rotary control to turn the unit off and then unplug it from the mains for 5 or more seconds. After power cycling, the unit is ready for use. Remote control will need to be paired again and all the menu settings will need to be manually restored.

Introduction

• This document provides comprehensive information related to the v1.5 firmware update package for the dac8 PRO, including a changelog and step-by-step installation guides for three major operating systems. This major update addresses all known bugs, introduces several new functions, and adds compatibility with the Okto Research ASIO driver for Windows.
• Firmware versions prior to the v1.5 use our custom USB update mechanism, delivered as executable packages with output displayed in a command line interface. The process takes around 1 minute to complete and for Windows users, a third-party generic USB library must be installed beforehand to enable communication with the device and facilitate the update.
• Starting with version 1.5, firmware updates are compatible with a more user-friendly update utility featuring a graphical user interface. We are dedicated to enhancing our products through ongoing updates, and we strive to bring more value to our customers, regardless of when they made their purchase.

Changelog

Bugfixes

• equalized delay for all the AES/EBU input channels
• enhanced DSD compatibility with Linux (2 and 6-channel DSD playback now supported)
• reduced or eliminated thumps during sample rate and format changes (Note: player software settings significantly impact thumps and we recommend to enable silence insertion during transitions to or from DSD in order to ensure thump-free operation)
• improved sensitivity of AES/EBU inputs – some signal sources, including Trinnov Altitude processors and certain consumer-level (SPDIF) devices, previously couldn’t be correctly decoded, causing dropouts at 96 kHz and 192 kHz sample rate. Reception is now more robust and the inputs are more sensitive, enabling the decoding of lower-level signals. Please contact us if you continue to face issues even after updating your unit.
• waking host computer up from sleep mode no longer causes loss of USB connectivity

New functions

• introduced Okto Research ASIO driver (only compatible with FW v1.5 and newer)
• added Advanced submenu with 3 new entries (covered in the Owner’s manual)
  • DPLL width
  • 2nd harmonic THD compensation
  • 3rd harmonic THD compensation
• the remote button with the ‘Select’ function no longer triggers menu entry from the main screen. This change prevents entering the menu accidentally when changing the volume or switching inputs using an Apple Remote or other remote with the ‘Select’ button located between the ‘Up/Down’ and ‘Left/Right’ buttons
• the per-channel audio indicator on the main screen (instead of the play/pause icon)

A step-by-step guide for an update over USB

Windows

1. Uninstall the DIYINHK driver if it is present
2. Restart your PC
3. Go to https://zadig.akeo.ie/ and download and run the Zadig utility
4. Find “OKTO RESEARCH DFU (Interface 3)” in the dropdown menu. If needed, enable the toggle “List all devices” under “Select” menu.
5. Select WinUSB option above the large button and then click the button. After the process finishes, close Zadig.
6. Download the firmware update package from https://oktoresearch.com/assets/dac8pro/fw/dac8pro_fw_15.zip and extract file “dac8pro_fw_15_win.exe“
7. Run the file and wait for the update process to complete. If the process ends up with an error message, please refer to the “Troubleshooting” section.
8. Verify the successful completion by turning on the unit with a rotary control press, which should bring you to the updated main screen
9. Press and hold the rotary control to turn the unit off, and then unplug it from mains for 5 or more seconds. After power cycling, the unit is ready for use. Remote control will need to be paired again and all the menu settings will need to be manually restored.
10. Download and install Okto Research ASIO driver from the following link: https://oktoresearch.com/assets/OktoResearchUsbDriver.zip. The following picture displays info tab of the driver control panel showing new revision after a successful firmware update.

Mac OS

1. Download the firmware update package from https://oktoresearch.com/assets/dac8pro/fw/dac8pro_fw_15.zip and extract file “dac8pro_fw_15_osx” to your home folder
2. Add permission to execute the file by opening terminal in the respective folder and running command “chmod 755 dac8pro_fw_15_osx”
3. Right-click on the file to execute it and authorize the operation and wait for the update process to finish
4. Verify the successful completion by turning on the unit with a rotary control press, which should bring you to the updated main screen
5. Press and hold the rotary control to turn the unit off and then unplug it from mains for 5 or more seconds. After power cycling, the unit is ready for use. Remote control will need to be paired again and all the menu settings will need to be manually restored.

Linux
The update package is currently only available for arm32 and arm64 architecture.

1. Download the firmware update package from https://oktoresearch.com/assets/dac8pro/fw/dac8pro_fw_15.zip and extract file “dac8pro_fw_15_version” to your home folder, where “version” will correspond one of the three variants available for different platforms
2. Open terminal and install a generic USB library by running command “sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0-dev”
3. Run command “chmod 777 dac8pro_fw_15linux version” into the terminal and run it to change permissions for the file
4. Run command “sudo ./ dac8pro_fw_15linux version”
5. Verify the successful completion by turning on the unit with a rotary control press, which should bring you to the updated main screen
6. Press and hold the rotary control to turn the unit off and then unplug it from mains for 5 or more seconds. After power cycling, the unit is ready for use. Remote control will need to be paired again and all the menu settings will need to be manually restored.

Any operating system (using bootable Linux Mint USB stick)

1. Download the firmware update package from https://oktoresearch.com/assets/dac8pro/fw/dac8pro_fw_15.zip and extract file “dac8pro_fw_15_linux_x86_64” to your hard drive and remember the location (or alternatively copy it to a flash drive. It needs to be a different drive than the one used in step 4)
2. Download Linux Mint https://www.linuxmint.com/download.php. Steps in this guide were tested with the Cinnamon edition.
3. Download free software called Etcher and install it https://www.balena.io/etcher
4. Connect a flash drive with at least 4 GB capacity to your computer and run Etcher. Click on “Select image” and choose the Linux Mint ISO file you downloaded, then click “Select USB drive” if the one you want to use is not selected already. Click on “Flash!” and wait until the process finishes. Warning: all the data on the flash drive will be lost.
5. Restart your computer and go into BIOS to set it to boot from the flash drive. You can refer to this article for help: https://www.techadvisor.com/article/728456/how-to-boot-from-usb.html
6. In the boot menu, select option “Start Linux Mint”, which should be the first one
7. After the system boots, navigate to the hard drive of your computer where the update file is stored (or alternatively to the flash drive) and copy the file to the home folder of the Linux Mint
8. Right-click on the white space in the home folder and select “Open in terminal”
9. Write the command “chmod 777 dac8pro_fw_15_linux_x86_64” into the terminal and run it to change permissions for the file
10. Now run command “sudo ./dac8pro_fw_15_linux_x86_64“ and wait until the update process completes.
11. Verify the successful completion by turning on the unit with a rotary control press, which should bring you to the updated main screen
12. Press and hold the rotary control to turn the unit off and then unplug it from the mains for 5 or more seconds. After power cycling, the unit is ready for use. The remote control will need to be paired again and all the menu settings will need to be manually restored
13. Reboot the computer and remove the USB drive with Linux Mint when you are asked to do that. The flash drive will need to be formatted to be usable with Windows again.
14. Windows users are recommended to download and install the Okto Research ASIO driver from the following link: https://oktoresearch.com/assets/OktoResearchUsbDriver.zip.

Troubleshooting

Initial firmware versions released in 2019 and early 2020 contain a bug that could prevent a successful update of your device and under some circumstances, this might happen even with more recent versions on systems running Windows. Although there is no risk of bricking the unit, you may encounter an error or find that the update was not installed. If this occurs, please follow the “Any operating system (using bootable Linux Mint USB stick)” guide as an alternative.
If that doesn’t help either, please contact us to request a hardware programming tool that connects to the dac8 PRO’s digital input board, bypassing the bug. While we will provide the programming tool at no cost, we may ask you to forward it to another person in your country after you’ve successfully updated your unit. We will cover any associated shipping expenses.
Please do not hesitate to contact us at info@oktoresearch.com if you run into difficulties and need further guidance.

release note for the dac8 PRO v1.5 firmware
okto research

References

• balenaEtcher - Flash OS images to SD cards & USB drives
• Download Linux Mint 21.1 - Linux Mint
• How to Boot From USB: Make a Bootable USB Stick - Tech Advisor
• Zadig - USB driver installation made easy

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