This is a review and detailed measurements of the MiniDSP SHD DAC, audio processor and streaming appliance. It was drop shipped by a kind member to me. It retails for $1195 and it comes with a license for automatic Room Equalization software, Dirac (which I use personally on a PC). It even includes their ever popular measurement microphone:I only had a few hours to play with it (my fault) so I only measured the DAC portion. Regular readers of the forum may remember my review of miniDSP 2x4 HD . Even though I loved its functionality, its DAC performance left something to be desired.The miniDSP SHD is quite substantial coming in the 1 RU Rack mountable chassis (indeed it comes with rack "ears"). One of their ever popular measurements mics is thrown it together with a tripod and remote. The unit overall is hugely more substantial than other mini components they sell.As I suspected and feared though, the unit came with no software and no way of downloading any! My HD unit came with some redemption code to get the necessary software. I could not find any such thing in the box and without it, the folder for SHD downloads on miniDSP website comes out blank. The website says it even comes with a license code for Dirac which I did not find.Just as well as HD unit, plugging in the USB cable did not result in a working USB sound device. Device manager in Windows showed an exclamation mark indicating a problem. Google search did not result in any solutions.On a whim I pulled out my laptop where I tested the HD unit and it worked with the SHD!!! So I could at least test the DAC which is what you are about to see.Back to features of the unit, I like the nice large display and big volume control. A couple of clicks and I had USB selected.Let's get into measurements and see how well she did.As usual we start with our test of the unit using USB as input and our dashboard view:Nice nominal output of 2 volts RMS and total absence of mains noise.Check out the distortion and SINAD (signal above distortion and noise). These are excellent numbers! Here is how they compare to a few dedicated DACs:Oh I should say all the measurements are from unbalanced RCA outputs.Let's look at intermodulation distortion versus level:We see that its performance (in black) lands almost on top of RME ADI-2 Pro which likewise uses an AKM DAC. And as with that unit, we have smooth response without the so called "ESS Hump" we get in lower cost desktop DACs like Topping DX7s. There is some saturation and increased distortion toward the end but it is mild. Of course high performance DACs like the Benchmark DAC3 beat it but we are talking over $2000 for that DAC functionality alone.Frequency response is boring with just a 0.4 dB droop at 20 kHz and 0.5 dB at 22 kHz:Let's look at harmonic distortion+noise versus frequency:Once again DAC3 beats it but this is still good performance.Dynamic Range ("SNR") is pretty good too:How about linearity?Wow, this is textbook perfect!Could this keep going to our final test of jitter and noise?Oh, no! Why did you do this to us miniDSP? You were doing so well and then hand us this graph which indicates a ton if interference from rest of the unit (DSP?) causing the myriad of noise and jitter spikes.Fortunately the highest level is below -120 dB so not an audible concern. But what a way to ruin great response of this DAC. I wonder if they had someone else design the DAC portion and they did not test it when in the same box as the DSP and display subsystem. These issues could have been avoided for the most part with some care.FYI I tested S/PDIF input and it generated almost identical results so this is not due to USB input noise.Oh wait, I don't remember if I disconnected the USB cable when I tested S/PDIF. I have seen in the case of Schiit Modi 2 Uber DAC that I need to do that or the USB connection still pollutes the output of the DAC. Will have to retest.From fit and finish to features and performance, the miniDSP SHD is a huge step up from their older products. Yes, it costs you a lot more but then again license for Dirac alone could set you back 1/3 the cost of the unit.The DAC performance, putting aside Jitter, is top tier with little to apologize for compared to even $500 desktop DACs.Consider that no home system produces correct bass response without DSP, the combination of very good DAC and signal processing produces one great product.I wonder if miniDSP can look into the jitter issues and make some revision to reduce them. Better power supply decoupling and shielding would go a long way toward better performance.On the software side, I hope miniDSP reconsiders its software licensing process. Having to screw around with redemption codes and such is just wrong. The unit should come with all the software or proper online link to make it work out of the box.I personally have no use for its analog inputs and ADC so if they get rid of those and bring the price down, it would be great. Is that the "Studio" version? If so, that will be a killer product.All in all, the miniDSP SHD isEdit: The previously posted frequency response was in error (it showed a cut off at 17 kHz). I updated it with the correct measurement.-----If you like this review,using Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/audiosciencereview ), or upgrading your membership here though Paypal ( https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...eview-and-measurements.2164/page-3#post-59054 ).