Curious if anyone here is using a DSD DAC for their SACDs?

Either via HDMI Audio converted to I2S (playing the SACD on a player/transport) or streaming through USB Audio or I2S (after ripping DSF files).

Julien

Looking at the manual for my Pioneer VSX-92TXH, it appears it can "decode" DSD, or it appears to convert DSD to PCM:

But I've never utilized that. Just connected my Oppo via 8 channel RCA to the receiver.

Might be interesting to mess with if I wanted to use the receiver's equalization on SACD.

Actually, believe the wording there means it does native DSD. Relevant section from VSX-51 manual:

You'd have to look up what DAC chip it has inside and see if it's one that actually does DSD though.

However the annoying part about dealing with native DSD is that it wasn't added to the HDMI spec until HDMI 1.2, and even then it's an entirely optional part. Finding players that will actually send it out over HDMI means digging through menu options for audio output. Your only other option is players/receivers that had Firewire Audio.

Maybe I should have been more precise: I meant on an EXTERNAL/DEDICATED DAC, not on an A/V Amp!

Julien

I was interested to purchase the RME ADI-2 DAC FS and have been watching prices for a while,
waiting for them to go down. Instead they went up lol...
So maybe one day I will own one, who knows.

From a reputable studio audio equipment company.

Looks like they had to redesign around an ESS when AKM factory burnt down -- like other companies:



Julien

DSD through and through is difficult to know. Nearly all modern DACs are single bit delta-sigma therefore the final output is DSD before going through the analog low pass filter. However, most modern DACs perform upsampling, oversampling, noise shaping, dithering, de-jittering and other digital enhancements in PCM before their output. Unless they have clear documentation, it is anyone’s guess if the signal remains in DSD throughout.

I don’t know the USB protocol but I know I2S protocol well. I am starting to think it is less relevant to transmit the master clock with modern equipment which buffers and re-clocks the signal at the input.

Back to your question, I will say all depends on the implementation. Unfortunately, you need to test them yourself to find the right gear. There are way too many charlatans in high end audio. They hide behind very fancy brushed aluminum chassis aesthetics and bunch of none-sense marketing terms. There are very few reviewers who truly have the knowledge to test the claims and have unbiased opinions.

So...

The Aurender N20 was a good start but... for an indecent amount of $$$ ($12,500) that I can't explain other than "convenience for rich people too busy to setup their own things". USB up to 384kHz only, DSD512.



So far, my favorite design of Streamer/Server was -- if price is no issue -- the Hifi Rose 150B.



But... DAC section useless, DSD is served over USB converted to PCM and the internal storage can only index 3,000 songs and I have over 14,000, USB max out at 768kHz/DSD512.

Option 2 was a stand-alone (Raspberry Pi-based) HoloAudio – Red – DDC & Network Streamer



USB/I2S max out 1,536kHz/DSD1024, can act as a DDC but... no attached storage.

Instead, I'll try to go the cheap DIY-way first to test via USB over local storage or UPnP.

Raspberry Pi 3B+ (laying around with Retropie on FLASH and a PS4 controller) with Volumio and a 4TB HDD directly attached.

https://volumio.com/en/raspberry-pi-3-b-plus-audio-review/





My USB DAC is supported since around 2017 by the Linux Kernel.
No need to add a GPIO board for Coax, Toslink or I2S, default USB should work as a test.

Volumio can be accessed via a local website or a phone app.



Basically it provides a stand-alone DAC with the features I've been enjoying with my OPPO players by making the internal DAC reachable over Wifi or through an attached storage.

Testing next week!

Julien

Success!

Takes about an hour to get the wired/wifi IP correctly and expand the filesystem to 512GB SDCard.

Loading a few DSF/HiRes FLAC also takes a while as the FLASH memory is the bottleneck.

HiRes USB Streamer/Server problem solved for $50 of SDCard!



Julien

After a few days of playing around with Volumio 3, I'm quite impressed and it became my music source, replacing my OPPO player for stereo streaming/files.

I am using the OPPO to:

• Play local files (HDD on USB for FLAC, DSD stereo and multi-ch, DTS, videos of all kinds)
• Up to PCM 768kHz, up to DSD512
• Stream 2.0 audio over UPnP
• Less often, using the DAC Audio to temporarily connect my laptop
• Must use a buggy/slow phone app that hasn't been updated since 2017

OPPO 205 has no apps like YouTube, Tidal, Qobuz, etc. They are all expected to come from an external streamer (hence the HDMI in and USD DAC in) as the apps quickly get obsolete.
For example, the OPPO 105 can't browse YouTube anymore as it is connecting in hard-coded HTTP and YouTube only allows HTTPS now.



Volumio 3/RPi 3B+ can do the same (ONLY IN AUDIO STEREO) but also other things for free:

• Play local files (internal SDCard FLAC for me, DSD stereo and multi-ch, DTS, videos of all kinds)
• Up to PCM 768kHz, up to DSD512
• Stream 2.0 audio over UPnP / AirPlay / DLNA
• Listen to web radios (128kbps)
• YouTube videos (sound only, 160kbps)
• Linking my BandCamp account
• Not tested: Podcasts, SoundCloud, Spotify
• All of this can be achieved over HDMI, USB DAC or headphone jack (not recommended for quality)
• Room correction, equalizing via DSP plugin included

It can also be installed on an ASUS Tinker board or any old PC (x86/x64) -- even very old with limited power/memory.

If you try to play a DTS or AC3 5.1 file, it will only play the left and right channel.
If you try to play a multi-ch DSD file over USB, it will crash.
If you try to play a multi-ch DSD file over USB HDMI, it will try to downmix is to stereo and this is CPU-intensive -- my 3B+ can't do it. But you should rather play the stereo DSD instead, downmixing/downsampling to stereo makes little sense.

Volumio has stated that they only cater to the Mono/Stereo crowd, Multi-ch is not on the roadmap.

If you pay the membership, you can also (not tested as I don't really need it):

• Connect Tidal, Qobuz
• Multi-rooom
• Dynamically use Volumio as a bluetooth audio sink (destination)
• Credits/extra infos all all tracks/albums/artists
• Activate extra digital and analog outputs (add-on boards on the RPi GPIO bus) like coax, toaslink, on-board DAC, I2S, etc.
• Check the rest of the list here: https://volumio.lpages.co/volumio-3/

Tons of plugins (see: https://community.volumio.org/t/volumio-plugins-collection/38741) like ROON bridge, IR Remote Control,

For ~$100 you can buy yourself a streamer/server that perform functionally like devices in the $1,000~5,000 range.

Get a good, clean power source for the RPi.In USB DAC mode, DO NOT plug anything else on the HDMI, Ethernet or USB to limit noise and power fluctuations.
Better get a large SDCard (mine is 512GB) to put all the files inside the RPi. Since SDCard OS access are required, let's keep the other files in the same place.
Do NOT use the volume control or resampling, just output everything unmodified.

I was able to stream FLAC 44.1/48/88.2/96/176.4/192/352.8kHz as well as DSD64/128/256/512 files without any gap/glitch at ~8% CPU load.

=> HIGHLY RECOMMENDED if you like DYI and tweaking around to customize your system on a very low budget.

Julien

Is this an ad?

Not at all, the software is free.

I'm just very, very pleased with what such a small box can achieve and gave some hints for others to play their ripped SACD in the best ways as possible.

EDIT: UPnP streaming higher than 44.1/16 fixed thanks to Volumio's community forum. It was an issue with the profiles in Foobar2000 UPnP settings.

Julien

Update after several weeks of usage.

It works MOSTLY well, but still have infancy/stability bugs.

An issue with the YouTube2 plugin (timing out after several hours because YouToube made changes on their end) made the player unusable after boot. Had to re-flash the whole thing from scratch.

When playing files in storage, up to 1/2s of sound is cut at the beginning. When playing sequentially, it's working normally at track change.

Now that I filled up to 100% the internal storage, a lot of weird things started happening: covers not showing, attached storage can't be mounted successfully... and removing files will not lower the usage %, it remains stuck at 100%. Might need ANOTHER reflash...

uPnP also very hard to keep playing consistently, the phone App will often takes a LONG time to get in sync while volumio.local always works.

New version was released but none of the features are of interest to me:

• VERSION: 3.512
• RELEASE DATE: 25-06-2023
• NEW: Supersearch (Al Search & Playlists)
• NEW: Infinity Playback (AI DJ)
• NEW: Related Artists & Albums

Notes:


New visuals as well:


Julien

With all the issues I found that they can't/won't fix, they ended up cancelling my Pro subscription and refunding the unused part of the year.

That's a nice gesture from Volumio.

I'm back on the road to find a good offline streamer/server that just works and doesn't cost a fortune.

I'll keep using the basic/free Volumio in the meantime.

Julien

And one popped up: EVERSOLO DMP-A6



Below $1K, USB for attached storage, NAS, Wifi, Bluetooth, up to 2TB internal SSD.

Cons: I lose web radios, YouTube videos (I think?) or Bandcamp account (but Bandcamp just fired half its staff...). Not a big deal.

Pros: Stand-alone device, firmware updates, high specs (DAC section useless to me) and a very unexpected and warmly welcomed HDMI out for multi-channel audio!

Most reviewers online don't really understand what it's for (they expect ARC or I2S over HDMI) but for me it's really a great selling point:



This is basically what I was trying to do with Volumio (hacking the Bluetooth and trying all kind of multi-channel settings via HDMI out that never worked).

DMP-A6 IN: USB for HDD, Internal SSD, WiFi for streaming, Bluetooth for friends' phones
DMP-A6 OUT: USB Audio to stereo DAC (Denafrips => R2R 2ch), HDMI Audio to multi-channel DAC (OPPO-205 HDMI IN => ESS 8ch)

Will do so more research on possible limitations and/or internal conversions before giving it a try.
But it's very promising.

Julien

It will probably take larger than 2tb internal storage but m.2 nvme drive is a mega overkill for audio files.

Its OS is heavily customized Android 11. I don’t see why it couldn’t take any Android apps for the online radios and others. It’s a new box and it’s reasonably priced compared to the market. I am sure there will be a community in the future with bunch of hacks.

It’s the same manufacturer in Shenzhen that makes the Zidoo players. There is a Zidoo version with YouTube video out.

And if multi-channel DTS/DSD/etc. is not your thing, they just released the DMP-A8 for stereo only.





Julien