Messages

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General Discussions / Re: How to have Bit-Perfect playback on DSD files?

« on: August 27, 2022, 10:02:14 AM »

I know this is a fairly old thread, but has anyone managed to get raw DSD to play via a DAC yet?

I just got an iFi ZEN Air and it tells me that it receives a DSD signal from F2K, but not from Musicbee. Using ASIO with “raw DSD” set to on gives white noise, and the DOP option gives no sound at all.

The links to the dlls in this thread seem to be dead too - they link to forbidden pages and I can’t seem to get round it.

Any progress from anyone?

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Questions / Re: Crackling when playing 192khz FLAC files

« on: June 13, 2019, 09:54:56 PM »

SUCCESS!!  

The alternative cable I bought (this one, nothing up market), which is half the length and more than twice the thickness of the one that shipped with the DAC, works perfectly, and everything sent to the DAC is decoded and plays perfectly. Crackling with 192khz files is GONE.

Hooray!!

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Questions / Re: Crackling when playing 192khz FLAC files

« on: June 12, 2019, 09:27:27 PM »

Thanks Hiccup. I was pleased too. For a moment...

You are correct - the 192khz thing is all over the DAC and they did supply their own cable, which I’m using. This leads me to believe it’s my sound output that’s the problem. Also the fact that I hear something of the music means the dac is decoding it, so I wonder if the crackling is because the data isn’t being delivered fast enough. So either cable or drivers are the thing.

Or maybe it’s a £10 Chinese DAC and it would be fine with a coax cable, which I can’t test. So I’ll try my alternative cable when it arrives and see, and if it doesn’t work then it might be time to give up and enjoy what is excellent sound and stop worrying about it!

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Questions / Re: Crackling when playing 192khz FLAC files

« on: June 11, 2019, 08:37:48 PM »

SOLVED!! [EDIT: not solved at all...]

Installed ASIO4ALL and tried that instead of WASAPI... and my 192k files are working! Hooray!

This means I can now get on with not noticing any difference at all, but not worrying that something isn't working as it should.

Happy!  

PS Thanks everyone who helped out. This is a friendly place.

EDIT:

Turns out that ASIO4ALL hadn't picked up the optical output, so was just sending audio through the speakers (which I have set as being 'listened to' via stereo mix for things like YouTube). So I wasn't hearing bitstreamed 192khz after all...

Oh well, back to square one...

I was right about this being a friendly place though!

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Questions / Re: Crackling when playing 192khz FLAC files

« on: June 10, 2019, 02:06:34 PM »

The motherboard is an Asus P8Z68-LX. Can't find any information about the detailed specs of the optical output on the Asus website, including in the downloadable manual, anywhere.

The fact that the sound is getting through but is really crackly suggests to me that the DAC is capable of decoding the signals but that the cable and/or the mainboard isn't able to deliver those signals quickly enough for 192khz. I have just stumped up for a thicker, shorter optical cable to see if that makes any difference, but I don't know any way I can really interrogate the capabilities of the optical transmitter I have in any great depth.

The only coaxial outputs I have are on the two Oppo players and I don't trust those to be a reliable test as the coaxial input is included in the Oppo disclaimer about bandwith limitations.

Hmmm.....

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Questions / Re: Crackling when playing 192khz FLAC files

« on: June 10, 2019, 10:21:24 AM »

Isn't it great that that these days you can find something for 10 pounds that more or less works and sounds good.
That's kinda fun by itself.

If you are content with it's sound quality and have no plans for upgrading it with some 'serious' dac:

Forget about wasting time testing 'hi-res' vs. 16/44.
Forget about wasting time getting a £10 dac to work perfectly in every possible situation and with every type of audio file.

Convert the bloody lot to 16/44 and just enjoy the music. ;-)

You know what, I really think you are right that what I've got for £10 (less than a pizza) is pretty great all in all. I think I will end up archiving any 192khz files I have outside of Musicbee, but also resample them down to 96khz in F2K and get on with enjoying the (great sounding!) WASAPI music...


...but having said that I'm still fascinated to see if I can get these files to work over the optical output. When I have more time I will try various other cables I might have around in drawers and see what happens then...

What happens if you use PCM output mode instead of bitstream (raw) with maximum 192kHz?

An excellent question. I'll try this and let you know, but I suspect that this...

"Due to copy-control restrictions and bandwidth limitation, full resolution audio output from DVD-Audio or SACD playback cannot be sent through the coaxial or optical digital audio output. To listen to DVD-Audio or SACD in full resolution, please use HDMI or analog audio connections."

...is bang on and was the reason why my Oppo test was successful. The Oppo BDP-83 Blu player I have has the same restrictions stated in the manual, so will probably produce the same false-positive test... but I will try it anyway just to see.

I guess my character is that I find it hard to let go of something like this, that makes no difference in the long run but has become kind of a project to see if I can make it work, so I'm going to keep trying a few other things and see if I can manage anything.

Musicbee does seem great though - glad I found it, and WASAPI playback seems much more reliable than F2K (which claims 88.2khz SACD rip files are unsupported...). So all in all I'm happy!

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Questions / Re: Crackling when playing 192khz FLAC files

« on: June 08, 2019, 10:03:13 PM »

Thanks again Hiccup - I expect you’re right, both about the cause of my issue and the value of resampling.

Support for my DAC will, I suspect, be hard to find as it’s a generic Chinese thing from Amazon. The brand is Techole, but it seems identical to a million differently branded things available there. It was only £10 so I’m not especially surprised about the dodgy functionality. Perhaps there’s a lesson there.

Redwing: I’m using WASAPI to my Realtek Digital Putput (Optical). Same crackly results with 192khz in Windows sound tear in control panel, Musicbee and F2K. Sounds great with everything else!

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Questions / Re: Crackling when playing 192khz FLAC files

« on: June 08, 2019, 06:34:44 PM »

Correct, the Oppo is a player. DVD not Blu, 980h. But as far as I can tell it’s set to not down sample anything - digital output is set to “raw”, which is the closest menu option I can find.

Sound card drivers are up to date - 2019 - which is why I was wondering about an obscure setting somewhere in the players or the OS.

The Windows sound test utility itself crackles when testing 192khz through the optical to the DAC as well, leading me to drivers, but I’m now stuck...

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Questions / Re: Crackling when playing 192khz FLAC files

« on: June 08, 2019, 11:55:08 AM »

So after a little more investigation I’m confused. The little DAC seems absolutely fine with 192khz files bitstreamed from the Oppo player, using the same optical cable as with the PC. No crackling at all.

Could this be down to: power supply from the PC USB ports versus the Oppo’s front USB port? Or maybe a Windows or player setting I’m missing?

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Questions / Re: Crackling when playing 192khz FLAC files

« on: June 07, 2019, 10:20:44 PM »

No worries, thanks!

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Questions / Re: Crackling when playing 192khz FLAC files

« on: June 07, 2019, 10:04:14 PM »

Thanks hiccup.

If I’m honest I know that 192khz files aren’t all that useful for “normal” playback and I should probably resample them and archive the originals (prob on burned DVD-A for use in my Oppo with my main system).

But is it safe to assume from your reply that Musicbee can’t be set up to do what I was hoping for?

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Questions / Crackling when playing 192khz FLAC files

« on: June 07, 2019, 08:48:30 PM »

New to Musicbee - looks amazing so far.

However, my little (cheap) DAC seems to crackle when playing 192khz files via WASAPI, despite it stating on the packaging that it supports them. This might be due to me connecting it via optical not coaxial, but I don't have coaxial output on my sound card so that's kind of moot.

So, unless anyone has any other ideas, I'm trying to set up Musicbee to automatically resample 192khz files to 96khz, but leave everything else untouched. Is this possible?

Thanks for any ideas you might have!