Help! DSD Playback Skipping like a bad CD!

Audio Formats DSD
1

Hello,

I just bought a Yamaha a-S801 integrated amplifier with an internal DAC capable of DSD 2.8 MHz & 5.6 MHz.

I downloaded a USB driver onto my Macbook Pro, and am able to play PCM & streaming (Tidal/Quobuz) through Audirvana directly to the Yamaha internal DAC. So far, so good.

However, when I attempt to play DSD files, the music sounds like an old-school skipping CD. The music is there, but it’s choppy and unlistenable.

I attempted both available DoP settings (1.0 & 1.1), but had the exact same result with each setting. When I selected “Convert DSD to PCM,” it sounded even worse!

Please help so that I may play my DSD files!

Thanks,
Garett

1 Like
2

Should be at 1.1, you are surely upsampling, try turning it off

3

@RunHomeSlow

I was upsampling, so I tried your suggestion and turned it off, but unfortunately that did not work.

Appreciate your response, anything else I might try?

@Damien Any help for a new user?

Thank you!

4

It seems that your a-s801 needs drivers to be installed (macOS and Windows) https://europe.yamaha.com/en/products/contents/audio_visual/downloads/firmware_software/index.html?c=audio_visual&k=A-s801
Did you installed them?

5

Yes, drivers installed. The only thing not working is DSD playback.

6

Can you send me a copy of the “Debug Info”? You can get it in Audirvana Settings>General>Debug Info

Note: By clicking on the Debug Info button, Audirvana automatically copies all its content, all you have to do is paste it in response to this message

7

Since you installed drivers, select NativeDSD in Audirvana. It probably doesn’t support DoP, hence the need for the drivers.

8

Unfortunately Macs only support “Native DSD” through DoP :disappointed_relieved:

9

@stefano_mbp

Yes, thank you:

Audirvana Mac Version 3.5.37 (3567)
macOS 10.14.6 with 16384MB RAM

Registered to Garett Rostkowski

SIGNAL PROCESSING:

Polarity Inversion:
	Globally: OFF
	Per track: ON
Effects plugins NOT ACTIVE

UPSAMPLING:
SoX not in use
SoX filter parameters
Bandwidth at 0dB = 99.5
Filter max length = 30000
Anti-aliasing = 100
Phase = 66

AUDIO VOLUME:
Max allowed volume: 100
Replay Gain: None
SW volume control: OFF

LIBRARY SETTINGS:
Sync list: 1 folders
AUTO: /Volumes/KEKOA/
iTunes/Music library synchronization: not synchronized
Library database path: /Users/sumikobraun/Library/Application Support/Audirvana/AudirvanaPlusDatabaseV2.sqlite

ACTIVE STREAMING SERVICES
Qobuz: Connected as Qobuz Studio
TIDAL: Connected as HIFI

=================== AUDIO DEVICE ========================

CoreAudio audio path, buffer I/O frame size: 512

Max. memory for audio buffers: 13312MB

Local Audio Engine:
Exclusive access: Enabled
Integer mode: Enabled

Preferred device:
Yamaha USB DAC
Model UID:YamahaUSBAudioDevice2:Yamaha Steinberg USB
UID:YamahaUSBAudioEngine2:0499:3111:0100:Yamaha USB DAC:L-14100000

Currently playing in standard 32bit float mode
Device: 2ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32bits little endian Signed Float, 8 bytes per frame 176.4kHz

Active Sample Rate: 176.4kHz
Hog Mode is on

Bridge settings:
Sample rate limitation: none
Sample rate switching latency: none
Limit bitdepth to 24bit: OFF
Mute during sample rate change: OFF

Selected device:
Local audio device
ID 0x39 Yamaha USB DAC Manufacturer:Yamaha
Model UID:YamahaUSBAudioDevice2:Yamaha Steinberg USB UID:YamahaUSBAudioEngine2:0499:3111:0100:Yamaha USB DAC:L-14200000

8 available sample rates up to 384000Hz
44100
48000
88200
96000
176400
192000
352800
384000
Audio buffer frame size : 14 to 4096 frames
Current I/O buffer frame size : 512
Volume Control
Physical: No
Virtual: No
MQA capability
Auto-detect MQA devices: Yes
Not a MQA device, user set to not MQA
DSD capability: DSD via PCM 1.1
Device audio channels
Preferred stereo channels L:1 R:2
Channel bitmap: Ox3, layout:
Channel 0 mapped to 0
Channel 1 mapped to 1

Audio channels in use
Number of channels: 2
Use as stereo device only: No
Simple stereo device: Yes

1 output streams:
Number of active channels: 2, in 1 stream(s)
Channel #0 :Stream 0 channel 0
Channel #1 :Stream 0 channel 1

Stream ID 0x3a 2 channels starting at 1
8 virtual formats:
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 384kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 352.8kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 192kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 176.4kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 96kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 88.2kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 48kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 44.1kHz

8 physical formats
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer aligned low in 32bit 384kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer aligned low in 32bit 352.8kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer aligned low in 32bit 192kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer aligned low in 32bit 176.4kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer aligned low in 32bit 96kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer aligned low in 32bit 88.2kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer aligned low in 32bit 48kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 24 little endian Signed Integer aligned low in 32bit 44.1kHz

Local devices found : 2
Device #0: ID 0x2f Built-in Output Manufacturer: Apple Inc. Model UID: AppleHDA:128 UID: AppleHDAEngineOutput:1B,0,1,1:0
Device #1: ID 0x39 Yamaha USB DAC Manufacturer: Yamaha Model UID: YamahaUSBAudioDevice2:Yamaha Steinberg USB UID: YamahaUSBAudioEngine2:0499:3111:0100:Yamaha USB DAC:L-14200000

UPnP devices found : 0

10

@AdminSysteme
@system
@Antoine
@Damien2
@Damien

Any thoughts? Would appreciate some customer support, please. Happy to call if there is a direct line!

11

Have you tried playing DSDs using some other software?

12

No, I don’t have any other software capable of playing DSD.

13

You can try with JRiver. Set up a trial and test it.

14

Are you using the latest firmware for your DAC? Yamaha published a new one on 2019.

15

@Antoine Yes, I am. As I mentioned, every file type besides DSD plays perfectly. Please advise.

16

Garett–

I’d be very interested if you would try something that helped me with my DAC, the Merging+NADAC. It’s counterintuitive, but if it works, it might help Damien figure out what is happening to some users of Audirvana. In preferences, turn OFF “Exclusive Access.” (I also have Integer mode turned off, but I think turning off Exclusive Access is the key one.) Please reply back if this helped.

17

Another counterintuitive thing to try is to remove the manufacturer’s driver. Especially since you’re on the Mac.

18

Unfortunately, some DACs need a special driver for Audirvana to even see it (especially if it is not a UPnP device), as does mine. Oh, I tried JRiver, too, and it exhibited the same skipping issues, so once I tried turning off Exclusive Access, Audirvana became the only software player that does not skip with my specific setup.

1 Like
19

As another data point I am also experiencing skips streaming from Qobuz with the latest Studio version on a Shanling UA3 w/ latest firmware. My iFi hip-dac running firmware 5.3c occasionally skips in the middle of a track but it’s pretty rare… This is on a MacBook Pro 14 2023. The skips do not go away with SysOptimizer. Also tried disabling exlusive mode but didn’t help with the UA3.

When I plug directly into the MBP instead of going through a USB3 hub, the hip-dac never skips but the UA3 still does in exclusive mode. Surprisingly the UA3 skips less often when I disable exclusive mode. So perhaps there is an issue with apple silicon that makes the problem harder to work around?

Regardless, skipping is worse for DSD128. DSD64 skips much less often. Note also that whether or not I used an iSilencer+ the skipping remained in any of the mentioned configurations. When I run a short cpu-intensive task it seems to trigger the skipping. This happening even w/ SysOptimizer on and reinicing coreaudio.

I also tried this on my older MBP 15 2017, not using a hub. For some reason Audirvana only allows DSD64 with my UA3. With exclusive mode enabled I don’t have any skips. The hip-dac has no problems on the older MBP. I am able to select DSD128 only for the hip-dac though.

All this makes me suspect that at the higher bandwidth requirements and clock precision required by DSD128 (vs. DSD64) it is very hard to get DoP to work well and iFi must have spent a lot of engineering effort in their firmware and XMOS code to make this less finicky.

20

After updating to macOS 13.4.1 and restarting I can now play DSD128 on my Shanling UA3 with very rare skips as long as I disable exclusive mode and assign my system sound output to be something else (e.g., build-in MBP speakers). Perhaps I had something heavy running in the background that I didn’t notice and it was killed when I restarted the laptop? :person_shrugging: