I hope Damien can answer this. I’ve just bought a DAC (TEAC UD-503) that handles DSD 256. I’ve taken to upsampling pretty well everything too DSD, but when I set Audirvana to upsample to 256, the files won’t play. The DAC just sits on a PCM reading for a moment, then reverts to “USB Ready.” Will Audirvana not do this, even though Audirvana reads the the DAC as capable of it? Or maybe the problem is CPU speed of my Mac Mini? I’d appreciate some advice. Thanks.
(I should add that upsampling to DSD 128 works fine)
Same question for the Teac NT503DAB, upsampling to DSD 128 works but not to DSD256…
Wonder if it’s a limitation of the TEAC chip…
That’s interesting. If we’re both using Audirvana, it could still be either the software or TEAC chip, but more likely the chip.
I recently had a weird experience with a Yulong U200 DAC, which also uses the AK4490 chip.
It was rated for 128 DSD but simply wouldn’t play it. Every time I tried to either upsample to 128, or play a 128 file, I got alarming snaps and pops, then only faint music overlaid with hiss. It turned out that there was some issue with the chip that caused the spectacular pops, possibly damaging to equipment, so Yulong, the manufacturer of the DAC simply disabled 128 - while still selling it as capable of the 128 spec. I got my money back, and the retailer now sells it (if at all) with notice that 128 doesn’t work.
I wonder if the UD-503 has a similar issue issue with the chip. Could I ask, does yours play pure DSD 256 files (not upsampled)? I haven’t got any and so haven’t tried 256 yet.
Having said all that, the UD-503 sounds marvelous - and so, for that matter, did the Yulong. But you do like them to play what they’re rated to play.
Thanks for the response.
Actually, Smaragd, I’m beginning to wonder if Audirvana actually outputs DSD 256 at all. I downloaded a sampler from NativeDSD and it won’t play via the UD-503, which is very clearly rated for Quad DSD. So it won’t upsample to 256 and won’t play a 256 file.
Could Damien please answer this for us: Does Audirvana 2.6.6 play Quad DSD?
And . . . the free Teac HR Audioplayer handles DSD 256 (11.2) very well
I believe I was able to play native DSD 256 files…
Which made me wonder why upsampling to DSD 256 wasn’t working while native DSD 256 was OK…
Will check again tonight just to make sure.
Found this on Head-Fi… not sure if resolved…
Quote:
Originally Posted by jsa307 View Post
Hi-
I tried this on another forum without luck. Hoping someone here might be able to help!
I had been happily playing DSD (.dsf) from a Mac/Pure Music to an iFi Micro, but recently changed to a TEAC UD-503 DAC and can’t get DSD to work. After trying to troubleshoot, I’ve come up with a couple of potential culprits - it seems that perhaps the TEAC doesn’t accept DSD over PCM on the USB port, which is the port I’m using (UD-503 | TEAC)? Also it seems that Pure Music only plays DSD via DoP, although Pure Music support documents were hard to find, and the only DSD setup guide from Pure Music I found was from 2012? These two factors appear to make sense though, as the DAC is sensing the Pure Music output as PCM @ 176. Does anyone have experience or knowledge of this issue?
More generally, as part of trying to troubleshoot this specific issue, I’m under the impression that Mac’s can only use DoP (instead of a native DSD stream), because they don’t have ASIO? Am I misunderstanding that? Trying to troubleshoot the DAC, I downloaded TEAC HR player - which WAS in fact able to output a native DSD stream (it claims that it can play 1x, 2x, and 4x DSD on a Mac). I’m obviously missing something here - what is it?!
Thanks!
The problem is with your DSD player. I am using Audirvana on my Mac and DSD via DoP works fine with the UD-503. Also neither DoP or custom ASIO is “native” DSD decode, but both are equivalent to native. The benefit to DoP is that it works on any platform that can stream PCM but custom ASIO drivers are specific to the specific DAC.
As to your other post, I clearly see DoP in the display on the UD-503 and it also shows the correct sampling rate. I just received my UD-503 one week ago, so If your’s is older, maybe it has older firmware? I would contact Teac for advice.
as it turns out, it was an apple setting. under audio midi, the Teac was set to 16 bit integer -rather than 24 or 32 - which is apparently needed for DoP. thanks for the help though, bflat …
We should try this… didn’t think of that…
The Audio Midi settings don’t matter if you are using Direct Mode. You should use Direct Mode if you can.
Would love to use direct mode but it’s broken since El Capitan …
Smaragd said
“I believe I was able to play native DSD 256 files…
Which made me wonder why upsampling to DSD 256 wasn’t working while native DSD 256 was OK…
Will check again tonight just to make sure.”
This is what I’ve learned:
The UD-503 will only play Quad DSD as native DSD, not DOP. I think it has to do with the massive size of the PCM container that would be required for DOP. The manual for the UD-503 HR player states clearly that to play Quad (i.e. 256, 11.2) the player must be set to output native DSD. Audirvana only outputs DOP, so I presume this is why it won’t upsample to 11.2 or play 11.2 files. The TEAC player works pefectly in all regards, and sounds great with everything, right down to 16/24 - and you can upsample that with the DAC.)
Thanks hobbyist for the clarification… what other software for Mac do you know of that plays native DSD256?
I wonder if Audirvana 3.0 might…
Sorry Smaragd, I don’t know if any of the others (Pure Music, Amarra) do Quad natively. It would be interesting to know if the TEAC HR player works with other DACs.
Installed the workaround to make direct mode available which now works but I’m still not able to play native DSD256.
So the direct mode didn’t make any difference… in other words Audirvana Plus can’t play DSD256 native files but the Teac HR Audioplayer can.
I know the Teac NT503 now isn’t the issue… I’m hoping that Audirvana plus 3.0 can…
Audirvana playes native dsd 256. it work by me
Mind sharing a screen shot of your settings ?
That’s interesting declaration. I know the software says “native dsd” but then only gives DOP as an option. Quad DSD just won’t play with my TEAC-503 DAC. I’ve tried everything. Now I just use the very good TEAC player for all DSD files. I suspect a glitch between Audirvana and my DAC somehow
Exactly why I asked Declaration to post the Audirvana screen shots so we can compare the settings.
I can play DSD128 within Audirvana but that’s with the Teac NT503 showing “dop”… obviously playing DSD over PCM
Sorry you ment upsampling, no i use it nativ .
But what Are the benefit out of upsampling??
I use standard settings not something exiting , if your DAC cant Play dsd256, audirvana will convert it Byte the fly to pcm
I use the Moon 280d dac