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[DanoRoo]

Last Friday I purchased an ifi micro iDAC2 and installed in in my two channel system.  I loaded the asio drivers from their website, opened JRiver, selected ifi asio as the default device and listened to glorious music all weekend.  Today I opened JRiver and no matter what audio file I attempt to play, I get the above message.  I already uninstalled and reinstalled the ifi asio driver a couple of times and rechecked the Windows sound configuration.  I can get JRiver to play DSD files in WASAPI but all other file types result in a prompt to change configuration settings ("Playback could not be started using the format 44.1khz 16bit 6ch"....This format would work 44.1 16bit 2ch").   I can't get any file to play using the ASIO setting.  The DAC seems to be functioning properly as I can play music via Tidal Streaming without issue.  My JRiver settings are as follows:
Device Settings
   (default)
DSP Output Format
   (Output Encoding...none)
   (Sample Rate....No Change, except for 384,000hz and greater than 384,000 which are set to 192,000)
   (Channels....2.1)
   (Mixing....JRSS Mixing)
   (Stereo Sources only mixed to 2.1 is checked)
   (Subwoofer.....Silent...use room correction to redirect bass)
Can someone tell me where I could be going wrong?  Thanks in advance.

[blgentry]

DSP Output Format
   (Output Encoding...none)
   (Sample Rate....No Change, except for 384,000hz and greater than 384,000 which are set to 192,000)
   (Channels....2.1)
   (Mixing....JRSS Mixing)
   (Stereo Sources only mixed to 2.1 is checked)
   (Subwoofer.....Silent...use room correction to redirect bass)

2.1 channels seems incorrect.  The iDAC2 is a two channel DAC, not 3 (2.1).  Change channels to 2 and I would expect that to work.

Brian.

[mojave]

2.1 channels seems incorrect.  The iDAC2 is a two channel DAC, not 3 (2.1).  Change channels to 2 and I would expect that to work.

Brian.

Just to clarify for future reference, 2.1 output can only be used with a DAC that accepts 6 channels, not 3. This is why he gets the message "Playback could not be started using the format 44.1khz 16bit 6ch". The DAC might only have 4 channels of output like the Steinberg UR44, but generally has to accept at least 6 channels via ASIO.

[DanoRoo]

Thank you gentlemen for the replies, but changing the setting from 2.1 channels to 2 channel (stereo) did not fix the problem.  Wouldn't the WASAPI settings render the same result as ASIO if the number of channels selected were the problem?  If worked perfectly all weekend.  I have DSD bitstreaming selected because this DAC will play DSD in it's native format.  Any other ideas?

[blgentry]

You might need to stop and restart MC for the audio channels changes to take effect.  It's definitely a BIG clue that it says "6 channels" in the error message.  It should only be sending 2 channels since your DAC is 2 channels.

Good luck.

Brian.

[DanoRoo]

@blgentry

You hit the nail on the head in reference to the idac2's inability to process 2.1 channels.  ifi micro iDSD has two of the exact same Burr Brown dac chips that this idac2 has, thus rendering four channels and eight output signals.  I know this is a JRiver forum and not a dac forum, but do you think the iDSD will allow me to use the 2.1 channel function in JRiver?  If so, this will solve my problem.

[mwillems]

Do you mean this DAC? http://ifi-audio.com/portfolio-view/micro-idsd/

It still only appears to have two analog outputs, so it wouldn't work with 2.1.

You said above you have a two channel system.  Why do you want to set the output to 2.1?  Is there a sub in the mix?  If so you may want to look into getting a multi-channel DAC.

What error message do you get if you try to use the 2-channel output setting (instead of 2.1)?

[DanoRoo]

@mwillems

Sorry for the vagueness.  What I should have said is that I have a Harman Kardon HK 990 two channel integrated amp with two subwoofer outputs.  I have multiple subs connected to these outputs.  The amp has bass management features built in to it, but I can't use those with the ifi dac.  The JRiver bass management is better anyway.  I just want to make sure that a two dac unit such as the ifi micro idsd with allow me to activate the 2.1 setting in JRiver thus activating all the crossover functions in room correction. I'm inclined to believe that it will becaue JRiver's 2.1 channel option was viable using the dual AD1955 chips built in to the HK 990.  The ifi dac does seem to have asio driver issues because I can't get jRIver to work in asio mode at all.  As long as I stay in WASAPI mode everything is now perfect in 2.0 (stereo).  But, since I need the bass management capabilities in JRiver I need 2.1 functionality, thus a different dac.  The ifi micro idsd has two stereo dacs (4 channels) available to JRiver.  What more could JRiver possibly need?

[blgentry]

As far as I can tell, all of ifi's DACs have 2 channels of output.  Left and Right and that's it.  They also have SPDIF on some of them, but that doesn't help as SPDIF is digital and you need analog outputs.

Their design with 2 DAC chips is doing something to try to get lower noise using more DAC channels.  It's still just a stereo DAC as far as I can tell.

So, you need a DAC with more channels.  I don't have a good recommendation; though it's been discussed here from time to time.  MWilliems almost certainly has something to say on the matter. 

Brian.

[mwillems]

The ifi micro idsd has two stereo dacs (4 channels) available to JRiver.  What more could JRiver possibly need?

Here's the difficulty: based on the specs and the manual the ifi micro does not have 4 channels of line level analog output. Have a look at the pictures and diagram of the device (there's a picture of the back of the unit on their website linked above).  It only has two line level analog outputs (right and left), and a stereo headphone output on the front.  I have no idea why it advertises itself as having two stereo DACs (maybe one of them feeds the headphone output and the other the line? Or maybe it has something to do with interleaving to reduce noise as blgentry suggested?). But it very clearly does not have 4 line level analog outputs.  Where would the .1 output for your subs come from physically? 

It doesn't matter what chips are in the DAC if it doesn't actually have any extra outputs.  What you are experiencing is a widely recognized problem with expensive DACs: the vast majority only support two channels of output.  As Brian noted, you might be able to rig something up with the SPDIF output on the micro, but that's a digital output so you'd need a separate DAC to turn that into analog and at that point you're trending into a "swallowed a cat to catch the mouse" type tailspin.  And there's no guarantee that the SPDIF output is separately assignable from the analog outs (it may just mirror the output which would make it useless for your purposes)

If you want a DAC that supports 2.1 output in JRiver, you'll need to find one that has as many analog outputs as you need. In this case that's 6 because of the way that JRiver handles 2.1. Focusrite, Steinberg, and Behringer all make models that will work, although I don't know if any of them support DSD natively.  I'm not sure I know of a multichannel DAC that does, but I'm sure some folks on the forums might.