Topic: MC 19 pauses and buffers when playing DSD 128 (Read 11212 times)

Valvefan · « **on:** March 10, 2016, 10:12:23 am »

Hi

I just got a DSD 128 album. It plays for only about 10 second then pauses to buffer. I tried buffering for 20 seconds. But no help. My PC has 4 GB of RAM.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

JimH · « **Reply #1 on:** March 10, 2016, 10:23:57 am »

Are you playing it from a NAS drive? If so, try playing from the local drive.

Valvefan · « **Reply #2 on:** March 10, 2016, 07:22:39 pm »

Thanks for the suggestion but it pauses about every 10 seconds when played from the local SSD.

Any other ideas?

Pete

JimH · « **Reply #3 on:** March 10, 2016, 09:28:46 pm »

Please run the benchmark feature under Help in MC and paste the result here.

DJLegba · « **Reply #4 on:** March 11, 2016, 01:37:55 pm »

Do you have Play from Memory checked? (Not sure if this feature is even in MC 19, I started with MC 20). If it's there, and checked, turn it off. It doesn't work very well with large DSD files.

Valvefan · « **Reply #5 on:** March 11, 2016, 03:22:36 pm »

=== Running Benchmarks (please do not interrupt) ===

Running 'Math' benchmark...
Single-threaded integer math... 21.447 seconds
Single-threaded floating point math... 9.714 seconds
Multi-threaded integer math... 12.272 seconds
Multi-threaded mixed math... 5.317 seconds
Score: 390

Running 'Image' benchmark...
Image creation / destruction... 1.447 seconds
Flood filling... 2.590 seconds
Direct copying... 4.017 seconds
Small renders... 10.610 seconds
Bilinear rendering... 7.518 seconds
Bicubic rendering... 5.965 seconds
Score: 684
Here is the result from running "Benchmark"

Running 'Database' benchmark...
Create database... 2.116 seconds
Populate database... 8.438 seconds
Save database... 0.812 seconds
Reload database... 0.215 seconds
Search database... 7.444 seconds
Sort database... 6.123 seconds
Group database... 3.788 seconds
Score: 743

JRMark (version 19.0.163): 606

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #6 on:** March 11, 2016, 03:52:32 pm »

That's a pretty low score, and that's likely why you're having issues here. It looks like the PC isn't powerful enough to handle DSD 128.

JimH · « **Reply #7 on:** March 11, 2016, 04:06:30 pm »

Definitely.

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #8 on:** March 11, 2016, 05:17:32 pm »

DSD, especially multichannel DSD is one of the most resource intensive operations and thus requires pretty decent hardware.

Valvefan · « **Reply #9 on:** March 11, 2016, 05:25:39 pm »

OK

What hardware specs are needed to run DSD 128 in 2 channel?

Also, what software can I use to down convert DSD 128 to PCM 192/24 ?

Thanks

Valvefan

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #10 on:** March 11, 2016, 05:29:33 pm »

You're using a Mac, correct? If so what year/model?

Valvefan · « **Reply #11 on:** March 11, 2016, 05:33:36 pm »

It a PC

ASUS motherboard with Intel Atom CPU, 4GB RAM, 60GB SSD

The music files are on a NAS connected to the PC by Ethernet cable.

Valvefan

JimH · « **Reply #12 on:** March 11, 2016, 06:22:41 pm »

I'll move this to the Windows board. Are you really running MC19?

Valvefan · « **Reply #13 on:** March 12, 2016, 01:57:59 am »

Yes i am using MC 19

Valvefan · « **Reply #14 on:** March 12, 2016, 10:51:19 am »

I used DB Poweramp to convert the DSD 128 files to AIFF 24/192 so I can now listen to my files.

I built my PC in 2010. Maybe it is time to upgrade so that DSD files can be played.

What are the minimum PC specs?

Thanks

Valvefan

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #15 on:** March 12, 2016, 04:47:22 pm »

Personally for DSD (and especially multichannel DSD), I wouldn't use anything below an Intel Core-i5 processor. I'm not even sure if a Core-i3 would be up to snuff in this case.

DJLegba · « **Reply #16 on:** March 13, 2016, 09:17:21 am »

Perhaps you need a fast CPU if you're asking MC to process the DSD files and deliver them to your DAC as PCM. But to be clear, when you bitstream DSD you should be able to use any old iron. Here's my NUC i3 bitstreaming DSD256 to my exaSound DAC:

Valvefan · « **Reply #17 on:** March 13, 2016, 03:47:18 pm »

Maybe I should get my Ayre QB9 upgraded to accept dsd

Valvefan

Awesome Donkey · « **Reply #18 on:** March 13, 2016, 04:03:33 pm »

A better CPU (and likely motherboard for the new CPU) for the PC would be on my list as well, IMO.

DJLegba · « **Reply #19 on:** March 13, 2016, 04:28:44 pm »

If you have only a few DSD files just convert them. If you like the DSD format and intend to continue buying DSD downloads then your DAC should support DSD, in which case you're better off putting money into the DAC instead of the computer.

I really like my exaSound DAC, and never do any DSP when playing through it. However, I do let JRiver transcode to mp3 when I want to stream to my phone. If that's something you do as well you could probably do with a computer upgrade too.

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Author Topic: MC 19 pauses and buffers when playing DSD 128 (Read 11212 times)