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[davron94]

hello all!
I'm new to the JRiver SW and forum. I am using the MC with a PC and PS Audio Nuwave DSD DAC. I have been working with the program now for several weeks trying to get it to work right. I can get normal PCM files to play natively, but the DSD files will not play in DoP format. The error message i get is:

"Playback could not be started on the output "WASAPI" using the format 705.6Khz 2ch..."

I've tried many different settings configurations to get it to work and ending up with the same message every time!
what am I doing wrong??? I thought this player was supposed to decode .dff files with the DoP setting.

Thanks for any help that can be given!

[JimH]

What does PSAudio recommend for settings?

Bitstreaming DSD might be supported.

What is the physical connection?

[davron94]

The connection is USB. I can't find anything other than what is on PS Audio's website for set up. They only give instruction for MC 19. Output is set to "None", Bitstreaming set to "Yes", Audio device set to "PS Audio NuWave DSD [WASAPI]. One thing is unclear though, should the speaker setting on the PC be set for the MC to be the default output, or the NuWave? Bitstreaming is supported, but other than configuring the setting to "Yes", what else needs to be done?

[Awesome Donkey]

When you say Bitstreaming is set to Yes, you mean Yes (DSD), correct?

Is there an ASIO driver available for the PS Audio Nuwave DSD DAC? You may have better luck with ASIO.

[dtc]

705 KHz for DoP sounds like you are trying to play a 4x DSD. The documentation on your DAC says it only supports 1x and 2x DSD. What format DSD are you playing? Can you play 1x and 2x DSDs?

Since you are using DoP you should not have to have bitstreaming on. DoP is DSD wrapped in a PCM format.

You should have volume turned off or set to 100%.

The documentation on your DAC is a little confusing. It says it only supports up to 192 KHz but it also says it supports 1x and 2x DSD over DoP. 1x DoP using 176 KHz and 2x DoP uses 352 KHz.

As a test you can try going into DSP Studio - Output Formats and set Output Encoding to 1x DSD with DoP or 2x DSD with DoP. Then play a PCM file. That will convert the PCM to DSD on the fly.

[davron94]

When you say Bitstreaming is set to Yes, you mean Yes (DSD), correct?

Is there an ASIO driver available for the PS Audio Nuwave DSD DAC? You may have better luck with ASIO.

Correct, I have the Bitstreaming set to "Yes (DSD) and I'm not sure about the ASIO driver. I have read though that WASAPI is the preferred method for Windows 7.

705 KHz for DoP sounds like you are trying to play a 4x DSD. The documentation on you DAC says it only supports 1x and 2x DSD. What format DSD are you playing? Can you play 1x and 2x DSDs?

Since you are using DoP you should not have to have bitstreaming on. DoP is DSD wrapped in a PCM format.

You should have volume turned off or set to 100%.

The documentation on your DAC is a little confusing. It says it only supports up to 192 KHz but it also says it supports 1x and 2x DSD over DoP. 1x DoP using 176 KHz and 2x DoP uses 352 KHz.

As a test you can try going into DSP Studio - Output Formats and set Output Encoding to 1x DSD with DoP or 2x DSD with DoP. Then play a PCM file. That will convert the PCM to DSD on the fly.

Volume is set to 100% in both MC and the PC. The PC sound is set for the DAC's USB driver as the default output. I've tried both Bitstream on and off with the same result. I've tried downsampling to 96KHz also with the same results.

using DoP for PCM does not work either.

[dtc]

Do you have the PS Audio usb driver installed?  Can you play 88 or 96 or 176 or 192 KHz PCM?

[davron94]

Do you have the PS Audio usb driver installed?  Can you play 88 or 96 or 176 or 192 KHz PCM?

Yes, USB driver is installed and PCM works fine with the output set to none. It will not convert to DoP on the fly for PCM though. The same type of error message comes up.

[dtc]

So playing PCM at 176 KHz works but converting PCM to 1x DSD  gives you an error message that WASAPI could not be started at 176 KHz - correct?

Do you have Exclusive Mode set in Device Settings and in Windows is Let Device Take Exclusive Control set in Properties Advanced?

[davron94]

So playing PCM at 176 KHz works but converting PCM to 1x DSD  gives you an error message that WASAPI could not be started at 176 KHz - correct?

Do you have Exclusive Mode set in Device Settings and in Windows is Let Device Take Exclusive Control set in Properties Advanced?

No on the first question. nothing will play unless it is set to "none" and no conversions are made to the selections.

I have exclusive mode set in JR and in the PC and exclusive control set.

The one thing i need to know is the configurations for the settings on the PC for the speaker. Should the DAC or MC be set as the default player, and whichever one that is, should the other be set just as "ready" or disabled? Also, if its just set as ready, should the box for exclusive control not be checked?

[dtc]

It does not matter whether the usb DAC is set as default or not. Either way will work. The DAC should be set to enabled/ready. Other speaker options can be enabled in Windows. They do not have to be disabled.  In Properties Advanced can you play the test tone at 24/176KHz?

If you cannot play 176 KHz PCM by setting 44.1 KHz to upscale in 176 KHz in Output Format with Output Coding set to None, then there may be some issue with  the PS Audio driver.

Not sure what else to try in MC. You could upscale 44 to 48, then 88, then 96, etc. to see if anything other than 44 KHz works.

[davron94]

the drop down list only goes to 24/96, but that plays. should the listing go all the way up to 176? Maybe I should reinstall the driver for the DAC??

However, I just checked and the JRiver speaker output goes to 196, but there is no sound when running the test.

[dtc]

Try reinstalling the driver.

[davron94]

Try reinstalling the driver.

Alright! That seemed to work. For whatever reason, the driver did not install correctly the first time and did not go all the way up to 192. I uninstalled and reinstalled. It works correctly now, and I can play everything DoP. the .dff files that i played did have a few spots where the audio cut out a few times. I guess that's a buffering settings issue??. I'm not sure which way to go on that one to resolve the problem.

Thanks for the help.

[dtc]

Glad you got it working.

Drop outs is another issue. I use the new memory playback option (Load files to memory at start of playback) and that helps me with occasion dropouts.  Buffering can also sometimes fix the issues.  Make sure you have Output coding set to none and are not doing any upsampling.

[davron94]

Glad you got it working.

Drop outs is another issue. I use the new memory playback option (Load files to memory at start of playback) and that helps me with occasion dropouts.  Buffering can also sometimes fix the issues.  Make sure you have Output coding set to none and are not doing any upsampling.

Thanks, I'll working with the buffering to clear it up.

Also, I'm somewhat confused by your comment to keep the Output coding set to "none". When its set to none, .dff files do not play as DSD (as indicated on the DAC's LED lights), the files only play as PCM. MC has to be set to DoP in the output incoding for the DAC to output as DSD. This does not seem right to me. I thought that if MC output natively, then the DAC should still read the file as a .dff and output the file as a DSD. Is this incorrect thinking?

[dtc]

Sorry for the confusion. My original suggestion for setting Output Encoding was as a test, not for general playback. Output Encoding converts everything to DSD, including PCM. It also changes any DSD to the DSD setting in Output encoding. That is, if Output Encoding is set to 2x DSD then a 1x DSD is converted to PCM and back to 2x DSD. It should only be used if you want to play everything as one particular sample rate of DSD, which is pretty unusual.  You stuttering is probable just the system converting everything to DSD.

If with output encoding off, dff file are not playing as DSD, then there is a different problem. You should look at Output Formating and make sure the higher end settings are set as No Change.  If the greater than setting is set to anything else, then DSD will be converted to PCM to play. You should also set Bitstreaming DSD to on.

Try this. Set Output Encoding to None. Set all the sample rates in Output Format to No Change. In fact, uncheck all the options in DSP Studio.  Turn Bitstreaming DSD ON. Play a DSD. Look at Audio Path (like box with 3 vertical bars on the top right). It should say something like DoP 5.6 MHz playing from dff or something like that and your DSD light should come on.

[davron94]

Sorry for the confusion. My original suggestion for setting Output Encoding was as a test, not for general playback. Output Encoding converts everything to DSD, including PCM. It also changes any DSD to the DSD setting in Output encoding. That is, if Output Encoding is set to 2x DSD then a 1x DSD is converted to PCM and back to 2x DSD. It should only be used if you want to play everything as one particular sample rate of DSD, which is pretty unusual.  You stuttering is probable just the system converting everything to DSD.

If with output encoding off, dff file are not playing as DSD, then there is a different problem. You should look at Output Formating and make sure the higher end settings are set as No Change.  If the greater than setting is set to anything else, then DSD will be converted to PCM to play. You should also set Bitstreaming DSD to on.

Try this. Set Output Encoding to None. Set all the sample rates in Output Format to No Change. In fact, uncheck all the options in DSP Studio.  Turn Bitstreaming DSD ON. Play a DSD. Look at Audio Path (like box with 3 vertical bars on the top right). It should say something like DoP 5.6 MHz playing from dff or something like that and your DSD light should come on.

Ok, I tried playback on a DSD file with the output set to "none" and "no change" to the formats. Bitstreaming: On (DSD), also. There aren't any checkboxes in that window to uncheck.

when go to play, the error message window comes up with this:

"Something went wrong with playback.
playback could not be started on the output WASAPI using format DoP 5.6 MHz 2ch. etc..."

[kr4]

Ok, I tried playback on a DSD file with the output set to "none" and "no change" to the formats. Bitstreaming: On (DSD), also. There aren't any checkboxes in that window to uncheck.

when go to play, the error message window comes up with this:

"Something went wrong with playback.
playback could not be started on the output WASAPI using format DoP 5.6 MHz 2ch. etc..."

Is it trying to send 2xDSD?  If it is set for "Output Format to No Change," you should be sending DSD/2.8.   

[dtc]

Is it trying to send 2xDSD?  If it is set for "Output Format to No Change," you should be sending DSD/2.8.

Depends on what the original file is - 2.8 Khz or 5.6 Khz.

[dtc]

When you used Output Encoding, did you use 1x DSD or 2x DSD? Do both of those work? 

[davron94]

When you used Output Encoding, did you use 1x DSD or 2x DSD? Do both of those work?

 Ok, scratch that last post. I'm starting to see what is going on here. the USB driver for the NuWave DAC is buggy or something. whenever the PC comes out of hibernate or is booted up from off, the settings in the Control Panel for "Sound" and speaker output switch from the DAC being default to the MC. Also, the DAC speaker advanced settings for output cut down to only 96/24 from the 192/24. They have disappeared from the DAC speaker, and now are set in the MC speaker. I have to uninstall and reinstall the DAC driver to get the full list of outputs back.

Could there be a conflict between the DAC driver and MC driver? IF the PC is only using the DAC driver, why is the MC speaker driver needed? can that one be disabled?

I just reset everything and it worked the way you asked me to set it up natively.

[dtc]

That helps explain all the problems. Not sure exactly what is going on, but it appears to be a driver issue rather than a MC DSD setup issue.  At least you are finally getting the correct operation, at least occasionally.

Not sure what you mean by the MC speaker. That is not something I see. There is a Windows Device Driver in MC that my be an issue. You can turn it off in General - Features - WDM driver. Grasping at straws here. I have it turned off. May need to reboot to have that take effect

Hang in there - you will get this to work

[davron94]

That help explain all the problems. Not sure exactly what is going on, but it appears to be a driver issue rather than a MC DSD setup issue.  At least you are finally getting the correct operation, at least occasionally.

Not sure what you mean by the MC speaker. That is not something I see. There is a Windows Device Driver in MC that my be an issue. You can turn it off in General - Features - WDM driver. Grasping at straws here. I have it turned off. May need to reboot to have that take effect

Hang in there - you will get this to work

I think that might do it. if its not needed due to the PS Audio driver, then I'm going to disable the WDM driver if its turned on.

what I meant by MC speaker is the driver for MC that shows up in the speaker configuration settings in the control panel of my PC. Its one of the speaker output selections.

[dtc]

WDM is a somewhat funky "speaker" selection that allows you to direct speaker output back into MC. It has some good uses, but it can also  be problematic. No idea if it is causing your problem or not. Turn it off and reboot and see if that helps.

[davron94]

WDM is a somewhat funky "speaker" selection that allows you to direct speaker output back into MC. It has some good uses, but it can also  be problematic. No idea if it is causing your problem or not. Turn it off and reboot and see if that helps.

I think that is what was causing the issue. I disabled it and rebooted. No issues so far playing natively or converting! 

Hopefully that did it! its not hanging up or stuttering either.

Thanks for all the help!

[dtc]

Glad to hear you got it sorted out. This was a strange problem. The WDM driver should have nothing to do with the PS Audio driver, but clearly it did for you.

Now, enjoy the music!