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[Catcher10]

Hi All,
Hoping to get some confirmation. I am familiar with digital playback and files but not with all the ins and outs of MC, I am well versed in higher end audio. My DAC is the Parasound Halo HINT which is connected to my laptop via USB. The DAC specs as follows:
Supported DAC Sampling Rates
USB: up to 384 kHz / 32-bit PCM
DSD Native: DSD 64, DSD 128, DSD 256
DSD over PCM (DoP) at 384 kHz
Coax/Opt: up to 192 kHz / 24-bit PCM

I had some issues with WASAPI as I could not get MC to play my DSD files with no changes, it was all showing 32bit/705.6. Parasound sent me instructions to download the ASIO driver but that would not show up in MC options. Very frustrated......Then thought it was MC so I removed 64bit version and d/l 32bit version and that recognized the ASIO driver and now plays my DSD files with no changes
This is what I was getting before:

Now I get this:


When I play my FLAC files the MC is doing this conversion:


Does all of this look "correct" to experienced users??

Thanks in advance!

[Awesome Donkey]

Enable DSD bitstreaming if you want to playback DSD. Right now you're converting DSD to PCM in Media Center.

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/DSD

[dtc]

The first screenshot looks like it may be converting 2x DSD to PCM. The second one (ASIO driver) looks like is doing DSD without any conversion.  The third one looks like CD quality PCM upscaled to 4x DSD and played correctly with ASIO.  Do you want your CD tracks upscaled to DSD?  If not, set Output Encoding to None.

AD is right - make sure you have bitstreaming set to ON for DSD. With that on, you should be able to do WASAPI using DoP for up to 2x DSD.  When you do, there is an option under Custom to convert any sample rate DSDs that your DAC does not play. So, in your case, you should set 1x,2x and 4x to play directly and 8x to convert to PCM when using ASIO.

DoP uses PCM that is 1/16 the sample rate of the original DSD. Converting DSD to PCM uses a PCM sample rate of 1/8 the original DSD sample rate.

[Catcher10]

The first screenshot looks like it may be converting 2x DSD to PCM. The second one (ASIO driver) looks like is doing DSD without any conversion.  The third one looks like CD quality PCM upscaled to 4x DSD and played correctly with ASIO.  Do you want your CD tracks upscaled to DSD?  If not, set Output Encoding to None.

AD is right - make sure you have bitstreaming set to ON for DSD. With that on, you should be able to do WASAPI using DoP for up to 2x DSD.  When you do, there is an option under Custom to convert any sample rate DSDs that your DAC does not play. So, in your case, you should set 1x,2x and 4x to play directly and 8x to convert to PCM when using ASIO.

DoP uses PCM that is 1/16 the sample rate of the original DSD. Converting DSD to PCM uses a PCM sample rate of 1/8 the original DSD sample rate.

Thanks both of you for reply!! So b4 with MC 64bit I tried every combination to get DSD to play with no changes, bitstreaming set to DSD, None and nothing worked. I could faintly hear the music playing but it was very distorted, all this with WASAPI. The first picture was only method it would play my DSD files cleanly. The 2nd picture I could get but no sound using WASAPI, like I said it was super faint and distorted.......Since loading MC 32bit it recognized the ASIO driver and plays my DSD files cleanly.

I suppose my next test is to remove 32bit and try 64bit again since my laptop is 64bit, maybe it will see the ASIO driver this time, or play DSD with WASAPI. And I gather from what you mention I don't want to use DoP since that does not sample at the same rate as DSD.

I guess I am fine with the 3rd picture as it is upsampling my 24bit files to DSD256 output, will have to do some A/B to see if I hear any difference for the better.

Final question, if I continue to use the 32bit version and purchase the program will I have any issues down the road with compatibility?

Thanks guys!

[dtc]

It sounds like the driver is 32 bit only and will not work with 64 bit MC. If everything works fine with 32 bit MC, then that is what you need to use. You could ask Parasound if they have a 64 bit driver.  But, Parasound is a big enough company that they should have a 64 bit driver. I would ask them about that. The difference between 32 bit MC and 64 bit MC is pretty small unless you have a very large database of music. 32 bit MC is fine.

With 32 bit MC, you should be able to use either WASAPI or ASIO, although I would stick with ASIO if that works.  Note that you need to keep the volume set at 100% in either case.

[Catcher10]

It sounds like the driver is 32 bit only and will not work with 64 bit MC. If everything works fine with 32 bit MC, then that is what you need to use. You could ask Parasound if they have a 64 bit driver.  But, Parasound is a big enough company that they should have a 64 bit driver. I would ask them about that. The difference between 32 bit MC and 64 bit MC is pretty small unless you have a very large database of music. 32 bit MC is fine.

With 32 bit MC, you should be able to use either WASAPI or ASIO, although I would stick with ASIO if that works.  Note that you need to keep the volume set at 100% in either case.

Thanks!! About 3-4yrs ago I tried MC and at the time the Parasound driver was ASIO and it played my DSD files cleanly without any changes. I was not too interested in digital audio so removed all the drivers and MC.....This time the Parasound driver download is WASAPI and that was not working to play DSD natively. Parasound told me I needed ASIO and gave me different d/l instructions but the ASIO was not coming up as an option in MC64bit. With 32bit it's there......So I think I will leave it for the remainder of my trial period and if no issues then I will probably purchase a MC license. I only have a couple DSD native files, but have enough CD rips, mp3, FLAC and 24bit hi-rez that if upsampling to DSD256 makes sonic quality sense then works for me.

Cheers!

[Awesome Donkey]

Until a couple major Media Center versions ago, Media Center was 32-bit only.