Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[jstrouth]

I'm experimenting with computer sound and high rez files.  I'm trying to output via E-MU 0404 USB 2.0 to Benchmark DAC.
I've managed to output 24/96 files, but as soon as I hit 'play' for a 24/176 file Media Center gives me a 'Error Encountered Needs to Close' message.
I'm using ASIO output and the E-MU as the output device.  The error message details mention an 'emasio.dll' file, which I'm presuming to be the E-MU driver??
I'm using the latest drivers per the E-MU site.  
Any clues???  Please help.  I know the E-MU isn't the best path to hi rez bliss, but is my first foray and only option from this pc.

[Matt]

The crash sounds like it's in the emuasio driver, but make sure you're running Media Center 15.0.171 just to be safe.

As a workaround, you could resample to 96 KHz using DSP Studio inside Media Center.

[jstrouth]

Am I correct that the emasio driver is from E-MU?  What would cause that to crash Media Center?
How can I fix it?
Really don't want the work around.... the whole idea is to output 24/176...

[Matt]

Am I correct that the emasio driver is from E-MU?

Yes.

What would cause that to crash Media Center?

ASIO drivers are loaded into our process, so if they do something bad, it crashes the program.

How can I fix it?

Like I said, install 15.0.171 first.  If it still crashes, try writing to E-MU.  We'd be happy to help them however they need.

[jstrouth]

installed latest. no difference.
I've emailed e-mu. 
how can we get you two together?

as i read other posts, apparently some folks are able to get foobar and other players to work with the emu... but i don't want to switch over unless i absolutely have to.
thanks for helping.

[nwboater]

I'm confused why you are feeding one DAC to another. Are you just taking the digital SPDIF (Optical) from the 0404 to the Benchmark? If so I don't believe that SPDIF can handle higher than 96K. That most likely is your problem.

I have an 0404USB and it works fine above 96 with MC15. But that's using the analog outs.

Do you have the USB Benchmark? If so you don't even need or want the 0404 in the system.

Good luck.

Rod

[jstrouth]

First, benchmark dac is what i use for the rest of my system, so i want to be consistent.
i don't know if its 'better' than the 0404 dac but suspect it is....
i have read posts on computeraudiophile.com that suggest what i'm trying to do is possible.
so essentially, i'm just trying to get the 0404 to serve as a converter from usb to spdif.
benchmark is not usb, so using toslink.

why don't you try ASIO output to your 0404 (even if you don't send it to another dac) and see if it causes crash?  that would tell us if its a repeatable issue with the emasio.dll driver, right?

[nwboater]

Hi,

Your Benchmark DAC probably is better than the 0404USB. Since you have both it would be interesting to do a comparo down the road when everything is working okay.

I'm no longer using our 0404USB. It's been replaced by a Asus Essence ST Internal Soundcard that does up to 7.1. We are doing a lot of HT so it's working out well for that.

For quite awhile we used the 0404USB with Asio and MC (14, then 15) on an XP system. Worked fine on everything we gave it including several 192 files. But we may not have any 176 files.

I looked at the EMU manual and couldn't find specs on the SPDIF output. But just from doing some quick Googling I found that most soundcards wont work above 96 on SPDIF. But apparently it's not the SPDIF spec that's the limiting factor, but just most soundcards. I suggest you pursue finding out what the DAC will do over SPDIF. Also will the Benchmark handle those files on it's SPDIF input?

Good luck. Please let us know how this gets resolved.

Rod

[nwboater]

I just thought of a way to help trouble shoot this problem. Try taking the ANALOG outs from the 0404 to your receiver, or wherever the Benchmark outs are now going. That way you are not using SPDIF. I know you don't want to leave it this way, but it would tell you if the 0404, Asio and MC all work with your 176 files. Most troubleshooting is a process of elimination, and this will eliminate quite a bit.

As I said earlier my 0404USB worked fine with 192/24 files with Asio and MC using the analog outs.

Rod

[nwboater]

Okay here it is from the EMU Product page.  http://www.emu.com/products/product.asp?product=15185   Note near the bottom of the page the listing of Optical and Coaxial ins & outs are shown as 24/96.

Rod

[jstrouth]

And so it is... 96 is indeed the upper limit.  Although for some reason there is distortion at this rate when outputting spdif to the benchmark dac at all rates....no idea why, certainly not the benchmark.
using the 0404 itself and analog outputs, no problem playing up to 176 files.

thanks for the help.

[nwboater]

Thanks for letting us know the results.

Merry Christmas!

Rod

[jstrouth]

Any thoughts what would be causing distortion when output via the benchmark? 

[jstrouth]

Well, looks like the 0404 SHOULD BE capable of 24/176 output via spdif..... this from the EMU support folks...
"It depends on how you are syncing:
Synchronization
         Internal crystal sync at 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192kHz
         External sample rate sync via
            - Optical S/PDIF (44.1 - 96kHz)
   - Coaxial S/PDIF (44.1 - 96kHz)


If the 0404 is the MASTER  then you should be able to go to 192.
If you have to set the other device as master then you will be limited to 96."

So back to to the original question....to which they had no answer yet.

[jstrouth]

Per EMU, the 0404 SHOULD be able of outputting up to 24/196 via ASIO and S-PDIF.

This from them:
"We are still looking at this.
We have been able to replicate the error. I seems that the JRiver app has issues issuing driver messages at higher sample rates. Not sure if it is there execution of ASIO or what. You may want to look in to what they are using as an ASIO  SPEC. We currently use the ASIO  2.0 model. It is possible they are using an older spec.
One suggestion I have received from our testers is that JRiver 10 has been tested and seems the most stable of the versions including ASIO  support. You may want to test this on your system.
Thank You
"

Matt, is it possible for you to communicate directly with Casey at EMU to iron this out?
Email address : EMU.Support@customercare.creative.com

[Matt]

We've written to EMU (I cc'd you) and we'll see where it leads.

Thanks for your diligence on this one.