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[InflatableMouse]

Does anyone have hands on experience with the TEAC UD-501 and was able to compare it to more expensive DAC's? How does it really fare in comparison? I think this is the cheapest DAC you can get with 2xDSD support and all those inputs but some reviews really rave about it. Generally speaking, I believe you get what you pay for but sometimes there are exceptions ... is this really an exception?

Some general questions:

Is streaming DSD over USB less CPU intensive than playing DSD files as PCM? The reason I ask is that I would think its less intensive but the wiki says it requires a fairly powerful PC and even more so for 2xDSD. I can play DSD/DST files fine, MC doing the decoding (i5 3570).

When playing DST compressed files, is the file decompressed by the PC or by the DAC?

I read ASIO is required for playing DSD files; I realize this is sucky question, but how well does that driver behave? Is it reasonably resilient to CPU usage by other processes? The reason I ask is that my current ASIO driver (Xonar UNi for Asus Essence ST) is just bad and starts to stutter and skip when I simply scroll through some cover art in Theater View, or when something else (WinRAR or 7zip extract for instance) does something relatively intensive in the background, even when set to the lowest priority.

Thanks!

[6233638]

I did some quick testing with my Benchmark DAC2 which supports PCM up to 24/192 and 1x DSD via DoP.
My system is currently using an E5200 overclocked to 3.33GHz, and scores ~2100 in JRmark.

Bitstreaming uncompressed DSF files: ~10% CPU
Converting uncompressed DSF to PCM: ~15-35% CPU

Bitstreaming DST compressed DFF files: ~10-55% CPU
Converting DST compressed DFF to PCM: ~15-85% CPU


So it looks like DoP output still requires Media Center to remove the DST compression, but uses less CPU than decoding to PCM.
These were stereo files; it doesn't look like multichannel would be playable on this system.
I'm not sure if this applies to native DSD bitstreaming as well.

[InflatableMouse]

Thanks, thats what I expected.

Are you able to do a quick test with bitstreaming as well?

[6233638]

The DAC2 only supports DoP and not Native DSD, if that's what you meant.

[InflatableMouse]

Yeh thats what I meant, no worries though.

I'm about to find out, I ordered one. It was in stock so hopefully tomorrow.

[InflatableMouse]

Wow impressive.

I've been looking at CPU usage, it averages maybe 4%, even with DSD128 files. Very nice.

Also, audio analysis (or anything close to 100% usage on all 4 cores) no longer makes playback stutter or stuck in a repetative loop.

[6233638]

I'm glad that it's working well for you. Out of interest, are you seeing increased CPU usage with DST compressed files?

[InflatableMouse]

I wanted to know as well, so here goes.

With memory playback, DoP output, DSP/Volume leveling/EQ enabled. all 3 to 4 minute tracks:
DSD128: ~9%, short peak of ~24%
DST: ~5%, short peak of 95%
DSD: ~5%, short peak of ~20%
Flac 16/44: ~5%, short peak of ~10%

With memory playback off, same settings and same tracks:
DSD128: ~9%
DST: ~10%
DSD: ~5%
Flac 16/44: ~5%

With memory playback, bitstreaming DoP. Same tracks:
Only the DST file peaked, the rest showed a short load of ~7%, after which CPU usage settled <1%.
Flac ~5% (basically same as above as its not bitstreamed but gets DSP/etc applied, DoP output).

So, with memory playback, bitstreaming DoP, all DSP functions disabled. Same tracks:
DSD128: <1%, short peak of ~8%
DST: <1%, short peak of 95%
DSD: <1%, short peak of ~7%
Flac 16/44: <1%, short peak of ~5%