Is this the place to also make a note about the system requirements for SACD to 192/24?
So in general, JRiver on W7 requires (much) more CPU than my AMD 1Ghz, is my current finding.
Is there anyone else with some advise (except from speeding up the motherboard)?
Unfortunately, it sounds like your system is going to be underpowered for playing back DSD/SACD.
Try running the JRMark benchmark (
Help → Benchmark) and post your overall score here.
I think a score of around 2000 is the minimum requirement for stereo DSD conversion to PCM - but this only applies to files which are not using DST compression. (DSF files, or uncompressed SACDs)
Converting to 176.4kHz, 88.2kHz, or 44.1kHz rather than 192kHz
may lessen the CPU requirements, but that is a complete guess based on the fact that DSD's sample rate is 44100x64.
If you are currently using Memory Playback (
Tools → Options → Audio → Settings → Play files from memory…) try disabling it - or try enabling it if you are not.
If your DAC supports DSD natively, enabling bitstreaming should considerably reduce the system requirements for DSD playback, but prevents you using other DSP options in Media Center.
This is found under:
Tools → Options → Audio → Settings → Bitstreaming Failing that, you could always use Media Center's offline conversion tools (
Tools → Advanced Tools → Convert Format…) to convert from DSD/SACD to 192kHz FLAC files or another format of your choosing.
This would not be a lossless conversion as you are converting from DSD to PCM - so you may wish to keep the original files - but assuming your system can play high-res PCM files without any trouble, it should be able to play these.