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More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 23 for Mac => Topic started by: Zbig on November 02, 2017, 05:59:35 am

Title: Arcam irDAC II unable to play DSD in native format. (MediaCenter 23 for Mac)
Post by: Zbig on November 02, 2017, 05:59:35 am

Would anyone know how to configure JRiver ver 23 for Mac to play DSD files without and conversion to PCM?

Brand new Arcam irDAC II connected to MacBook Air.

I've tried all the settings but as soon as I select DSD in any of the settings I get noise no music.

Any help greatly appreciated.

thank you
Zbigniew

Title: Re: Arcam irDAC II unable to play DSD in native format. (MediaCenter 23 for Mac)
Post by: Awesome Donkey on November 02, 2017, 06:04:09 am

AFAIK MC for Mac doesn't support pure, native DSD playback but it does support DSD playback through DoP (which does not go through any PCM conversion). In fact I don't believe pure "native DSD" playback is possible on the Mac except perhaps with very specific DACs which actually have a Mac ASIO driver available. Otherwise, I think DoP is the really only option for DSD playback on Mac (and it does work, I can attest to that).

Enable DSD bitstreaming, open the Audio MIDI Setup app and set the bit-depth and sample rate to the highest available (e.g. 24-bit/192 kHz or higher - in your case it looks like 24-bit/384 kHz) for the Arcam irDAC II then try to playback DSD files. The Audio MIDI Setup adjustment is required for a lot of DACs to get DSD playback working on the Mac.

Title: Re: Arcam irDAC II unable to play DSD in native format. (MediaCenter 23 for Mac)
Post by: tyler69 on November 02, 2017, 06:26:18 am

Sorry to jump into this but: in MC for Mac, only DoP is supported? Even if my DAC has ASIO drivers?

Title: Re: Arcam irDAC II unable to play DSD in native format. (MediaCenter 23 for Mac)
Post by: Awesome Donkey on November 02, 2017, 06:28:46 am

On a Mac? No, there's no Mac ASIO support as far as I know (since IMO it's pretty niche - there was talks of it being supported if I recall, but it didn't get anywhere).

DoP should be sufficient enough, IMO, since the end result is exactly the same.

Title: Re: Arcam irDAC II unable to play DSD in native format. (MediaCenter 23 for Mac)
Post by: tyler69 on November 02, 2017, 06:39:51 am

Yeah well, if DoP is sufficient enough, maybe native DSD should be removed from the windows version then...
In my opinion, the different versions should be on par functionality wise.

Title: Re: Arcam irDAC II unable to play DSD in native format. (MediaCenter 23 for Mac)
Post by: Awesome Donkey on November 02, 2017, 07:42:59 am

Doesn't make sense to remove native DSD playback capabilities from the Windows version, as some DACs support both native DSD and DoP playback via ASIO on Windows.

With Mac ASIO it's only supported by just a handful of DACs and I'm not even sure if any players support native DSD playback via Mac ASIO driver (I do know MC currently isn't one of them - try doing a search of the MC 22 and 21 for Mac forums for ASIO for more info). Otherwise DSD via DoP works fine on Mac (and Linux for that matter). But I think this discussion has deviated this topic enough - it's a discussion for another time (and proper topic, IMO) instead of hijacking this one.

Title: Re: Arcam irDAC II unable to play DSD in native format. (MediaCenter 23 for Mac)
Post by: Zbig on November 02, 2017, 07:32:37 pm

Thanks very much mate.

Changing Audio MIDI Setup fixed the problem!!!

I can play DSD 64 and 128 perfectly (DSD over DoP).

Thanks very much again

Title: Re: Arcam irDAC II unable to play DSD in native format. (MediaCenter 23 for Mac)
Post by: terrys999 on November 08, 2017, 02:23:43 pm

Zbig
I use jriver win 64bit
How do you find the irdac 2 sound quality playing dsd??