INTERACT FORUM

No, setting Output Encoding to DSD encodes everything including PCM to DSD and you're even converting DSD to DSD too. All conversions involving DSD is a lossy conversion. So it's best to avoid that unless that's what you want to do.

Anyways you should set Output Encoding back to None in this case. In MC's Options > Audio below the Audio Device section there's a Bitstreaming option, and it should be set to DSD. If it says None then that means DSD bitstreaming isn't enabled and there's your problem. Here's an image with the option highlighted in a red box (taken from Windows but the option is there regardless of OS).

Thanks for all that info! Yes, the DAC supports native DSD

Well, it specifically has to support DoP (DSD-over-PCM) so it works on macOS, besides native DSD which macOS doesn't actually support. It's a bit complicated compared to Windows (and Linux). Since the Output Encoding option for DoP seems to work you can just ignore that part.

Thanks for all that info! Yes, the DAC supports native DSD, and has worked no problem with other DSD capable audio players. It is connected directly via USB to the Mac. I already had system volume at max and MC volume disabled. Setting MC volume at max gives the same behavior so I figured having it disabled was simpler. I had already poked around in the forums and heard about disabling Integer mode as a possible fix, but that didn't seem to make a difference for me when I tested it earlier today.   

I've now set Midi setup to max, and also set Output Encoding to DSD in DoP, I think that's what you meant by making DSD bistreaming enabled, yes? That does get DSD playback working natively on the DAC, sorry, I should've mentioned I'd tried that earlier. But if I set it that way, all my PCM files seem to get upsampled to DSD instead of playing at their native 24/96, 24/192, etc., bit rates. Is there a set-it and forget-it option where I can just switch between all my various formats without having to dig around in sub-menus and adjust parameters before playing certain types of tracks? I guess I could also go back to just playing DSD with a different program, but it would be nice to launch one app and have everything play as it should. MC is so powerful and has so many features, seems like it can do anything, if a user can just figure it out

Thanks again!

CoreAudio is the driver and part of macOS, it can't be turned off. I meant make sure it's not set to the (Default) (CoreAudio) as that can cause issues. But looking at the images it looks like that's fine and set to the HD-DAC1.

How's the HD-DAC1 connected to the Mac? USB? I've looked at the manual and it doesn't mention if the HD-DAC1 supports DSD via DoP, which is required for macOS as native DSD output isn't possible. I'll assume it does, hopefully.

Generally there's a few things required to get DSD playback working on macOS.

1) Open the MIDI Audio Setup app and set the output to your DAC and set it to the highest bit-depth and sample rate. This is required by a lot of DACs to get DSD output working.
2) Make sure DSD bitstreaming is enabled under MC's Options > Audio. This is needed otherwise you'll see this behavior of converting DSD to PCM and outputting that.
3) Make sure both system volume and MC's volume is set to 100% otherwise it won't work or you'll hear just noise.
4) Use USB or DLNA (maybe ethernet too, not sure if that works on macOS). It won't work if it's connected via HDMI though.

If all else fails, you can try unchecking the integer mode option (which is in the second screenshot you posted above).

I would definitely agree that the scrollbar thumbs in particular do not behave like other images. But...

...that doesn't mean you cannot get a perfectly rounded ends, as demonstrated in the attached pic showing the default and mouse-over appearance (this is yet another thumb variation I have in addition to the two shown in my prior posts).

It is definitely not a crap-shoot… you just have to know how to apply certain tricks and use the right image parameters.

I think we solved part of the issue.

I wasn't aware that there is a Library folder in my user folder, because it's actually hidden (as it's supposed to, I've learned from a Google search).
I managed to access it, and indeed there "J River/Media Center 32" was present, meaning that the remove command probably didn't delete it (which is weird in itself).
After having deleted the Media Center folder manually and reinstalling MC 32, finally the Media Center window popped up asking me for my license.

However, after restoring my license, the program instantly crashed again.
I replicated the process (removing Media Center 32 from ~Library/Application Support/J River and afterwards from the bin, reinstalled MC 32, restored the license) and it still crashes (crash report attached).
Again, permissions are all in order, antivirus is disabled, and connections are allowed through Firewall.

Thanks for your help. When I go to Audio Device, everything on that list is followed by the name [Core Audio]. See new pic attached. There doesn't seem to be an option to choose anything without Core Audio. My other DAC also plugged in shows up on that list, the RME-ADI2, but same issue. Is there a way to turn off Core Audio if that is the culprit causing this problem?

Any other thoughts that might help? Thanks again!

It will be fixed in the next build.

Again, the permissions were the first thing I checked. MC 32 has all permissions indicated on the forum post mentioned.

And yes, the program crashes before it can properly start.

About the Application Support map: I found it in Users/ Shared/ Library. But there is no Media Center 32 folder in there. I artificially created one (Library/ J River/ Media Center 32) but that hasn’t solved anything.

There isn’t anything else that comes to mind, except for the fact that MC 28 still works. Thanks.

What is under
~/Library/Application\ Support/J\ River
??

... continued from previous post, remainder of the artwork attached.