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More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 22 for Linux => Topic started by: Otello on June 29, 2017, 08:01:25 am

Title: Is native DSD supported?
Post by: Otello on June 29, 2017, 08:01:25 am
Sorry for the dumb question: is native DSD supported by the Linux version?
I'm asking because I'm testing a DAC which works only with native DSD; according to the producer, to get native DSD I only need ALSA lib superior or equal to 1.0.29 (I have 1.1.something), but I only get DoP.
I'm using a pretty default Mint 18.1, the only change I made was removing pulseaudio.

Thanks
Title: Re: Is native DSD supported?
Post by: bob on June 29, 2017, 08:34:44 am
Sorry for the dumb question: is native DSD supported by the Linux version?
I'm asking because I'm testing a DAC which works only with native DSD; according to the producer, to get native DSD I only need ALSA lib superior or equal to 1.0.29 (I have 1.1.something), but I only get DoP.
I'm using a pretty default Mint 18.1, the only change I made was removing pulseaudio.

Thanks
There is no support for DSD without DoP yet.
I'm getting conflicting information about how it's implemented with various devices in ALSA.
Title: Re: Is native DSD supported?
Post by: Awesome Donkey on June 29, 2017, 08:35:23 am
If I recall correctly, it also depends on if you're using a somewhat newer Linux kernel in your distro.
Title: Re: Is native DSD supported?
Post by: bob on June 29, 2017, 09:05:09 am
If I recall correctly, it also depends on if you're using a somewhat newer Linux kernel in your distro.
That is the case.
The trouble I'm having is that even though some modes are defined in ALSA, for example DSD_U8, DSD_U16, etc and some device show that they support those formats, it seems that they aren't being used and the format SPECIAL with no documentation that I can find is being used. Until the interface is documented properly I don't see much point in dealing with it.
Title: Re: Is native DSD supported?
Post by: Awesome Donkey on June 29, 2017, 09:17:27 am
Yeah, in my limited search all I found was this (https://github.com/lintweaker/xmos-native-dsd) for Fedora.

Looks complicated regardless, compared to Windows and Mac.
Title: Re: Is native DSD supported?
Post by: blgentry on June 29, 2017, 10:13:32 am
according to the producer, to get native DSD I only need ALSA lib superior or equal to 1.0.29 (I have 1.1.something), but I only get DoP.

Why is "only DoP" an issue?  DoP is pure DSD.  It's just wrapped in PCM frames.  It's real deal DSD.  It's not converted or anything.

Brian.
Title: Re: Is native DSD supported?
Post by: DJLegba on June 29, 2017, 10:16:15 am
Why is "only DoP" an issue?  DoP is pure DSD.  It's just wrapped in PCM frames.  It's real deal DSD.  It's not converted or anything.

Brian.

Not all DSD-capable DACs support DoP
Title: Re: Is native DSD supported?
Post by: Awesome Donkey on June 29, 2017, 10:24:29 am
If I understand this right, support for specific DSD DACs have to be added to both ALSA and the Linux kernel for native DSD output.

This *could* leads to issues on older "stable" distros that run 3.xx kernels, like Debian Wheezy (oldoldstable).
Title: Re: Is native DSD supported?
Post by: Otello on June 30, 2017, 08:43:17 am
OK, I try to reformulate my question:

Assuming that ALSA is installed and set correctly, is JRiver 22 for Linux supposed to work with native DSD?

As I wrote before, I started with a new installation of Mint 18.1, with the last version of kernel, ALSA, etc.
Title: Re: Is native DSD supported?
Post by: Awesome Donkey on June 30, 2017, 08:48:11 am
Assuming that ALSA is installed and set correctly, is JRiver 22 for Linux supposed to work with native DSD?

As I wrote before, I started with a new installation of Mint 18.1, with the last version of kernel, ALSA, etc.

Native DSD playback (without DoP) on Linux in MC isn't supported (looking at Bob's post above). However DSD is available through DoP in MC, which should suffice assuming the DAC supports DoP.
Title: Re: Is native DSD supported?
Post by: Otello on June 30, 2017, 09:04:51 am
Yes I know, but unfortunately this DAC cannot work with DoP.
Thanks, anyway. :-)