INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 24 for Windows => Topic started by: thomaspf on July 08, 2018, 11:06:13 pm
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Please just point me to the right spot if this has been discussed before. I searched and could not find a solution.
When playing back PCM files you can make all files play on a given sound card by going to DSP studio set all the supported frequencies to no change and in most cases downsample the frequencies that exceed your sound cards capabilities. That works extremely well for PCM.
Now my library also contains a growing number of DFS albums in x1 x2 x4 DSD resolution. Some of my devices support all of these some are limited to x1 or x2. I understand that you have the option to convert everything into a DSD stream with set bitrate via output encoding but I don't want to do that.
Is there any way to have PCM files played as PCM, DSD files played as DOP but have the ability to limit the bit rate for DSD and then have all higher res DSD files downsampled to the highest supported DSD bitrate?
Cheers
Thomas
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No option right now other than setting up separate Zones for playback of DSD rates that your DAC does not support - which I'm sure that anyone who has used this option will tell you, is not something that you would want to do.
You'll have to wait until JRiver either implements options to limit the maximum sample rate when bitstreaming, or adds robust rule-based playback options instead of suggesting that people co-opt Zone Switch for every "playback rule" they wish to implement.
That being said, my recommendation is still to forego DSD bitstreaming and convert everything to PCM on playback since there are many benefits of doing so, such as being able to use the Volume Leveling feature.
I would generally recommend that you avoid DSD where possible - which is basically anything except for a select few multichannel SACDs - as 1-bit audio is inherently flawed no matter how high you increase the sample rate.
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Apologies if you already know this but it is near impossible to perform DSP on DSD signals.
So to resample x4 DSD to x1 DSD would require converting to PCM and back to DSD, unfortunately converting between DSD and PCM is not lossless so each stage is degrading the signal.
So if you are going to convert x4 DSD if would be better to convert to PCM rather than x1 DSD
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Apologies if you already know this but it is near impossible to perform DSP on DSD signals.
So to resample x4 DSD to x1 DSD would require converting to PCM and back to DSD, unfortunately converting between DSD and PCM is not lossless so each stage is degrading the signal.
So if you are going to convert x4 DSD if would be better to convert to PCM rather than x1 DSD
..but you can't tell jriver to convert to PCM just DSDx4
It is either all or nothing
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..but you can't tell jriver to convert to PCM just DSDx4
It is either all or nothing
This has been discussed before and Hendrik said it is on a list of things to consider changing. No commitment to a time frame or even to actually doing it. But it is a known issue and JRiver is aware of it.
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Thanks for the good feedback. So I guess the easiest symmetric behavior would be if the DSD formats would simply be listed along with the PCM bitrates and I could pick any PCM or DSD output format.
From the post above it sounds like all DSD bitrates exceeding a DACs capabilities are best transcoded into PCM which also would provide volume control rather than to a lower DSD bitrate.
This UI could also simply replace the current DSD output option allowing to pick any DSD bitrate for any PCM format.
Would be a great addition to an already great product!
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Yes, this exactly was discussed
There are many DACs on the market, and not all are equal, some support DSD, some up to DSD128 etc.
Besides support of DSD is patchy, and indeed it should be handled on the same page. Why bitstreaming flag is somewhere else? And DoP os elsewhere?
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The appetite among audiophiles for esoteric tweaks is endless. Our resources are limited, and we target a broader market than just audiophiles.
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I started a poll to learn about the interest in DSD of our overall customer base.
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,116696.msg806663.html#msg806663