INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 19 for Mac => Topic started by: mink70 on June 11, 2014, 02:11:50 pm
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Hi, I'm using JRiver 19 on 10.6.8 with a LH Labs Geek Out DAC, which requires digital volume control in software. I tried the volume control set to "system" and "internal." It works fine with PCM files, but when I switch to DSD, or upsample to DSD, the volume control in JRiver disappears and my ears get blasted with full, unattenuated volume. Does anyone have a fix?
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Are you bitstreaming DSD?
Tools → Options → Audio → Settings → Bitstreaming
This disables volume control because you cannot make any changes to the data when bitstreaming.
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Yes, I'm bitstreaming DSD. Should I not be? Is there another way to play back DSD?
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You can turn off bitstreaming and the DSD will be delivered as high quality PCM.
If you need volume, that's the choice.
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Yes, I'm bitstreaming DSD. Should I not be? Is there another way to play back DSD?
The term bitstreaming means that MC does not decode the audio at all, but passes it (bitstreams it) to an external decoder. This means, by definition, that MC cannot alter the audio signal in any way (and changing the volume is altering the audio signal). It has literally no control at all, and ALL processing must be done by your external decoder. You've essentially neutered MC, and made it a dumb pipe to your external decoder.
If you want, instead, you can set MC up to encode its output to DSD:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=82074.0
This allows full access to the audio processing capabilities of MC, including volume control using any of MC's high-quality modes:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Volume