Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[clarus7]

I'm trying to setup a Pi4 to drive USB DAC. The same DAC supports all necessary sample rates and format under Windows (namely 44.1 to 384KHz PCM, 1x and 2x DSD). I am having problem trying to get DSD to work with the Pi.  All PCM sample rates work correctly. When I try DSD (1x or 2x), the following error message is returned:
"Playback could not be started on the output 'ALSA' using the format 'DoP DSD64 (1x) 2ch).

The ALSA version is K4.19.75-v7l+
I have tried various configurations to no avail. Any suggestion would be appreciated.

thanks.

[Hauk]

Hi Clarus,

any luck solving your problem? I think the DSD playback in the current linux build is broken yet again.

[clarus7]

No luck yet.
I'm using latest Raspbian Buster with desktop (2019-09-26) build and 25.0.114.
If there is a known configuration that works, including the configuration within MC or the combination of kernel/ALSA/whatever, please share it here.
thanks.

[Hauk]

If it's not too much hassle, roll back to a previous version, that might solve your problem.

[clarus7]

Are you referring to previous version of MC or Raspian? Is there a known good configuration?

[clarus7]

Is there a known good configuration that DSD DoP on Pi4 would work, or there really isn't?

[Mike Noe]

Works here for me on an xDuoo USB DAC (SMSL too).  Nothing very interesting in the settings, just have DSP set to DOP and audio device is "output DSD as native" checked.

Pi4 with latest rpi-update firmware, etc.

[clarus7]

OK, made some progress. My previous mistake was setting Bitstream to DSD. Now with Bitstream to none, and DSP format set to DoP, it works for DSD64. However, with output encoding set to DSD in DoP, it will try to output everything in DSD. With PCM content, the audio would stutter.  In addition, when playing back DSD128, audio stutter as well. 
I am trying to have MC output the native format for all PCM formats and DSD (1x or 2x), i.e. no format conversion at all, or some refer to as bit perfect playback. What should be the setting for that?

[clarus7]

Today seems to be a good day. I went back and compare the config with my windows set up and everything is finally working with the following:
Audio device: hw:(name of DAC)[ALSA]
output format: off (deselected)
Bitstreaming: Yes (DSD)

That seems to do it for both PCM and DSD. Now I can play all PCM and DSD formats natively (as displayed on the DAC) with no stutter. CPU utilization never get above 20%.

[Awesome Donkey]

Yep, choosing the right audio device (hw: in this case) is likely the key here to get it working correctly. If you have Output Format set to DSD then the Raspberry Pi is converting everything to DSD (even DSD files), hence the stutters.