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[dannylin]

I'm using MC26.0.103 for Mac.

Running under Catalina 10.15.6 under a MBP 2017.

I was about to play an album that I purchased from the HDTT - https://www.highdeftapetransfers.com/products/bach-sonata-in-g-major-s-1027-sonata-in-d-major-s-1028-janos-starker-gyorgy-sebok

It is DSD256 .dsf files. I remembered I used to be able to play them on my MBP previously, but somehow it just did not work today. And I got this error:



Can someone please shed some light on what is going on and how to fix this?

[stefano_mbp]

What dac are you using?

[Awesome Donkey]

If you're using a DSD capable DAC, enable DSD bitstreaming.

https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/DSD

[dannylin]

Ahh. I just read that "By default, DSD sources will be converted to PCM for playback and handled by the Media Center audio engine like any other file type.".

In such case, it should be converted to PCM for playback, no?

I did not connect my MBP with a DAC for now as I'm not trying to get it played at DSD256.

Now I know I will need a DAC to play the DSD256 files?

Actually, I'm a bit confused.

I have purchased another album (DSD128) from the same site, and I was able to play these files using MC26 without connecting to an additional DAC.

Is there anything that I missed or misunderstood?

[JimH]

You can play the file by setting MC to convert it to PCM when it plays.  The error message tells you how.

[Manfred]

See my post today regarding the Mcintosh Preamp.

[dannylin]

You can play the file by setting MC to convert it to PCM when it plays.  The error message tells you how.

Hi Jim,

I did not change the default setting.
And I just realize this is not an MC issue but macOS'.

I happened to upgrade to Catalina 10.15.6 earlier last week. I guess there's a bug in Catalina 10.15.6 that my audio devices (including Mac's owned ones) will be gone. That is why the error was shown because when the audio device was gone, Core Audio cannot be even able to output to a null device.

Maybe it is a good test case for the MC27 to show the respective error message when the audio device was somehow gone, and Core Audio was not able to output.

In the case that I have suffered, first, I will see the error message that I have attached above, and then after several times of trials, when I relaunch MC26, MC will crash.

By the way, I tried to play other mp3 files, and I cannot play them for sure because the audio device was not there for the Core Audio to output.

[modified the subject title to reflect my findings]

[dannylin]

You can play the file by setting MC to convert it to PCM when it plays.  The error message tells you how.

Jim - can you please help take a look into this issue?

Added more info on how to reproduce this issue.

After MC26 is launched, change audio output device (earphone, headphone, etc.) will cause MC26 unstable.

There will be no music output as stated in my first post. Close MC26 and relaunch it will cause the MC26 application unresponsive. Check System Preference > Sound, and it is unresponsive too. You will have to reboot your Mac to resolve the problem.

Aug 3, 2020 - here's what I have tried today. I try to connect my iFi xDSD (Bluetooth DAC) to my MBP today, and MC26 was unable to output music to my xDSD.

I thought there might be a problem of my xDSD and launch Chrome browser, open YouTube, and it can output music via my xDSD to the earphone that I connected with it.

Re-launch MC26, and I saw it tried to detect my output audio device (on the Mac top toolbar, I saw the Sound icon is flashing). Then I tried to check System Preference > Sound and found it becomes unresponsive. Reboot my MBP with earphone directly connected to MBP, and everything went back to normal. Very weird, and never happen before.

[bob]

It sounds like there is something wacky with your MBP.
Using the latest build (26.0.106) on both a 2014 MBP and Mac Mini both running 10.15.6 and I can't reproduce your issue.
I'm also using for this test a iFi device (iDSD LE). It plays DSD and PCM fine. When I select the device in MC and I pull the plug on it, MC just reverts to core audio.

[dannylin]

It sounds like there is something wacky with your MBP.
Using the latest build (26.0.106) on both a 2014 MBP and Mac Mini both running 10.15.6 and I can't reproduce your issue.
I'm also using for this test and iFi device (iDSD LE). It plays DSD and PCM fine. When I select the device in MC and I pull the plug on it, MC just reverts to core audio.

Yep, not sure why. But it did happen on newer build of MC26. Used to be okay on older versions.