Can't identify my DAC

Gigatoaster · August 18, 2018, 9:36am

Hello there

I just bought a Teac AI-503 with KEF R300 and I am trying Roon. I like it a lot. However, it seems that my DAC is fully not recognized. I can’t play DSD files “natively”. How can I check if it can play natives DSD files?

Any suggestions?

ivan · August 18, 2018, 10:26am

Hi, @Gigatoaster, thanks for the report, could you please go to Settings->Audio->press on Gear-button and check your settings for this device? This is the tab you need to look for:

Also, it would be good if you could give this article a read.

Thanks!

–
Ivan

Gigatoaster · August 18, 2018, 11:00am

Thanks for looking at my issue.

As requested here is the screenshot of the device options:

Gigatoaster · August 18, 2018, 11:06am

@ivan

I read the article you mentioned: DSD native is not accessible, is there a way to force it?

Henry_McLeod · August 18, 2018, 12:41pm

You have DSP volume set. Is that why it converts to PCM?

RBM · August 18, 2018, 2:07pm

From the looks of it, you are connecting your TEAC to a Mac. Apart from the odd exception where a manufacturer created their own macOS drivers (Exasound springs to mind), there’s no ‘native’ DSD on macOS – just DoP.

Native DSD is available on Windows (again, with custom device drivers) or on Linux (for a limited number of DACs for which custom patches are applied to / included in the kernel).

The late, great Steve Jobs once called BluRay a ‘bag of hurt’. He obviously was not aware of DSD at the time.

Gigatoaster · August 19, 2018, 12:08am

@Henry_McLeod: even with DSP volume removed (device volume), it is not working.
@RBM: I was not aware that DSD files was available on Windows or Linux only. I tried 2 other players:

Audirvana who can’t recognize either natively my DAC:

And Teac Player who can:

Is this a issue with my DAC or Roon? Or should I buy a Windows PC?

andybob · August 19, 2018, 2:36am

Any difference between DoP and native DSD is completely imperceptible to me.

Rugby · August 19, 2018, 4:35am

Remember the comment that it takes special drivers to do native DSD on a MAC. TEAC seems to have made the drivers but embedded them into their application so that only their application can do native DSD on a MAC. Any other software must use DOP, like Audrivana or Roon.

Gigatoaster · August 19, 2018, 4:50am

I see. Well, I am satisfied with what I have so I won’t bother anymore with all that technology thingy and just enjoy the music, which I am more and more.

Rugby · August 19, 2018, 5:02am

And really, there is no difference between “native” DSD and DSD over DOP.

Henry_McLeod · August 19, 2018, 6:31am

@Henry_McLeod: even with DSP volume removed (device volume), it is not working.

Does it do anything differently when you make that change?