Hi,
QNAP NAS TS-453B with Roon Server running, followed by a MX-DAC from Musical Fidelity via USB. Works fine except for DSD audio files (DSD64). Those won’t play and I actually don’t know if my QNAP is able to play DSD (the DAC is). The support first said, no QNAP can play DSD and then corrected themselves with a “yes, they can”, followed by instructions that won’t help even with their own music software. My guess now is that certain models of QNAPs are able to play DSDs and others just are not.
Maybe one of you know more than the QNAP support, as I read about QNAP and DSD here.
thanks for your feedback. Are there any settings you had to change/activate to get DSD files playing? The only settings I can find are within QNAPs own music app.
The server does not dictate if it plays DSD its the DAC. Likely the DAC does not allow DSD on linux, QNAP is a linux OS. DSD support on Linux for DAC’s can be tricky. I would look to check if it supports native DSD playback on Linux. If it does it needs to be in the linux kernel used on the QNAP’s OS for it to support it. It looks like it probably doesn’t if its not returning this info back to Roon.
The NAS runs QNAPs QTS version 4.4.1 which includes Linux Kernel 4.14 (LTS). So, according to the DAC’s manual’s 2.6.35 it should be no problem.
I have the feeling that not all QNAP NAS are capable of playing DSD files. John Aiello’s above mentioned NAS is a far more expensive model than mine, so QNAP could propably limit this to the “better” models as playing DSD might be very CPU and/or bandwidth hungry.
You don’t say how your system is configured so I will tell you how mine is configured in case it helps. You are asking about settings. That suggests that you are connecting directly to your QNAP to play music. My QNAP runs my Core and stores my music but that’s all it does. It’s connected via ethernet to my network. I use an Auralic Aries G1 streamer to access Roon via Ethernet over my network and then stream to my DAC. There literally are no settings on my QNAP to tweak. If you are trying to play music via the QNAP directly then my advice can be of no help to you.
How about he tells us how his system is configured and all the pieces before we attempt to fix his problem? You just made two separate guesses that may or may not be anything close to the issue. Guy goes to the doctor. Doctor says amputate!!! Guy says I have a tooth ache, isn’t this the dentist?
I have a QNAP 453Be and I play DSD64/128 without any issues. I have Roon on the QNAP and ethernet into a PS Audio DAC through network.
My guess is your DAC or setup problem somewhere.
Sorry for keeping my setup a secret. It’s the same as John Aiello’s: Music files and Roon Server on the NAS, the DAC is connected to it via USB. All other files but the DSD files play fine. I tested the DAC with DSD files on my MAC and it worked there.
The behaviour is strange with the DSD files though. Roon sees them and plays them, but the DAC doesn’t seem to recognize them, as they are not indicated as DSD files there. There’s just silence. It doesn’t matter if I I tell Roon to pass them through as DSD files or tell Roon to convert them to PCM on the fly.
With all the above, I came to the conclusion that my NAS can’t play DSD files. But as Jumbuck seems to have the same NAS I propably just have missed a setting?
Its not the NAS it’s doing nothing other than sending data. Just because the DAC plays DSD via Mac does not rule out the DAC. It just might not be compatible with Qnaps OS, Linux and DSD is a complicated thing and does not always work.
Are you using any DSP ? What’s your signal path showing?
That was my second guess, that the DAC has problems with the NAS and/or the Linux behind it. I already contacted the DAC’s support. My first guess was that my NAS model doesn’t support DSD, Jumbduck proofed me wrong, as she/he has the same QNAP NAS.
As for the DSP settings: thanks for the hint. It took me a while to find them and everything was default. I played around a bit with the settings but every combination I chose had the same results.
I guess I close this thread, wait for the DAC-support to answer me and meanwhile convert my DSD to FLAC, which is ok for me.
