It means PCM digital filters are bypassed if you output at high enough sampling rate, or if you set it to “NOS” mode. For PCM inputs you still have sample-and-hold oversampling and delta-sigma modulators active. Note that you shouldn’t use this “NOS” mode for input rates below 352.8k, because it will run modulator at lower rate than it has been designed to be run.
For DSD, there is no digital processing in TI/BB chips, only analog conversion filter.
I think it is among the best options if you are looking for a portable high performance solution.
I would certainly stick to DSD256/DSD512 with Gryphon. This way it will perform just a a bit-perfect DAC.
If all goes well I may travel for a month or so this summer, so I started to think of portable HQP set with resasonable value to performance ratio: a) source + b) portable DAC + c) headphones
a) MacBook Air M1? Assuming this is “M1” - it should do 5 or 7ECv2@256 i suppose, plus it is fanless. Would there be a fanless or silent enought laptop capable of say 7ECv2@512?
b) portable DAC - seems Gryphon is the top of the list.
I also thought of FiiO Q3 or Q5, these are AKM chips, may be good for bit perfect SDM ?
c) headphones Sennheiser HD650 or Jussi mentions Shure SRH-1540 ?
It may have some challenges because it is thermal throttled similar way like iPad. So your CPU performance is not limited by the CPU capabilities, but by it’s thermal envelope instead due to limited cooling.
I have MacBook Pro with M1Max coming, which will be hopefully nice. I will report more once it arrives.
If the FiiO’s run AKM chips in DSD Direct mode. Which is not clear from the documentation, but at least it is possible, since they don’t use the on-chip digital volume control.
I don’t have personal experience with FiiO. I should probably get one for testing.
At the moment I use Gryphon myself.
SRH-1540 is very good because they also have good attenuation for external noises/sounds. Nice bass without annoying closed back resonances. And very neutral overall. And even better with Oratory 10-band PEQ correction.
Hi, someone suggested upsampling pcm to dsd.
Could anyone help with the settings to do so?
Dac is X26 Pro and manual says:
b. DSD Filter（DSD digital filter）： The X26pro has a total of 4 DSD filter cutoff frequencies that can be adjusted. When the menu item is selected, pressing the right button of the D-pad will cycle through the order of 47K - 50K - 60K - 70K, and press the left button of the D-pad to reverse the loop. Please adjust according to the different DSD sampling rate of your playback. For example, if you listen to DSD64 (2.82M) most, it is recommended to use 47K. Choosing a larger bandwidth means more high frequency details.
That’s it? Thank you! Much easier than I anticipated. How would I do differentiate between dsd 64/256/512 and the modulator and bitrate? Or is this not applicable?
What about under SDM defaults like modulator, bit rate, etc.?
I just tried DSD upscaling with HQP for the first time and I am getting the some white noise when starting playback a few seconds before the music starts.
What’s more strange is the noise remains if I switch from SDM back to source/pcm. I have tried closing Roon and HQP, toggling between inputs, filters, nos on/off and nothing will make the noise go away. I have to turn the unit off and back on. This is the same noise I was hearing with NOS off using HQP and only showed on Gentle and Composite filter.
Also, switching from source in HQP back to SDM, the X26P won’t initiate DSD and shows PCM. I can only trigger this with another power cycle.
First thing I’d recommend to disable “48k DSD” and set default output rate to 44.1k x256. Using 48k DSD on ESS based DACs where one doesn’t actually support it is common source for such noises.
You will need to select a filter that can convert between rate families, practically meaning something from poly-sinc group.
I made these changes and full reboot. I don’t understand. Why is there static, light clicks and crackle before playback with constant hiss when in DSD mode? It reduces with medium gain on my Ferrum Oor and remains after playback stops. The only way to make it go away is with a power cycle of X26Pro.
If I go back to PCM it is completely black background no matter the gain.
You could be running out of CPU power. Try with lighter filter and modulator. For example poly-sinc-short-lp-2s and ASDM5. See if it makes any difference.
DAC is buggy if manufacturer didn’t bother to test DSD properly.
Good afternoon, I also have X26pro, and I have a similar problem, which does not depend on the use of hqplayer. Every time when playing dsd format, a noise appears in one of the channels of the DAC, similar to white with a changing level, it is most possible to hear it if the volume of the DAC at the minimum and the amplifier volume at the maximum
to remove the noise it is enough to turn off and on the DAC and not run dsd. I checked with other sources for the DAC, the problem repeated itself. I contacted the store where I bought it, they did not hear the defect … I wrote directly to the manufacturer, they also did not answer …
but still the level of this noise is very low, and in order to hear it, you need to pause and put your ear to the speaker, the quality increase is much audible when using hqplayer, I convert to dsd and the sound of the cymbals becomes more refined, on HF I have fountek neo cd2 . In speakers with conventional HF, the difference is not so noticeable.but still in the future I am going to eliminate this defect, I myself am an electronics engineer, it seems to me that this noise may occur in analog cascades after the DAC chip, you need to look with an oscilloscope. see what to do…
I want to set it up for DSD256 and DSD512 (without and with NAA Rpi4=>512) Any settings or tips I should follow?
Since I will be using the RPi4 NAA for neo DAC, should I make a new copy image to erase previous settings we stored on DAC-60?
Will be connected to the balanced amplifier port on my Accuphase and I’ll keep the internal DAC-60 on a separate zone with Roon and the neo will be connected to the Balanced CD audio port as a Roon HQPlayer zone.
audio port as a Roon HQPlayer zone.
