No DSD512 Sound with my iDSD micro

[Dominik_Peter]

Hello and thanks for your help

I have Parallelize Sigma Delta Modulation checked and the speed indication is at about 1.5 to 2.5.

So maybe i’m not getting DSD512 cause of the performance of the CPU?

[wizardofoz (Mr Fix It aka The Wiz)]

Have you checked with the iDSD support and @allo.com maybe if there could be a kernel issue or a Linux connectivity issue? I have a DSD dac that will go at 256 on windows but only 128 on Mac or Linux.

The allo guys might ask for some cli commands to see what alsa is doing etc too…hope you know how to ssh.

[xxx]

I have Parallelize Sigma Delta Modulation checked and the speed indication is at about 1.5 to 2.5.

From what I’ve been told 1.5 should be enough.

Have you checked with the iDSD support and @allo.com

You’re not using Allo board, right? I have iDSD it’s supported under macOS, without drivers.

If DSD512 is green in Settings->Device setup->Bit perfect format, then you’re good to go as far as transport goes.

What is the color of DSD512?

Also, it just occurred to me I’ve been here before. See if this helps -

iFi iDAC2 and DietPi

Ok I know the problem and the soluton. For bus powered DACs like the iDAC2, the Pi3 is a no go with high sample rates like DSD256 here, due to shared bus and ethernet. Slim and Fernando don’t have this issue because their Pi3 isn’t powering the iDAC2 - their iUSB3.0 was providing nice clean power to the iDAC2 and the Pi3 doesn’t have to. When fernando tried without the iUSB3.0 as above, he got the same pops I had. So I just tested my old man’s same setup that’s been having all the issues abo…

[xxx]

maybe i’m not getting DSD512 cause of the performance of the CPU

I’ve talked to iFi support in the past. They are very responsive.

I asked then about your problem and they told me that iFi Windows drivers are good for DSD512, but macOS drivers are only good for DSD256.

So, there it is.

[Dominik_Peter]

That could really be the problem. I’ve used HQPlayer for a short test to see if it depends on the Roon upsampling. And with HQPlayer ist totally worked fine but i had dropouts every few seconds.

So maybe it’s really the shared USB/Ethernet Port of the Raspberry Pi?

I think about to switch over to an Allo USBridge but i won’t believe that this is really improving my audioquality.

[xxx]

maybe it’s really the shared USB/Ethernet Port of the Raspberry Pi

Again, it isn’t the Pi, or not the Pi alone. And it isn’t solely clock speed, although your CPU is too slow.

The main problem, per iFi tech support, is that DSD512 is not supported under macOS. Nothing you can do, short of buying an Intel NUC and running Windows, will give DSD512 from your core machine.

[Dominik_Peter]

Correct me if i’m wrong but It doesn’t matter if the iDSD support DSD512 on MacOS because the data comes from the RoonBridge (Pi) and not from the Macbook.

If i connect the iDSD directly to the MacBook Pro then you are right and i’m even not able to select DSD512.

[xxx]

Correct me if i’m wrong but It doesn’t matter if the iDSD support DSD512 on MacOS because the data comes from the RoonBridge (Pi) and not from the Macbook.

OK, here’s the correction. The upsampling is happening on your core machine. The bridge running on the Pi is just receiving the converted data from the core, no upsampling happens on the bridge side. There wouldn’t be enough CPU on a Pi for that kind of processing. Now I understand your confusion and focus on what’s happening on the Pi, but it’s the core machine, the Mac, that’s the problem.