Saturday, 7 September 2013

HOWTO: Getting JRiver MC19 PCM to 2xDSD (DSD128) upsampling working on TEAC UD-501...

A quick post here for those trying to get beta JRiver MC19's 2xDSD (DSD128) upsampling working on the TEAC UD-501. [Currently I'm using beta MC19.0.37.]

See the thread here where the discussion was started - thanks for putting attention on this InflatableMouse. Apparent there are some buffer issues with the TEAC driver and native ASIO, and at this point MC19 isn't supporting a 2xDSD upsampling with DoP option. Here's a workaround:

1. Download and install ASIOProxyInstall-0.6.5 from the SourceForge link here.
2. Go into MC19 and set audio device as "foo_dsd_asio [ASIO]", Bitstreaming as "Yes (DSD over PCM (DOP))". Should look like this:
3. Now lets set up ASIOProxy itself. Go into that "Device settings..." tab. Look at the "Tools" section and click "Open Driver Control Panel...". You'll see this pop up:
Make the settings as above especially with Fs as DSD128.

4. Finally, go into "DSD & output format..." in MC19 and set output format to "2xDSD in native format":

There you go.

Should now be listening to all PCM music upsampled to DSD128 on the TEAC. Native DSD files will be bitstreamed in their respective DSD64 or DSD128 forms direct to the DAC without MC19 processing like volume control.

Using an AMD A10-5800K processor, I'm seeing CPU use peaking at ~20% and usually 10-15%  even with upsampling 24/192 music. Not bad!

Hopefully TEAC and JRiver can come up with a solution for native ASIO streaming or support of DSD128 upsampling in DoP in the future...

BTW: I just got back from holidays a little jet lagged so haven't played with this much yet. However, on my system, upsampling to DSD64/128 certainly sounds different than PCM and I can certainly see the appeal - there seems to be more weight to the bass and the sound isn't as "etched".  There is a bit of level difference between DSD & PCM playback so I will need to listen more back and forth to see which setting I prefer.

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11 comments:

  1. solderdude7 September 2013 at 17:48

    What has the DMAC Protocol to say about the perceived differences and which one is closer (more true) to the original PCM waveform ?

    Any differences in THD between the analog out using PCM and converted to DSD ?




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    1. Archimago8 September 2013 at 09:10

      It's going to be really tough getting the DMAC working well on this - volume differences are quite noticeable between DSD and PCM playback. If I use the analogue attenuators on the E-MU, that's going to affect the results already.

      I bet there's going to be significant differences in the other measurements (not the least of which high frequency noise from the noise shaping). I'll try to get a set of RightMark results... Should be interesting!!

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  2. Anonymous10 September 2013 at 06:21

    If it really sounds different then it is because conversion to DSD is a *lossy* process that also adds enormous amounts of high frequency noise to the signal, which, when not appropriately filtered out with a low pass filter (oh the irony!) can cause big problems in downstream components.

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  3. Mike Galusha11 September 2013 at 11:17

    Thanks for posting this. Using the Teac in my work system, certainly different than std 44.1 PCM.

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    1. Archimago12 September 2013 at 21:32

      Thanks Mike. Glad to see you got it working.

      I'll post up some measurements of what "happens" to the sound soon and would love to get a sense of your thoughts on the process...

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    2. Mike Galusha17 September 2013 at 07:29

      I look forward to seeing your measurements. If I don't forgot I'll take the DAC home and feed in into the dScope and send you the FFT of the spectrum if you like. Whatever is happening, I'm enjoying the results in my desktop system (Teac UD-501 > Slagleformer AVC > Mackie MR5's), somehow richer and less analytical. Even low bit rate MP3's are more enjoyable. Perhaps the way the DSD filtering works vs the PCM, certainly they are not the same. :) Again, thanks for posting this.

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  4. Mike Galusha17 September 2013 at 07:39

    I posted the above before I saw the results of your measurements. Thanks for the measurements, they are what I expected and at least we have a good reason for hearing a difference.

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  5. Unknown20 October 2013 at 08:25

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. Unknown16 November 2013 at 18:40

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. Unknown14 November 2015 at 04:41

    I know this is an old thread, but I'm posting in the hopes that you still monitor it.

    I just received my UD-501 yesterday and ran into a weird issue when setting it up. I have an Asus VivoPC (small factor) PC running JRiver connected to the UD-501 via USB.

    I also connect to NetFlix through this PC.

    When I first connected it all up, I tried listening to NetFlix. Sounded great!

    I then listened to some digital files through JRiver (after following your instructions above). The UD-501's display read DSD 5.6MHz.

    But when I then went back to listen to NetFlix, there is no audio? And the UD-501 displays a flashing 'USB Ready'? It's as if Windows is no longer 'seeing' the UD-501?

    Any ideas as to what is up?

    cheers,
    Norm

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