DSD64, DSD128 AND DSD256 are now natively supported in direct DSD mode on Volumio!
Yes, finally DSD Direct is available on Volumio, your favourite audiophile music Player. The formats supported in the new Direct DSD mode are:
- DSD64 (Single-rate DSD)
- DSD128 (Double-rate DSD)
- DSD256 (Quad-rate DSD)
- DSD512 (Octuple-rate DSD)
Previously, DSD Playback in Volumio was only possible via DoP (DSD over PCM) mode, which was encapsulating DSD Audio into PCM samples. You can see DoP as a “compatibility mode” for non direct DSD capable DACs: files would still play, but losing the supposed advantages of DSD. Instead, direct DSD mode allows DSD Playback the way its meant to be played, on compatible DACs.
DSD What?
As you may know, DSD is considered the new de-facto standard for Hi-Resolution music playback, although its improvements over Hi-Resolution PCM audio are highly debated. We will cover the technical aspects of DSD Audio and its differences between PCM in a future article, but those articles represent a great introduction to the matter:
- What is DSD, from Wikipedia
- A very comprehensive explanation on DSD, from Native DSD
- How DSD is handled on MPD
Test DSD Files
And as always, what really matters in the end is how Music sounds. So your best bet to understand how DSD Audio fits into your listening sessions is to try for yourself.
And the best way to start is to get some free DSD audio samples:
- Get the same tracks encoded in different formats (both hi res PCM and DSD) here
- Same as above, but native DSD encodings here
- Free samples from Blue Coast Music Group
What’s needed to enter the DSD Direct Club
As previously mentioned, DSD Direct requires a DSD Capable DAC. As of now unfortunately no I2S DAC has this capability (mainly due to a combination of hardware and driver’s idiosyncrasies). Therefore the only way to go DSD Direct is to use a USB DAC. Specifically, USB DACs equipped with XMOS receivers are your best bet (also the Amanero Combo384 USB receiver).
If you don’t have a direct DSD capable DAC, and you’re thinking on getting one, the iFi iMicro DSD BL and IFI Nano iDSD LE are just a very convenient way to get an outstanding quality DSD direct DAC. If instead you already have a direct DSD capable DAC a truly suggested accessory is the The iFi – iPurifier2 USB Reclocker
[products skus=” B00M50FLWK, B010Q39XJE, IPURIFIER2″]
How direct DSD and DoP work in Volumio
This great addition comes thanks to the awesome work that Max Kellerman has done with MPD 0.26, and this is basically what you need to know:
- Direct DSD playback is available from version 2.163
- If you have a direct DSD DAC, just select DoP off and Volumio will play your DSD files natively up to the resolution supported by your DAC
- If your DAC does not support Direct DSD (or the resolution at which you’re playing them) it will automatically convert DSD to PCM
- This conversion is done with a multi-threaded Ultra Hi quality resampler: SOXR . On slower devices (like PI 1 and 2) this might result in stuttering. Try then to enable Resampling and choose a lower quality algorythm or a lower target samplerate or bithdepth
- Alternatively, if your DAC does not support Direct DSD but supports DoP (DSD over PCM), turn DoP on.
- Since no I2S DAC is capable of playing direct DSD, DSD files will be sampled up to the max I2S DAC resolution supported (usually 24\192), in this mode DoP should be set to off
That’s all folks! Enjoy your DSD Music with Volumio!
Hi, after some test, I found that Volumio doesn’t recognize WavPack compressed DSD streams
From http://www.wavpack.com/WavPack5PortingGuide.pdf:
“An application has three options for dealing with WavPack files containing DSD audio. The first is to do nothing, in which case WavPack will report an error when attempting to open such a file (the error is “not configured to handle DSD WavPack files!”). This is what unmodified applications will see.
The second option is to include the flag OPEN_AS_PCM when opening the WavPack file. In this case, the DSD file will be appear as 24-bit PCM, and will automatically be decimated 8X during decoding. This allows applications that cannot natively handle DSD audio to do so. Note that this will still result in a very high sampling rate (352.8 kHz for DSD64) with lots of remaining quantization noise and should therefore be further down-sampled before use. This is how the WavPack Cool Edit and Audition filters and the winamp plugin handle DSD audio (the winamp plugin downsamples another 4x for playback while the Audition filters assume that the user will do this as they see fit). In this mode WavpackGetBitsPerSample() returns 24 and WavpackGetBytesPerSample() returns 3 when a DSD file is opened.
The third option is to include the flag OPEN_DSD_NATIVE when opening the WavPack file. In this case, the DSD file will be appear as 8-bit PCM, but each 8-bit PCM sample returned will actually be 8 consecutive 1-bit DSD samples, with the MSB being first temporally (same as DSDIFF). The channels are interleaved at the sample level (just like PCM) and these 8-bit DSD bytes are returned in the lower 8 bits of 32-bit integers (just like 8-bit PCM is returned). In this mode WavpackGetBitsPerSample() returns 8 and WavpackGetBytesPerSample() returns 1 when a DSD file is opened.”
Michaelangello Than You. For your help it worked.
I don’t have anI2S dac so I skipped step #4 of the Installation Instructions.
Perhaps a note that says *use these settings for most standard DACS.
Love the sound thru the Digione and Volumio!
Thanks again.
Mike Panucci
What about this DAC
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ES9038-Q2M-DAC-DSD-Decoder-Support-IIS-DSD-384KHz-Coaxial-Fiber-DOP-/272844357070?afsrc=1&rmvSB=true
No again. And I suggest to go with the DAC we advertise on our shop, for 2 reasons:
1- They will work flawlessly, since we have only tested and proven equipment with good price\quality.
2- You will support manufacturers and the Volumio project, and its your chance to give back what you get with Volumio.
Does Volumio on RPi3 support this I2S DAC with ES9028Q2M?
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Assembly-ES9028Q2M-ES9028-I2S-DSD-Input-DAC-Decoders-Board-With-Soft-Control-CPU-/182568706320?hash=item2a81f16110:g:Gq0AAOSwdjNZEz0C&clk_rvr_id=1336853468447&rmvSB=true
No, as far as I know.
Hi there !
Any update about SACD ISO feature?
Thanks a lot for your work!
Hi, WavPack compressed DSD streams are played by Direct DSD?
Hi, Is there a way to disable the automatic DSD to PCM conversion, so that if the USB DAC doesn’t recognise the DSD stream then nothing plays?
Unfortunately my USB DAC does not have an interface that shows the file type playing.
Hello,
I have a Bryston BDA-3 that supports native DSD. When I enable the direct DSD feature on Volumio, it still resamples to PCM. DoP works as expected. Any ideas?
I’m currently using 2.201 on rPi2 connect to dam1021 through Amanero Combo384 with latest FW(1099) which support native DSD.
However, when native DSD was selected, my DAC shows the signal is 352K PCM. On the other hand, if DoP was selected, it shows DSD 2.8M. I think dam1021 support DSD, is there any solution to make sure it actually playing at native DSD mode?
Thanks for all of the great work! I’m currently running pi B+ with Volumio version 2.246 feeding into a Teac UD-503 DAC. During initial playback over DSD 2.8mhz I do encounter a pop sound before the track start after that there is no problem. Hopefully this can be corrected on future version releases. If additional information is required to help please let me know.
Or This ?? :
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HiFi-AK4497EQ-DAC-Decoder-I2S-DSD-Input-Finished-Product-/132132202646?hash=item1ec3b16896:g:xusAAOSwXetZPhFm
You have mentioned “no I2S DAC has the capability to play DSD direct”, is this one possible ?:
http://www.diyinhk.com/shop/audio-kits/118-768khz32bit-ak4497eq-dac-i2sdsd-input.html#/oled-null/ak449x_option-isolated_xmos_768k_and_dac_pcbwith_dac_chip
Great work first of all and thanks for the new software version. Just some feedback here. I am running a RPI 3/USB straight into Gustard X20u (XMOS). Initially, the DAC indicates DSD256. Upon playing DSD64 files, the DAC switches back to PCM 384kHz (presumably because of the soxr functions?). Tried DSD native and DSD over DoP settings. Sounds great with PCM/384, but I would prefer to play DSD natively.
For some reasons your DAC does not recognize the DSD64 output sent by Volumio. Make sure your volume is always at 100 when you play DSD files. Let me know how it goes
not on the Odroid C2 distribution. still plain old alsa
we updated libasound2, which is the alsa core. If you check the alsa version by doing aplay -v you’ll see the old alsa version.
See here:
https://github.com/volumio/Build/commit/b7a2832af7a9557a1f557497824d9f4327b975d0
libasound version is 1.1.3
Hey, the MPD website info is wrong, for native DSD to work, ALSA version has to be greater than 1.0.29 or later
So the although Volumio updates MPD to 0.20.6, native DSD still not working in Volumio, which still uses the 1.0.28 alsa, need to update ALSA and recompile.
Hi, you’re wrong. Volumio uses alsa 1.1.3, we updated it in order to have directDSD enabled.
On Oridod C2 distribution, seems still old alsa
I am using SMSL M8A DAC. I have turned the DoP to off position in order to play in native DSD mode. But my DAC shows that a sampling rate of 352.0kHz instead of 2.82MHz during playback of a dsf file. Its seem Volumio has converted the native DSD to PCM. How can I check on the Volumio side if it is sending out signal in native DSD or has already converted to PCM ?
Hi, if you see it, it means that your DAC is not capable (or compatible with the direct DSD implementation) with direct DSD
[…] 情報源: Direct DSD support on Volumio up to DSD512 · Volumio […]
Me too i’am waiting for this option too. Play my iso sacd directly on Volumio.
Convert all those iso sacd is too crazy.
Hy
A VERY nice feature.
How about the feature to use DSD file direct from SACD ISO files, instead of DSF file.
I have a lot off SACD ISO Files that is used with a HTPC in my rack and I’m waiting just this feature to put HTPC out of my rack.
It will be possible to mount SACD .ISO files?
This is the final feature that I need to put a Volumio Device in my rack and put my cumputer out of there.
We’re studying an option to make it available
Great news. I have a DSD DAC, but which board do you recommend to play DSD files?
I recommend this:
https://volumio.org/product/volumio-mini86/
Because:
– Ready to play solution (comes to you with Volumio preinstalled, turn it on and it works)
– X86 USB Bus is better than PI and most single board computers
– It can handle DSD512 flawlessly
– For best results you can also add ipurifier2 (reclocking, galvanic isolation & USB power cleaning)
– It’s my main system configuration (the one I use to do critical listenings)