Enable native DSD playback

General Discussion
1

I understood that DietPi enables “native” DSD playback as opposed to playback over DoP protocol.
I can’t get it to work with my RPi4. I only get sound if I playback in DoP. My DAC is native DSD capable and it is recognized in dietpi - the DAC appears under the list of USB playback devices.

Is native DSD playback possible, and if so, how do I enable it?

Thanks for your help. I did search for the answer and didn’t find it.
BTW, I updated my software to the latest version before writing this - that didn’t help.

2

@MichaIng you are our sound expert. Could you have a look pls?

3

Native DSD vs DoP is done in application level, not on system sound/ALSA settings level (where e.g. dietpi-config or so would have influence). Which application do you use and how did you try to switch between native DSD and DoP?

The kernel driver also needs to support it. Which USB DAC is it?

4

Hi-
Applications for DSD playback are Roon/Roon Bridge or also HQPlayer to HQPlayer NAA.
The DAC is Cayin iDAC6 MK2: iDAC6 appears in the list of DACs in the “audio” portion of the setup and is chosen as the DAC. Should I choose generic USB DAC instead?
HQP lets you choose native or DoP output.

5

That wouldn’t make a difference, the detected DAC should be fine.

Sadly I cannot find any hint about whether iDAC6 works with native DSD on RPi or Linux in general. Probably something to ask Cayin customer support.

6

I found this: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/bit-perfect-audio-from-linux.561961/post-12442071

I have an iDAC-6 at home, set up mpd to output DSD over PCM but it still downsamples to 352.8MHz. It seems that ALSA doesn’t detect the DAC as DoP capable device.

Alrighty.
What DSD format’s you are trying?

DSD 64 (dff files)
mpd: 0.19.10 (from Packman repository)
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version k4.1.15-8-default.

And some posts later somebody wrote:

“The DSD to PCM conversion process converts from 1-bit DSD to 64-bit PCM at 1/8th of the DSD sample rate. The total amount of data from this conversion grows by 8x, so the process is effectively lossless / perfect. Once you have PCM, it will be 64bit @ 352.8 kHz for DSD”

There you go, apparently that is perfectly normal for DSD64. Just for me personally: do either of your dac’s allow straight dsd without dop? I kind of wish i had one on hand to play with for future dsd based problems.

I have no understanding about this audio technical stuff, but it seems like it is working in 2015 on System: OpenSUSE Leap 42.1, mpd 0.19.10, Cantata 2.0.0?!

7

Yes, “DSD over PCM” (DoP) is working, hence passing the DSD stream through PCM, but native DSD, bypassing PCM completely, which requires the kernel’s USB sound driver to support it, is so far not working :slightly_smiling_face:.

8

Oh ok, see I didn’t know that DoP means DSD over PCM and I didn’t research it :sweat_smile:

Maybe worth hooking up to this thread, a user (maybe it’s even firedog55?) asked the same question there, just an hour ago:
https://community.roonlabs.com/t/dsd-nativo-in-kernel-ubuntu-studio-18-04-for-usb-audio-dac-cayin/125991/8