Geardaddy Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 Question to all you HQ geeks: what is the minimum Geekbench score to safely allow PCM>DSD 256 or even 512 without hiccups? I need to score a new Mac to run HQ.... Link to comment
Geardaddy Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 Before you figure out what Mac to get, you need to figure out how you're going to do DSD256 or DSD512 from a Mac. See what @ted_b says in Post #4475. Right now, the only way I know to do DSD rates higher than 128 is to use an ExaSound DAC with Exa's Mac ASIO driver. Once you've got that sorted, I'm thinking a loaded mini (3.0GHz dual-core i7, 16GB RAM) or better should be good for what you want, although you might be able to squeak by with a little less. Maybe @Miska can be more definitive about hardware requirements. --David I see. Thank you. I completely forgot about that bottleneck.....I emailed Miska as well so I'll see what he says.... Link to comment
Geardaddy Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 Yes, I stand corrected. I was able to do this after the 5.0A firmware upgrade and some futzing around on my iDSD nano hooked up to my Mac Pro. So @Geardaddy, please take note. DSD256 is do-able on a Mac; DSD512 is a problem. I apologize for the bad info. (I can only do DSD128 on my Mytek DAC, so I think that's what confused me.) --David No worries. My Lampizator will soon be able to process 512, so I hope to find a Mac solution for that and upsample everything to the hilt.....time will tell.... Link to comment
Geardaddy Posted January 15, 2016 Share Posted January 15, 2016 Just to be more clear, the restriction isn't so much the Mac or OS X--except for the fact that Coreaudio requires DoP to send DSD (unless you have a custom ASIO driven DAC like exaSound). It is the DoP 50% overhead required for framing. So a DoP capable USB input board/DAC (such as your Lampi when updated) that can accept the rate for 512 can be driven by a Mac/DoP setup to DSD256.If your DAC can only go non-DoP to 256, then DoP will only take you to 128. Exactly. I found this out after further scratching and an email from Lucas.... Link to comment
Geardaddy Posted January 15, 2016 Share Posted January 15, 2016 Yes, for this reason probably Lampizator has taken the Linux route for their PC offering. Indeed. The "Komputer" is a Linux beast.... Link to comment
Geardaddy Posted January 15, 2016 Share Posted January 15, 2016 This may be a sacrilegious question to ask in the context of this thread, but has anyone fiddled with a Phasure-type PCM (24/768) upsampling paradigm rather than DSD? Link to comment
Geardaddy Posted January 15, 2016 Share Posted January 15, 2016 Part of the reason I ask is I have always loved NOS dacs and wondered how they would fair against "chipless" DSD when fed an upsampled stream.... Link to comment
Geardaddy Posted January 15, 2016 Share Posted January 15, 2016 I plan on using a Linux based NAA or streamer fronted by a Mac server using Roon/HQplayer. I have now been told that this paradigm can spit out DSD1024 with no issues....case closed. I confess my ignorance.....the only remaining issue is to find a Mac with enough horsepower that does not cost 8k like the latest Mac Pros! I need to maximize Geekbench score for the least amount of $$$ Link to comment
Geardaddy Posted January 15, 2016 Share Posted January 15, 2016 No it is not sacrilegious.. You can do that too, although there are not so many PCM DACs out there. (note the difference between PCM DAC and a DAC that merely accepts PCM input) You can find one set of results here, DSC1 vs Metrum Musette: Signalyst DSC1 - Page 21 - diyAudio I will post more complete results for Musette on my blog here at CA once I find time. I have all the measurements done already. Both are discrete DAC implementations. Although DSC1 is not a finished product but a DIY design and work-in-progress project that keeps improving as time goes. To me, the DSC1 sounds much better than Musette, but I'm surely biased. I obtained the Musette because it can accept 352.8/384k input and is decently priced. I expect some improvements in performance with the more expensive models. Very interesting. I look forward to reading about it.... Link to comment
Geardaddy Posted January 15, 2016 Share Posted January 15, 2016 I just run my 1st DSD256 test with: Processing = MacBookPro 11,4 i7 2.2GHz, El Capitan 10.11.2, HQPlayer 3.12 (no tuning) NAA = Lenovo T410 i5, Linux Mint 17.3 (no tuning) DAC = JLsounds AKM4490 with JLsounds I2overUSB I/F PCM16/44 to DSD256 non-DoP > ~ 33-35% CPU (no pipeline SDM / closed-form / DSD257+fs) DSD64 to DSD256 non-DoP > ~18-20% CPU (no pipeline SDM / closed-form / DSD257+fs) Some comments: - pipeline SDM doesn't work with my system and HQP 3.12 (unable to play any file ... dunno why) - I experienced some rare dropouts (tried to tune buffer to 100mSec but sometimes still occur ... need to investigate) - MacBookPro at stable 30% usage doesn't spin fans too fast, so noise is definitely good Hope useful. Have a nice day. Massimiliano Thanks Massimiliano! That is very useful feedback.... Link to comment
Geardaddy Posted February 1, 2016 Share Posted February 1, 2016 I am working towards a Roon/HQP server>>NAA setup and wondered if anyone has succeeded in streaming DSD content wirelessly? Link to comment
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