The "Official" Aurender Discussion Thread

[ct545i]

On 5/7/2020 at 12:11 PM, AriMargolis said:

This is a really good question and I have been meaning to post something here about the Native DSD roll out that Aurender is doing right now.

Aurender is enabling Native DSD output model-by-model, because, well, it is just plain tricky. It is now enabled in the latest software updates for W20SE, ACS10, N10, N100H/N100C/N100SC, and X100L,

so that’s pretty much everyone (W20 “classic” is coming too at some point soon)
 

A little background on “Native” DSD vs. DoP. What the hell does it all mean?

DoP (DSD-over-PCM) remains the industry standard DSD transmission protocol. It involves the player/output software “re-packing” a DSD file into a PCM container along with a special flag or marker that alerts the DoP-compatible DAC to “un-pack” that file and process it as DSD. It is totally lossless and the file is processed by the DAC as true DSD. At no point is the actual digital information converted from DSD to PCM. It just puts on a PCM jacket for a second to get into the club, and takes it off when it’s ready to party. This is NOT to be confused or conflated with DSD to PCM conversion, which is a less desirable transcoding of DSD to PCM, from which there’s no going back. 
 

Now, some DACs, for example Chord Electronics’ amazing DAVE from the post quoted above, can actually process DSD input without this clever DoP repacking. However, unmarked or “Native” DSD transmissions nearly always require a custom driver to facilitate communication between the player and DAC. Chord has a custom driver for Windows to enable Native DSD input to the DAC from Windows. So, yes, the DAC technically supports Native DSD, but ONLY ON WINDOWS (for now). This is not to pick on Chord at all...it is true for the vast majority of DACs that claim Native DSD compatibility. Very few work with Linux right out of the box.

 

In many cases, Aurender’s SW team will be able to achieve Native DSD compatibility even if the DAC doesn’t explicitly support this functionality with a Linux source. But, it is not guaranteed. We cannot test every DAC on the market, so we need your help!

 

This is important: if you own a DAC that claims to support Native DSD, but it is not working with your Aurender, we would love to hear from you! Please send a remote support email from the app (Settings>Help>Send Remote Support Request Email) to let us know. Aurender is committed to enabling Native DSD support with as many DACs as possible, and the DAC manufacturers, including and especially Chord, have also been very cooperative. 

We have reached out to other Linux audio manufacturers to request sharing source codes in case they have added Native DSD support for DACs that we haven’t gotten to yet, and vice-versa. 
 

I hope this helps to understand.

Hi Ari, I sent a message to the Aurender support team - it seems Nagra HD DAC X should be added to the native DSD capable DACs list, as Nagra verified for me that the DAC does decode Native DSD, but my N10’s Conductor app states that it does not.  Thank you.

[ct545i]

Aurender support team has set up Native DSD functionality for Nagra HD DAC X. Thank you, Ari!