Sonore - Audirvana Plus 3.1 Output Mode

[jamesg11]

Ok, getting some periods of annoying dropouts with A+ into ultraRendu.

 

Context: ultraRendu arrived a week or so back. No ethernet connection in room with audio gear. Uptoned 2011 macmini, iDSD micro BE dac.

 

Aware of the direct mac connection guide from Jesus. But went down that 'novel way to massively improve' ...

 

Bought a d-link dap-1650 wifi extender & powered it with a lpsu & set it up in its 'bridge mode'.

Ran ethernet from rendu & macmini (via TB adaptor) into it. HD into macmini via usb for music files. All good. Played it this way for a couple of days.

 

Then I went 'novel' - rendu ethernet into macmini & macmini TB adaptor into d-link. Set up bridge in Manage Virtual Interfaces. All good, & sounded really good!, for a short while only. Stuttering etc.

So I tweaked around on the macmini with A+ & got it playing for several hours without issue, & then stuttering resumed on & off ... unstable, unpredictable.

 

Ideas?

[jamesg11]

Yes, correct re the wifi bridge - only got connection solid & consistent when I did a direct ethernet to router connect. The 'novel' bridge survives though.

 

Pity about the 10m of ethernet cable now running into the next room!

[jamesg11]

Thanks Sean, appreciated - you probably guessed that I don't know much of this stuff!

 

Tri-band, whoever knew ...? Will definitely look into improving the wifi here, though I've got A+ working steadily enough now.

[jamesg11]

What are the A+ settings - or anything else in the chain - to pay attention to in order to alleviate my skipping/stuttering issues? Just now playing an sacd iso ... on-going intermittent troubles!

3.1.5

[jamesg11]

I can now play dsd iso, dsf64 & pcm redbook without issue - but any higher res files or upsampling is a stuttering mess. The macmini does much better than this with A+ direct into dac or with iso regen in between. Damien hasn’t really explained the fix required.

Wait for the windows A+ & get a sonic transporter I suppose ...

 

(Roon is good for every res file, but upsampling is an issue).

[jamesg11]

On 11/10/2017 at 2:57 PM, jamesg11 said:

What are the A+ settings - or anything else in the chain - to pay attention to in order to alleviate my skipping/stuttering issues? Just now playing an sacd iso ... on-going intermittent troubles!

3.1.5

Yes, barrows & jcn3, hence my question above.

[jamesg11]

A+ has the 512 indicated - you then need a dac that can do 1024. DOP rule for mac?

[jamesg11]

My understanding, fwiw, is that mac can only do DOP - hence, if I want dsd512,  I need a dac that is capable of ~x2 the pcm rate of my current iDSD micro which does 768 pcm & does dsd256 (only with roon! or mac direct to dac!). The iDSD micro will do dsd512 with windows & native dsd.

[jamesg11]

3 hours ago, vortecjr said:

Not with "native" DSD streaming. Those are DoP streaming rates.  

 

3 hours ago, barrows said:

Yes, of course.  You mean to say that the DAC diagnostics reads PCM rates for DSD?  So instead of saying, for example instead of saying: 2.8224 MHz for DSD, the DAC diagnostic will read 88.2 kHz when outputting native DSD (1) to a DAC?

 

2 hours ago, vortecjr said:

Yes. Because it shoves 2.8224 MHz into a 88.2kHz / 32 bit PCM signal. 

Does this mean that it doesn’t matter if you run from mac os into the rendu, other than processing power for A+?

Well ... what is the take away here then ...?

[jamesg11]

.... the mystery remains murky ...

[jamesg11]

On 25/11/2017 at 11:09 AM, vortecjr said:

There is no mystery as fas as I know:) When you place the Rendu in MPD/DLNA output mode and check that it supports native DSD that is what it's expecting. A+ arranges for whatever resampling rate you set in it's preferences and afterwards it presents a URL to the Rendu for that stream. The Rendu then takes that stream (either PCM or DSD) and it outputs to your device via the appropriate format which are all listed in DAC Diagnostics. In the case of DSD it uses the native DSD driver built into Linux if your DAC supports it. As an example the resulting rate of 88.2 in DAC Diagnostics is what is used for DSD64.  

So, this check box under MPD/DLNA settings should be checked if you use mac os & A+? - what does it do in regard to A+?

 

“ This will enable Direct DSD to your DAC instead of DoP. Your DAC must support Direct DSD to use this feature.”

[jamesg11]

Well, months into 3.1 ... there’s been no fix for A+ into ultraRendu - & Roon works perfectly all the while. Done the round of support access.