Pi 2 Design Mercury Streamer

[Riccitone]

Just got my Mercury...

 

Outstanding SQ! Makes my allo digione seem like a toy radio by comparison. Simply using Volumio. Haven't been able to get away from my system all day (nirvana).

 

Now, have an issue already. Not a big one, but hoping some of you here can help with this. Running coax to my Topping D70s works just fine. But trying I2S connection is not playing anything. I am getting the typical sign (bit rate display) screen change when I hit play to indicate that it's receiving data , just no sound.

 

D70s has about six different pin-out settings within it's internal settings menu, but requires a combination of two possible choices/selections within three different areas in the menu. Not sure if I've tried every single combination, I'll need to go back and track them with a piece of paper and pencil - which is ridiculous to have to do but I really would like to hear the I2s option. And yes, I'm plugging the hdmi cable into each corresponding I2s socket (both on mercury and dac).

 

Is there something I need to change in Volumio? Could this have something to do with the DAC selection in the settings menu of Volumio? THe default was hifiberry + dac (I think). Left it there as the instructions for the Mercury explained not changing this during setup.

 

Or, does someone here have a D70s running i2s and have insight on which combination I need to select for the Mercury?

 

Perplexing, as I can see it's getting data when starting a track.

 

Thanks ahead of time!

[sch8mid]

You may look at this thread  (Topping issues with I2S)

 

https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/pi2-design-idiot-proof-ready-to-go-rpi-aes-streamer.10471/page-38

 

There are more and more people with no DSD over  I2S

 

And so I am waiting eagerly for  a detailed receipt to activate DSD over I2S in Volumio or Picoreplayer with Mercury.

 

Superdad ? Please enlighten us.  Mercury > I2S > DSD 64 /DSD 128 , How to. ? And  no strings like modified Singxer or Encores attached .... :-)

 

Best

as

 

 

[Superdad]

40 minutes ago, sch8mid said:

You may look at this thread  (Topping issues with I2S)

That’s a completely different issue having to do with Topping’s I2S pin assignments versus Mercury. That person was having trouble even getting PCM to work.
No relationship to doing DSD (set to DoP) from I2S of Mercury into a DSD DAC—in my case Holo Spring L3 working perfectly.  I now run GentooPlayer (superior sound—with real-time kernel and everything loaded into RAM) but I think I still have a microSD card with Volumio on it. Maybe if I have time this week I’ll boot that and run DSD (over DoP) and take a picture for you.

[sch8mid]

This would be fine . I bought the Mercury to use I2S and in Volumio and Picoreplayer I get no DSD . Volumio is always converting into PCM.

 

 

 

[stefano_mbp]

1 hour ago, Superdad said:

I now run GentooPlayer

it would be enough to know which hat you have configured ... in some previous posts it was indicated to select Hifiberry Digi + Pro ... have you selected it or something else?

[antonellocaroli]

10 minutes ago, stefano_mbp said:

it would be enough to know which hat you have configured ... in some previous posts it was indicated to select Hifiberry Digi + Pro ... have you selected it or something else?

it is more a question of how the player you use is configured... and in particular it must treat dsd as dop...
The i2s interface of the rpi does not support native dsd, only pcm with a maximum limit of 384Mhz and therefore dsd dop max 128 which is dsd disguised as pcm...
In most dac hat drivers this limit becomes 192pcm/64dsd(dop)

[sch8mid]

Yes - Superdad ,  very much interested as well , cause I tried most of the suggested audio Interfaces in Volumio and picoreplayer to no avail . 
@ Antonello , Ciao

I would try Gentooplayer as well .

You get 128 dsd out of the Mercurys I2S ?

I would buy a license „stande pede“ …….

“Superdad „ seems to be the only one, a.t.m. with a sccessful configuration , but he is too  shy to show it.
Another question: Why isnt Mercury on the  list , only the Hifiberries ?  

[stefano_mbp]

20 minutes ago, antonellocaroli said:

it is more a question of how the player you use is configured

@sch8mid to make the story shorter … could you post how did you configured Volumio?

[sch8mid]

There is not much to configure in Volumio.

I2s Dac enabled. Hifiberry + Digi as out. Dop.

 

Found something Interesting by „Michael Kelly „ :

 

We can support DSD over PCM (DoP), but not DSD. This is a limitation of the Raspeberry Pi I2S interface. You need to use USB if you want DSD.

 

He means native dsd, I  suppose…

[antonellocaroli]

1 hour ago, sch8mid said:

Yes - Superdad ,  very much interested as well , cause I tried most of the suggested audio Interfaces in Volumio and picoreplayer to no avail . 
@ Antonello , Ciao

I would try Gentooplayer as well .

You get 128 dsd out of the Mercurys I2S ?

I would buy a license „stande pede“ …….

“Superdad „ seems to be the only one, a.t.m. with a sccessful configuration , but he is too  shy to show it.
Another question: Why isnt Mercury on the  list , only the Hifiberries ?  

No, I didn't mean to push you to try GentooPlayer, you misunderstood....

I just meant that by choosing the right output (Hifiberry Digi + Pro), you have to set the player so that the dsd treats it not natively but in Dop...

What he most probably wants to tell you @stefano_mbp , of how to do it in Volumio....maybe if you follow it...

[stefano_mbp]

14 minutes ago, sch8mid said:

DSD over PCM (DoP), but not DSD

That’s correct, it is normal with I2S hat, but DoP is DSD anyway … it is just incapsulated in PCM … you can read about it here

[stefano_mbp]

@sch8mid … and, just to try, use one of the spdif output instead of hdmi, it should be able to play DSD64 DoP 

If it works with spdif output then the issue is in hdmi output/pin settings.

[sch8mid]

I2S :

Yes . I know. But now comes the funny part . DSD over PCM (DOP)  doesnt work with Volumio at all . Silence. Holo DAC shows 176,4  Khz . No 64 DSD, no 128 DSD.

Funny part II : Dop works if I set normalize to on in Volumio settings....Funny Program. But its PCM  as well.

DSD direct works but is converted to PCM by Volumio and shows at 192 Khz in the Holo audio DAC .

And yes : USB works flawlessly DSD64 and DSD128.

Please mark ! Its all about I2S !

 

 

[Riccitone]

5 hours ago, Superdad said:

That’s a completely different issue having to do with Topping’s I2S pin assignments versus Mercury. That person was having trouble even getting PCM to work.
No relationship to doing DSD (set to DoP) from I2S of Mercury into a DSD DAC—in my case Holo Spring L3 working perfectly.  I now run GentooPlayer (superior sound—with real-time kernel and everything loaded into RAM) but I think I still have a microSD card with Volumio on it. Maybe if I have time this week I’ll boot that and run DSD (over DoP) and take a picture for you.

@Superdad

 

Thank you, that would be helpful 🙏🏼
 

 I’ve currently got the setting on DSD direct, also using the default “dac” setting Michael said we should leave alone (Pi2design website). 
 

I’ll try it on the DSD over PCM, but that seems somewhat counterintuitive? Syntax 🙄. Hope that will help, but am encouraged that you say the issue on that other thread was about receiving PCM altogether. I am actually getting a signal via I2s (hdmi), just no sound. 

[stefano_mbp]

@sch8midjust tried with my rpi4 with HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro hat, coax output.

Downloaded last Volumio image, burned it, powered on rpi4 and configured

to use the hat (i2s)

• selected the overlay HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro,
• set DSD playback mode to DSD over PCM (DoP)
• set Mixer Type to None

I selected a DSD64 album and it works, my dac can recognize a DSD64 file.

 

Then we can say that Volumio with the “real” hat HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro works fine and can play DSD64/DoP

 

We can finally suppose that the HiFiBerry overlay doesn’t fit for the Pi 2 Design Mercury, at least for DSD material.

[Riccitone]

@Superdad

@sch8mid

Still trying different pinout option in my D70s. Also tried changing to DoP to no avail. Shouldn’t matter as Volumio converts to PCM? Or no? 

 

Reading forward on that SBAF chat about D70s, thinking this might have been a problem with the the pinout options not working with the Mercury. The same guy with the problem later had to purchase an hdmi connector with adjustable wiring for pinouts, wiring in a manner that (I think) muted one of the pins. 
Michael then explained about a Mercury v2 he’s working on that will allow adjustability in the pinout config for I2S input, helping it work with a wider variety of dacs. Hoping upon hope I land on the right combination of settings here, and really hope I don’t need to send back the Mercury and wait - or get a different dac. 
 

I2s was one of the main reasons for my getting the Mercury? But maybe it’s not such a big difference than coax 🙏🏼

[sch8mid]

3 hours ago, stefano_mbp said:

@sch8midjust tried with my rpi4 with HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro hat, coax output.

Downloaded last Volumio image, burned it, powered on rpi4 and configured

to use the hat (i2s)

• selected the overlay HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro,
• set DSD playback mode to DSD over PCM (DoP)
• set Mixer Type to None

I selected a DSD64 album and it works, my dac can recognize a DSD64 file.

 

Then we can say that Volumio with the “real” hat HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro works fine and can play DSD64/DoP

 

We can finally suppose that the HiFiBerry overlay doesn’t fit for the Pi 2 Design Mercury, at least for DSD material.

 

[sch8mid]

Exactly my configuration with Mercury  , and it doesnt work .

[stefano_mbp]

11 minutes ago, sch8mid said:

and it doesnt work

It’s quite strange that Michael Kelly keeps the “secret” about which overlay should be used to enable DSD/DoP

[bobfa]

1 hour ago, stefano_mbp said:

It’s quite strange that Michael Kelly keeps the “secret” about which overlay should be used to enable DSD/DoP

Maybe, just maybe you could ask Michael a direct question???

[Superdad]

4 hours ago, stefano_mbp said:

It’s quite strange that Michael Kelly keeps the “secret” about which overlay should be used to enable DSD/DoP

 

HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro must be chosen in ALL instances for the Mercury.  The setting of DoP is separate in each operating system.

[Riccitone]

In the case of my dac…

 

Contacted Michael.  My dac (Topping D70s) does not have an option for the pinout for the Mercury. He explained it was non standard. Which is a bit confusing, as I was under the impression that pinout config wasn’t exactly standardized? Maybe not standard for PS Audio pinout. 
 

I asked if he was planning on a v2 that options silent pinout settings, didn’t answer thot one (yet). 
 

Not a dealbreaker, sounds amazing via coax as it is, just that I had plans to use I2s for streaming and storage, and coax for a cd transport etc. etc. Eould also be nice to hear the difference. 
 

So…

 

If any/all of you wouldn’t mind listing specific dacs you know will work -as is it with limited adjustment- with the I2s out of the Mercury? That would be really great. For future reference 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
 

PS 

Michael was adamant about making sure to stick with the Hifiberry Digi+ Pro dac setting I Volumio. Might want to stick with it. 

[dericchan1]

29 minutes ago, Riccitone said:

In the case of my dac…

 

Contacted Michael.  My dac (Topping D70s) does not have an option for the pinout for the Mercury. He explained it was non standard. Which is a bit confusing, as I was under the impression that pinout config wasn’t exactly standardized? Maybe not standard for PS Audio pinout. 
 

I asked if he was planning on a v2 that options silent pinout settings, didn’t answer thot one (yet). 
 

Not a dealbreaker, sounds amazing via coax as it is, just that I had plans to use I2s for streaming and storage, and coax for a cd transport etc. etc. Eould also be nice to hear the difference. 
 

So…

 

If any/all of you wouldn’t mind listing specific dacs you know will work -as is it with limited adjustment- with the I2s out of the Mercury? That would be really great. For future reference 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
 

PS 

Michael was adamant about making sure to stick with the Hifiberry Digi+ Pro dac setting I Volumio. Might want to stick with it. 

I know dacs that works so far are the denafrips Aries ii，pontus ii, gustard 

[tjmski]

4 hours ago, Riccitone said:

In the case of my dac…

 

Contacted Michael.  My dac (Topping D70s) does not have an option for the pinout for the Mercury. He explained it was non standard. Which is a bit confusing, as I was under the impression that pinout config wasn’t exactly standardized? Maybe not standard for PS Audio pinout. 
 

I asked if he was planning on a v2 that options silent pinout settings, didn’t answer thot one (yet). 
 

Not a dealbreaker, sounds amazing via coax as it is, just that I had plans to use I2s for streaming and storage, and coax for a cd transport etc. etc. Eould also be nice to hear the difference. 
 

So…

 

If any/all of you wouldn’t mind listing specific dacs you know will work -as is it with limited adjustment- with the I2s out of the Mercury? That would be really great. For future reference 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
 

PS 

Michael was adamant about making sure to stick with the Hifiberry Digi+ Pro dac setting I Volumio. Might want to stick with it. 

My Musician Audio Pegasus worked out of the gate with I2S. So many recordings sound so much better. I am not so compelled to seek out just my favorite audiophile recordings. Instead I have had so much fun exploring with Roon/Qobuz/Tidal/My Library. So much now sounds so good.

[sch8mid]

7 hours ago, Superdad said:

 

HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro must be chosen in ALL instances for the Mercury.  The setting of DoP is separate in each operating system.

Yes , we know that and tried it (desperately even all other overlays) .

Until now the HiFiBerry overlay doesn’t fit for the Pi 2 Design Mercury, at least for DSD material until we get :

Superdads  working solution  and  how to :

Mercury - Volumio - I2s - DSD 64/128