Pi 2 Design Mercury Streamer

[sch8mid]

Please remark.

 

This is all about I2S , that doesnt work with DSD and Mercury til we get "Superdads solution."

 

With USB :  256 DSD  and DSD direct  is no problem with Mercury and the Holo audio DAC. No DoP needed,

 

But bear with me . I bought the Mercury because of I2S and I have a lot of DSD 64 and 128 files .

[zackthedog]

I don't know how or whether Superdad is getting true DSD output, but the web site and the manual both state that the AES output is limited to 192kHz.

[stefano_mbp]

24 minutes ago, zackthedog said:

AES output is limited to 192kHz.

You are right but … if you check this page the same is for HiFiBerry products but they are compatible with DSD/DoP (DSD64 only).

After all DSD64/DoP is a PCM stream with a sample rate of 24/176.4 that it is within the specs …

[sch8mid]

Superdad said :
 

Why do you say that?  I send DSD64 to my Mercury all the time and it outputs it over I2S to my DAC.  (“DoP”—DSD over PCM—is required but that’s still real DSD.

 

 

waiting for his solution            

 

[Riccitone]

Michael got back again concerning my query about a v2…

 

He said he’s working on a second version of the Mercury that will allow programmability on the I2s port, including driving the extra pins high or low. Helping it accommodate more dacs. 

They wouldn’t be ready for orders/shipping until Oct/Nov. 

 

Still deciding on getting one of those, or dropping the $$$$ on a Musician Audio or Denafrips. 

[zackthedog]

8 hours ago, stefano_mbp said:

You are right but … if you check this page the same is for HiFiBerry products but they are compatible with DSD/DoP (DSD64 only).

After all DSD64/DoP is a PCM stream with a sample rate of 24/176.4 that it is within the specs …

 

I can drop DSD64 files into Audirvana and they play fine through the Mercury, but the DAC shows PCM 192.  I assume this is correct?

[stefano_mbp]

14 minutes ago, zackthedog said:

I assume this is correct?

No, it isn’t. The dac should show DSD64, even if the stream is DSD64/DoP.

If it shows PCM 192 it means the stream has been converted

[sch8mid]

This is , what I said.

With my  Mercury

There is no DSD direct over I2S .

There is no Dop over I2S.

Its all converted to 192Khz.

_______

Soon Superdads solution is comin ( experimental Linux Kernel ?? :-) )

[Riccitone]

16 hours ago, tjmski said:

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.

That’s wonderful to know…

Im already getting that same result with pretty well everything I call up on Qobuz via Volumio premium. Even with what I’ve stored on a silly usb drive is more engaging that I’d ever imagined. 
 

Ive eyeballed the Pegasus on many occasions, had settled on the D70s - which sounds REALLY great. But Pegasus seems a total winner for the $. 
Are you using xlr output or rca? Any noticeable differences there? Just asking as I’m trying to decide between preamps with balanced or single ended inputs 🙏🏼

[Superdad]

17 hours ago, sch8mid said:

This is all about I2S , that doesnt work with DSD and Mercury til we get "Superdads solution."

 

With USB :  256 DSD  and DSD direct  is no problem with Mercury and the Holo audio DAC. No DoP needed,

 

But bear with me . I bought the Mercury because of I2S and I have a lot of DSD 64 and 128 files .

 

As @stefano_mbp pointed out, DSD128 will never be possible with Mercury. (I do not even have any DSD128 files, just SACD rips.)

But DSD64 (over DoP) from I2S is just fine. No special "solution" needed.

 

5 hours ago, sch8mid said:

This is , what I said.

With my  Mercury

There is no DSD direct over I2S .

There is no Dop over I2S.

Its all converted to 192Khz.

_______

Soon Superdads solution is comin ( experimental Linux Kernel ?? :-) )

 

Nothing experimental. Just RoonBridge or Squeezelite running on Mercury under choice of OS (GentooPlayer, Ropieee, PiCorePlayer). I can not recall what I was doing with Volumio but if it is still on the microSD card I just tried to boot then I'll see if I can get DSD (over DoP) running there too.

 

I do not recall what music player software you are using with Volumio. Perhaps the issue is there. 

[stefano_mbp]

6 hours ago, zackthedog said:

I can drop DSD64 files into Audirvana and they play fine through the Mercury, but the DAC shows PCM 192

Is Audirvana configured to output DSD over PCM/DoP? 

[zackthedog]

2 minutes ago, stefano_mbp said:

Is Audirvana configured to output DSD over PCM/DoP? 

 

I'll take a look--I've played around with a lot of configurations. ;-)

[zackthedog]

I'm using Gentooplayer with MPD set to DoP, Audirvana set to no limits, but I still get PCM.  I'm using the coax output, not I2S, does that make a difference?  I'll try RopieeeXL and see if that makes a difference.  I rarely listen to DSD but I'm curious to see if it will work.

 

I did try the USB output of the Mercury.  Not bad at all, very clean.  I've never heard a SOtM or Rendu, I wonder if this is comparable.

[dericchan1]

6 minutes ago, zackthedog said:

I'm using Gentooplayer with MPD set to DoP, Audirvana set to no limits, but I still get PCM.  I'm using the coax output, not I2S, does that make a difference?  I'll try RopieeeXL and see if that makes a difference.  I rarely listen to DSD but I'm curious to see if it will work.

 

I did try the USB output of the Mercury.  Not bad at all, very clean.  I've never heard a SOtM or Rendu, I wonder if this is comparable.

You may want to confirm with Michael my understanding is that the usb is not part of the Mercury streamer (it is just the original USB port from the Raspberry CM4 board which should be no different from just using usb on a raspberry pi 4b)

[zackthedog]

55 minutes ago, dericchan1 said:

You may want to confirm with Michael my understanding is that the usb is not part of the Mercury streamer (it is just the original USB port from the Raspberry CM4 board which should be no different from just using usb on a raspberry pi 4b)

 

Yes, that's correct, and I take it back. ;-)  It doesn't really sound that good.  USB from my Mac Mini is better.

 

On the DSD front, I realized that with MPD set to DoP, DSD doesn't play at all.  Set to "Direct" it all plays at 192.  At least it plays.  I'm only interested in the performances, really.  So I can't add anything to the DSD puzzle. ;-(

[sch8mid]

5 hours ago, Superdad said:

 

 

But DSD64 (over DoP) from I2S is just fine. No special "solution" needed.

 

 

Nothing experimental. Just RoonBridge or Squeezelite running on Mercury under choice of OS (GentooPlayer, Ropieee, PiCorePlayer). I can not recall what I was doing with Volumio but if it is still on the microSD card I just tried to boot then I'll see if I can get DSD (over DoP) running there too.

 

I do not recall what music player software you are using with Volumio. Perhaps the issue is there. 

 

@Superdad 

 

I followed your suggestion and installed Picoreplayer , together with LMS and Squeezelight and

 

 

No

There is no DSD 64 .

Not in Volumio . not in Picoreplayer

Its all converted to PCM

 

Curious now.

 

 

[stefano_mbp]

3 hours ago, zackthedog said:

Audirvana set to no limits

What does it mean? Output should be set to DoP, and upsampling should be disabled 

[zackthedog]

18 minutes ago, stefano_mbp said:

What does it mean? Output should be set to DoP, and upsampling should be disabled 

 

The DoP is set in the player, in this case MPD.  Upsampling in Audirvana is disabled. But curiously, DSD only works when I set MPD to "Direct DSD".

[stefano_mbp]

1 minute ago, zackthedog said:

DSD only works when I set MPD to "Direct DSD"

Do you mean that DSD is showed by your dac?

 

2 minutes ago, zackthedog said:

The DoP is set in the player, in this case MPD

Should be set in Audirvana too, in the Network Player section.

[stefano_mbp]

18 minutes ago, zackthedog said:

player, in this case MPD

Where MPD is configured  on ? RoPieee XL, DietPi, GentooPlayer …. and which overlay have you used in the MPD configuration?

[Superdad]

1 hour ago, sch8mid said:

No

There is no DSD 64 .

 

Sorry, I do not know what to tell you.  I play DSD64 (over DoP) every day on my Mercury to I2S.

Best of luck,

ALEX

 

[stefano_mbp]

@Superdad I can see you’re using GentooPlayer and the overlay is HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro, am I right?… and you’re using Roon … then the Mercury is just an endpoint, this could be the major difference as @sch8midis using Volumio just to have a “simple” Mercury network player playing from internal/usb ssd, yours it is a very different scenario. 
Were you using Volumio too as  a Roon endpoint?

The suggestion to @sch8midis to try some other sw like GP, MoOde, RoPieeeXL as probably Volumio has some issue

[sch8mid]

2 hours ago, Superdad said:

 

Sorry, I do not know what to tell you.  I play DSD64 (over DoP) every day on my Mercury to I2S.

Best of luck,

ALEX

 

 

[sch8mid]

 

@Superdad

This is what you wrote :

 

Volumio : Maybe if I have time this week I’ll boot that and run DSD (over DoP) and take a picture for you.

 

 

 

We didnt talk about Gentoplayer , Roonendpoints and  modified realtimekernels.

 

People with Mercury get Volumio.

 

And with I2S  they get no DSD direct and  no DSD over  (PCM) .

 

Right ?

 

 

[tjmski]

14 hours ago, Riccitone said:

That’s wonderful to know…

Im already getting that same result with pretty well everything I call up on Qobuz via Volumio premium. Even with what I’ve stored on a silly usb drive is more engaging that I’d ever imagined. 
 

Ive eyeballed the Pegasus on many occasions, had settled on the D70s - which sounds REALLY great. But Pegasus seems a total winner for the $. 
Are you using xlr output or rca? Any noticeable differences there? Just asking as I’m trying to decide between preamps with balanced or single ended inputs 🙏🏼

My preamp is an oldie but goodie, Ayre K3. I’ve only used balanced xlr for my DAC and turntable. I don’t want to hijack this thread on a preamp discussion though.