White Noise Issue with dsf playback [Not Solved]

[thezone]

Hi all,



I play all my video and audio directly from my HTPC thru JRiver Media Centre, with audio routed direct to the XMC-1 via both HDMI and USB. I let JRriver MC do all the decoding so all the XMC-1 ever gets is PCM. I have a Foreigner 5.1ch SACD which has been ripped to dsf files. When I play this album each song will last for approx. 30 seconds and then blast my speakers with horrible white noise. Same for every song, plays perfectly for 30 seconds or so an then blam! There must be something going on with the pcm that's being sent to the XMC-1 to cause this.

And the only other option I have is to enable bitstreaming for DSD in MC but this results in the receiver showing 24/176 and 5.1 but there is no sound at all.


Any one have any idea why this is?

[KeithL]

That's very odd... and it sounds like some sort of a glitch in the file conversion itself.

Converting files on-the-fly can sometimes be problematic.

I would suggest you try converting the DSF files to multi-channel PCM or FLAC files - then playing those files in jRiver.

jRiver has that option (I think it's under "advanced tools".)

(Many programs do much better at converting files offline than they do with an on-the-fly conversion in real-time.)

I don't know very much about the internal details of the DSF format.... but I know there are different variations of it.

If you have files that jRiver can't handle, I'd be glad to run one of them through a different format converter for you.

(If you want me to try - PM me and we can make arrangements.)

Nov 7, 2019 2:58:16 GMT -5 thezone said:

Hi all,



I play all my video and audio directly from my HTPC thru JRiver Media Centre, with audio routed direct to the XMC-1 via both HDMI and USB. I let JRriver MC do all the decoding so all the XMC-1 ever gets is PCM. I have a Foreigner 5.1ch SACD which has been ripped to dsf files. When I play this album each song will last for approx. 30 seconds and then blast my speakers with horrible white noise. Same for every song, plays perfectly for 30 seconds or so an then blam! There must be something going on with the pcm that's being sent to the XMC-1 to cause this.

And the only other option I have is to enable bitstreaming for DSD in MC but this results in the receiver showing 24/176 and 5.1 but there is no sound at all.


Any one have any idea why this is?

[thezone]

Thanks for the advice and offer Keith. I have solved this issue. In MC I kept bitstreaming to none and in DSP studio>Output Format>Sample Rate I set 352,800 Hz to output at 176,400 Hz (it was set to playback 352,800Hz at 96,000Hz). I guess 352,800 is not an exact multiple of 96,000 and this was causing the issue. Now playback is perfect and no more white noise after 30 seconds or so. I don't know why the bitstreaming doesn't work given that the XMC-1 should play dsd but I don't really care as I prefer PCM being sent to the XMC-1 anyway as this gives me more flexibility with surround modes as I only have a centre back speaker and no rear surrounds (4.1).

To be honest it was MC that discovered this. I unticked "Output Format" altogether and tried to play the file and MC said that playback would not work unless it made the above change and asked me if I wanted to do this.


EDIT: No this is not solved. Songs are still reverting to loud white noise after 30 - 60 seconds of playback. Now its not all songs. Perhaps it is corrupt files.

[markc]

I am assuming that other dsf tracks from different albums play fine?

If so, I would try what Keith suggested.

Convert one dsf track (or all!) of this album to flac, simply to make a test file using Jriver - right click the track, convert audio and select the format to a 5.1 flac, whilst adjusting the sample rate to 24 bit 176.4 KHz in the conversion options

If this track plays then it is Jriver that is struggling to do it on the fly for some reason (DST to DSD to PCM conversion are processor intensive)
If your test track doesn't play then the original file is corrupt.

Also, if you use Dirac on the XMC-1 to listen to your audio, Dirac on the XMC-1 is limited to 24 bit 48kHz only, so you may as well have Jriver stream audio at that rate as I suspect JRiver 64 bit internal processing and dithering is as good as you will get. there is also only one downsampling approximation rather than once in Jriver and again in the XMC-1 to 24-48

[thezone]

Thanks, yes its corrupt, other dsf files play fine.