DSD playback options

I use Roon for two channel audio. The Oppo can't receive multi-channel audio via Roon. This is a limitation with the Oppo, not Roon. The Oppo can play .dsf and FLAC files via USB, but only FLAC is gapless hence the need for encoding the multi-channel files. It looks like any of the DSD to FLAC encoders will work, I'm just wondering if one's better than another or if there's a setting I should use for best results.

Got it, so for multichannel playback you would just connect a USB drive to the Oppo housing those multichannel files and playback that way?

Beyond the fact I don't have a multichannel system, I have also only ever made limited use of FLAC, because many years ago when I used iTunes+BitPerfect, the default had to be ALAC on macOS.

It wasn't until some years later when I migrated to JRiver that FLAC even became a possibility for me, but by that time I had ripped most all of my CDs to ALAC. So the only FLAC files I have are in the form of download purchases from HDtracks and the like, I've never actually played around with those settings and unlike with FLAC, ALAC has no similar compression settings, it's fixed (typical Apple heavy handed control).
 
The XLD decimation setting is akin to setting the PCM sample rate.

With the SACD rip being at 2.8224 mHz, the 32:1 setting yields 88.2 kHz (2,822,400 Hz ÷ 32 = 88,200 Hz).

The +6dB setting is little more of a moving target given not every SACD will necessarily use the same setting, as some hotly mastered SACDs would trigger clipping with a +6dB setting, for instance Michael Jackson's Thriller, which produces clipping even with a +0dB setting!

This thread on the QQ forum is helpful, but I don't know where there might be a database of preferred settings by disc title, even if it were just a database of known problem discs like Thriller, that would be helpful in determining which discs need the boost from DSD to PCM vs. which ones decidedly do not.
 
Read the warning that Acoustic Sounds details in their listing for the Thriller DSD download.

Surely that won't be a thing with well produced classical music SACD titles, but hotly mastered pop/rock, yes that setting will matter (note: Thriller is a stereo only disc so only relevant to this conversation in terms of levels and not as a multichannel title).

If it were me, to guard against the occasional disc title that could produce clipping with a +6dB boost, I'd probably elect to leave gain at 0dB and live with the fact that most DSD titles are quieter than their PCM counterparts, meaning you need to turn up the level on the preamp when listening to DSD higher than you typically would with PCM.
 
I need some help making SACD rips useable.

I was able to get multichannel DSF files (yea!) but I am wondering if I need to do anything to ensure that the resultant discrete channels map onto the correct LPCM 5.1 (6?) channels. I am playing the LPCM as a DVD-Audio disc, btw. For example, I started with DSF from Telarc's "Nice -n- Easy" multichannel SACD. The liner notes say "this program gives 6 discrete (5.1) channels of surround information" so should ripping it to a single multichannel DSF file produce something that, say, JRMC can convert to Uncompressed WAV without the channels getting misassigned? Some SACDs have overhead channels and omit LFE channels altogether ("Sacred Feast" does that). I tried just converting both as-is but the disc with the overhead channel (Sacred Feast) sounds more like its SACD original than the one that had the LFE channel (Nice -n- Easy) [subjective and dubitable].

Anyone dealt with this and have learnings to share?
 
Tagging .dsf files with Yate is a great way to pass the time while isolating yourself at home. I did about 45 albums yesterday.
 
Ah by the way: Tried playing the .dsf with a Marantz NA 8005. Works fine with analog out but not coax. Does that account to all players? I know SACD only played analogue and HDMI so .dsf does the same?
 
All that I have ever tested are that way, they only allow digital output of DSD over HDMI, because HDMI employs the HDCP copy protection scheme.
Too sad...means there is no way of exporting it to a good DAC....the NA 8005 has no HDMI and the 3313 does not read .dsf files. So will have to use the internal DAC of the 8005
 
@Polmac I use an Oppo as well to play my multi-channel SACD files. I'm not playing the dsf files though. I could with roon, but that's another story.

Anyway, the Oppo will not play dsf files gapless. My Oppo will play FLAC files gapless though, so I've encoded them to 88.2kHz/24-bit using DSD Master. I have found this to be the easiest encoder to use, especially since it can pre-scan an album and apply a global gain increase. This is not a perfect process. I do get occasional ticks between the tracks. This isn't predictable and I don't know how to get around it. But as a backup (I can still play my discs) I'm satisfied.

I've also used TraX a little bit. It's nice and also does the correct global gain increase, but still has the tick issue with PCM encoded files. It also only works with ISO files, not dsf rips. At this point, as I've stated elsewhere, I would recommend ripping to ISO as a first step. After that you can extract to dsf (stereo and/or multi-channel) and then figure out the best way to play your music.
 
I too have and use DSD Master (and it's big brother iTunes plug-in BitPerfect too). It is excellent software.

More recently I saw that another long time favorite had added DSD to PCM conversion support at some point but it flew under my radar for a period. I'm talking about the excellent and longstanding Mac platform CD ripper called XLD.

This excellent freeware from Japan has been on my Macs in various versions since 2008.
 
I've used XLD as well. It's really good, except it doesn't have the auto-gain which I like. It has a variable slider, but as my long encoding process with DSD Master revealed, once size does not fit all.
 
I've used XLD as well. It's really good, except it doesn't have the auto-gain which I like. It has a variable slider, but as my long encoding process with DSD Master revealed, once size does not fit all.
What is the stated one size that's supposed to fit all on DSD Master?
 
DSD Master isn't "one size fits all", XLD is. With DSD Master I would load an album at a time and it would scan each file before encoding. The scan was to determine the appropriate gain for the entire album. Once that was determined, it would encode the tracks. Remember DSD files are supposed to be cut 6dB down, but that's not always the case and no two albums it seems are the same. With XLD there's a slider you can control from 0 to +6dB, but without knowing the actual needed increase, you're shooting in the dark.

DSD Master can also increase the gain on each individual track, but I do not recommend that.
 
DSD Master isn't "one size fits all", XLD is. With DSD Master I would load an album at a time and it would scan each file before encoding. The scan was to determine the appropriate gain for the entire album. Once that was determined, it would encode the tracks. Remember DSD files are supposed to be cut 6dB down, but that's not always the case and no two albums it seems are the same. With XLD there's a slider you can control from 0 to +6dB, but without knowing the actual needed increase, you're shooting in the dark.

DSD Master can also increase the gain on each individual track, but I do not recommend that.

It's been so long since I've used DSD Master, I forget then whether there is an actual indication of what auto-gain finally settles on after the scan is complete?

My use of DSD Master was more heavily focused on creating "Hybrid-DSD" files that would play on iTunes through the BitPerfect plug-in, I only briefly tested it's PCM conversion feature because I don't have any multichannel set-up, and I do have various DSD capable DACs, so there is no real reason for me to convert to PCM other than for general testing purposes.
 
After it scans and before it starts encoding it shows the gain increase. Out of my entire project I had one track that wouldn't encode with DSD Master. I'm not sure if the dsf was corrupt or the drive was already going bad. I did have a drive get corrupted somehow. Instead of re-trying that album in DSD Master and facing a catastrophe again, I used XLD. I had to set the gain to 3dB in XLD even though DSD Master was going to raise it 3.90dB. I'll live. ;)

TraX also does album gain and seems to mostly correspond with DSD Master in my limited testing.

Once I buy larger hard drives, I'll play my stereo dsf files in roon, which seems to avoid the tick issue. It outputs to my Oppo at 176.4/24-bit and to my Google Chromecast Audio devices at 88.2/24-bit. But I'm also happy I have PCM backups that are fully tagged and playable on a variety of devices.
 
Thanks folks for your help and advice in both ripping and playback, however I have a problem which I can’t solve, despite a google search for the answer.
All the sacds that I ripped a few days ago play fine from my pen drive in my Oppo. All except two of them.
The ripping process completes, but no artist/track info appears. So this means I have to manually add the info (no big deal in itself).
When I go to the usb and type in the album details, all’s fine, but when I enter the subfolder and type the track details, when I hit “enter”, the file type immediately changes from “document” to “Unix executable”. So when I put the usb in my Oppo, it’s not recognised. I also tried changing the album info on the actual computer before transferring it to the usb, but the same thing happens.
It’s not a major issue, as I can have the album named correctly on the file (so I can see what I’m looking at), just not the tracks within.
These are the only two discs out of 40-odd that didn’t auto fill with album info, so are the only two that are presenting this problem.
 
Last edited:
Thanks folks for your help and advice in both ripping and playback, however I have a problem which I can’t solve, despite a google search for the answer.
All the sacds that I ripped a few days ago play fine from my pen drive in my Oppo. All except two of them.
The ripping process completes, but no artist/track info appears. So this means I have to manually add the info (no big deal in itself).
When I go to the usb and type in the album details, all’s fine, but when I enter the subfolder and type the track details, when I hit “enter”, the file type immediately changes from “document” to “Unix executable”. So when I put the usb in my Oppo, it’s not recognised. I also tried changing the album info on the actual computer before transferring it to the usb, but the same thing happens. It seem that I’ll have to leave it as “unknown artist” to allow me to play it (it plays perfectly otherwise).
These are the only two discs out of 40-odd that didn’t auto fill with album info, so are the only two that are presenting this problem.

I'm not sure what you mean here, are you only trying to edit the folder name, or are you using an actual tag editor to change the meta data embedded in the files?

There are various good tag editors out there, I use a program called Kid3, others love Yate though I believe it is MacOS only, and still others just use the function in their player software, for instance JRiver has a good tag editor.

So what are you changing, just the folder name?
 
I'm not sure what you men here, are you only trying to edit the folder name, or are you using and actual tag editor to change the meta data embedded in the files?

There are various good tag editors out there, I use a program called Kid3, others love Yate though I believe it is MacOS only, and still others just use the function in their player software, for instance JRiver has a good tag editor.

So what are you changing, just the folder name?

Hi there.
I’m just putting my cursor over the file name, clicking it twice, then it goes blue which allows me to type the actual info in. I haven’t tried to use a tag editor yet, that’ll be my next challenge, as I’d like to somehow get album art added if possible.
 
Hi there.
I’m just putting my cursor over the file name, clicking it twice, then it goes blue which allows me to type the actual info in. I haven’t tried to use a tag editor yet, that’ll be my next challenge, as I’d like to somehow get album art added if possible.

Ok, I would suggest you must use a tag editor, I'm not sure why you are seeing the file type change when trying to just change it's name, but I can tell you that you should be using an actual software tool for this entire job.

Why not download and try Kid3, I use that and can walk you through, then you can edit any aspect of the metadata including appending a suitable album art image.

Hint: once downloaded and placed in your Applications folder, you will need to launch this program the first time by means of Control-click, and then answer the text box question that yes you are sure you want to use it even though it does not have a signed developer certificate. This is free open source software (FOSS) not commercial software, so it has no certificate and you'll need to Ok it that first time, your Mac won't let you open it the typical standard double click way on first launch.
 
Back
Top