Regarding DSD Native support of USB external DAC

Sent support an email. Gave them some screen shots of the config. Some Dac Specs from the config page. Not sure if they're still working on this.

 

My CD player (Yamaha CD-S3000) has a USB DAC function. At the moment I can’t get my DMP-A6 (gen1) to recognise it at all, even for PCM. Ideally I’d like to use it for PCM and DSD. According to the manuals, it uses a Steinberg driver. There are also instructions for using Foobar to play DSD, but that may actually be DSD to PCM from what I can see. Any chance of getting this working?

Thanks!
https://au.yamaha.com/en/products/audio_visual/hifi/cd-s3000/downloads.html#product-tabs

 

I’m using the USB DAC input of a Marantz SA-KI Ruby CD/SACD player and it works fine for DSD and PCM. Are the USB DAC settings for the DMP-A6 set correctly? I’d start there and also check the settings of the Yamaha.

 

@pssturges
You may well have your reasons... but WHY? You have a SOTA DAC in your A6, and for some (unknown to me) reason you want to not use it...
If it is for test / comparison reasons, I may, to some extent. understand it; but outside of this scenario I do really find it hard to accept...

 

The A6 does not even see the DAC so no settings can be changed. The DAC also has no user settings, so nothing can be done there

 

Because to my ears (as well as many other A6 users), the DAC in the A6 sounds awful. If it is as good as you say, why would Eversolo bother providing a digital output at all?

 

Do you have the USB A to USB plugged into the DMP-A6's USB (Audio Out) output?

When you say "it for PCM and DSD" do you mean the CD-S3000 or the DMP-A6 to play PCM and DSD? What will you be using to play PCM and DSD? Is it files on a hard drive or off of your PC? If you're not using a PC why would a driver be needed?

I don't need Foobar to play DSD files (SACD rips) that are on the DMP-A6's SSD or from an attached USB hard drive. The DSD files are played as DSD64 and not down converted to PCM. Although there is a menu setting with the DMP-A6 that would allow the DSD files to be converted to PCM.

Just to clarify is your intention to use the DMP-A6 to play music and to use the CD-S3000 as a DAC?

 

It's easy to jump on this is attack it but let's take it in another direction. The A6 dac is okay, probably better than most consumer products. I have a very neutral setup which sounds a bit harsh for my ears. A6 -XLR - Hegel - Dynaudio. It didn't sound good. kinda terrible at high volume. I had to go into the parametric eq and tune down the highs. I measured with Room EQ and found that there was a rise in the higher frequency. I found that with a qutest dac, it sounded so much better. even with the Hegel dac, it sounded better, warmer.

If you love the A6 dac, great. stay with it. No need to spend more money.

 

Everyone has different preferences and IME there's nothing more polarizing than the audiophile community when it comes to expressing subjective opinions. Hop onto any audio forum and you will see chalk and cheese opposing opinions of just about every aspect of audio. Some well founded, some plausible and others just plain baseless. Makes for lively and at times heated discussion. BTW, IMO this forum needs a popcorn emoji.

 

I’m simply trying to use the USB DAC in the CD-S3000 as you would any other DAC, playing both PCM based files such as flac and also DSD encoded as DSF on the A6 and have the Yamaha decode them. I have a USB-B -> USB-A cable connecting the two devices. Unfortunately, when connected the A6 shows “No USB audio device connected” when selecting USB DAC as the output.

I’m really not familiar with the technical ins and outs of audio drivers, but from what I can gather, this dac requires a special ASIO driver. I found a bit more detail on the Yamaha website about this:

“The CD-S3000 supports the ASIO 2.3 protocol to take full advantage of the sound quality of the USB DAC function. The ASIO 2.3 protocol is a standard protocol for professional use digital audio or DTM, with a significant sound quality benefit: the ability to achieve lower delay and higher throughput than with a standard OS sound driver. The driver software is the ASIO 2.3 Yamaha Steinberg USB Driver*, and allows high quality playback of digital audio data stored to computer.

*The software is available as a free download from the Yamaha web site.”

Not sure if this is even possible with a device like the A6.

 

The question that you did not answer is what is the source that you are using for the PCM and DSD files. Are they from a PC, from an attached USB hard drive or from some online streaming source. This is key in my opinion as far as offering you advice. The part that I highlighted above states playback from a PC. Do you have a PC connected to the DMP-A6? Do you have "Internal player" selected as the "Input source" in the Source menu?

The Marantz SA-KI Ruby has similar instructions in the manual for the USB-DAC input as far as installing driver software. But you are connecting the DMP-A6 to the CD-S3000 not a PC. So as I mentioned earlier driver software is not needed. At least that is my experience with using the USB-DAC input of the SA-KI Ruby and the USB (Audio Output) of the DMP-A6.

Unless the CD-S3000's USB-DAC input is configured differently than the SA-KI Ruby's there is no reason why your DMP-A6 should not recognize the CD-S3000. That is if all pertinent settings and cable connections are correct.

 

brand: RME

model
RME ADI-2 DAC FS

DSD Native Support

 

Help. Many thanks
DAC brand: Playback Designs
Model: MPD8
DSD Native Support Capability in the Specification: Yes, DSD512

 

I connected the Eversol A6 via HDMI to a Marantz 8802a pre/pro.
It plays both DSD (.iso) and DSF files perfectly.

However, although these files range from DSD64 to DSD512,
the Marantz indicates that everything is in DSD64,
even though the Marantz can play DSD128..

So what's go wrong, and where?

 

With the DMP-A6 the HDMI output is limited to DSD64. So nothing is wrong as the DMP-A6 is functioning as intended. You could try the USB output of the DMP-A6 to the 8802a if it has a USB input.

Below is from the DMP-A6 Gen2 product page.

HDMI Audio Output: DSD64 Native multichannel/PCM 192KHz multichannel raw output, up to 5.1

https://www.eversolo.com/Product/index/model/DMP-A6+Gen+2/target/GmOiCZnWE6feq7k9e[ld]3ulg==.html#/

 

Q, why is the Eversolo A6 HDMI limited to DSD64 and not DSD256 like the USB output?

The Eversolo A6 supports DSD playback up to DSD512 natively, and PCM up to 32Bit/768kHz.

Supported audio formats and DSD.
- DSD: Supports DSD512 Native and DSD64 (DoP) for optical/coaxial outputs.
- PCM: Supports up to 32Bit/768kHz.
- MQA: Supports full MQA decoding.

Eversolo A6 gen 1 DSD output
- Optical/Coaxial Audio Output: Support DSD64 stereo up to PCM 192KHz 24Bit, Dop, MQA
- HDMI Audio Output: Support DSD64 Native multi-channel/PCM192KHz multichannel raw output (Up to 5.1)
- USB Audio Output: Support DSD256 and PCM768 for stereo output

A firmware could fix this???????

 

Could it be due to the fact that HDMI supports 5.1 DSD? Does 5.1 DSD go above 64 to 512? Maybe the number of channels (6) is the reason.

 

I have no idea!

A standard SACD cannot contain the DSD128 format. SACD is a physical format limited to DSD64 (2.8 MHz) for the highest quality, and the 5.1 surround sound variant is also in this DSD64 format. Although DSD128 and higher formats are available digitally, they are offered as downloads and not on disc.

I have a disc player with HDMI and it can transmit higher than DSD64 2.0, in files through the MP funktion.
For example, the Marantz's screen than displays DSD128 in 2.0.

Considering that the USB output does transmit DSD128 in 2.0, it seems to me that Eversolo has chosen to restrict the HDMI output.

And that should be able to be adjusted via firmware, I think?

 

Why do you need DSD 512 on HDMI? The A6's HDMI output should only be used for listening to multichannel SACDiso, which are limited to DSD 64 by default. Listen to all stereo formats via USB and then to a separate DAC, or use the A6's built-in DAC to output the analog signal directly to your system. The USB output supports all the highest possible resolutions available today.

 

Simpel!
I use only the HDMI connector and use the DAC in mine processor.
And this one has no USB support for DSD ;-)

Plus I don't want make it complex for other family members.
I'm not alone on the world ....