Hello Team,
Long time fan of WiiM, I have 2 Pros and just purchased an Ultra. I use them all as LMS (Lyrion) Squeezelite endpoints and Amazon Endpoints. Traditionally I have used the 2 WiiM Pros with 2 external DACs, one Coax, the other Optical connected. In my library I have configured the DVDPlayer plugin to scan for DSF files in my file systems and have checked the "Enable DSD-over-PCM" option in the Player settings to transparently convert the DFS DSD Data stream to a packed PCM DoP encoding. To the DAC this just looks like a 24/176.4Khz PCM datastream and should be passed through to DAC as such. As long as there is no processing on the signal (ie volume limiting, EQ, or other fading or other DSP) things should be bit perfectly passed through to the external DAC and the payload bits should be unpacked by the DoP aware receiver in the external DAC to recover the original single-bit DSD64 encoding.
I have two DACs I have used and tested:
Topping D50 ---- Support DSD DoP on all inputs
Wyred 4Sound DSD2SE --- Supports DSD DoP on only USB input
Over the last year or more I have used the DSD Plugin feature of LMS to passthru DoP through the WiiM Pro into the Topping D50 via the Toslink Optical connection with good results. Playback is registered as DSD format on the DAC and it is not converted at any step from native format until playback. Fidelity is preserved. This is ideal.
I was keenly excited to have the WiiM Ultra now finally with a USB DAC interface. Now I can feed both the Topping D50 and the Wyred 4Sound DSDSE which has a superior sound IMHO. Methodology:
1) Ensure Topping D50 continued to work with the WiiM Ultra in DoP Passthru Mode via Optical output just as well as WiiM Pro had for me over a long history with it. I verified it played through with DSD64 without distortion or noise and registered as DSD64 on the display of my Topping D50
2) I switched to the USB Interface of the Topping D50. Verified normal operation of PCM playback from 44.1 to 24/192 all playback without any problems.
3) I then tried Same DoP passthru test to Topping D50 USB Interface from WiiM Ultra. This time, I heard a loud hash/noise ....and faint music in the background. I verified all volumes are set to 100% on WiiM and LMS side. ReplayGain is disabled. EQ is off. Fade is off.
4) Verifying my Joggler Linux based box running Squeezelite connects perfectly fine to both D50 and W4S DACs without problem via USB interface using with DoP passthru. Understand it is not a Squeezelite issue.
Some versions of software tested:
WiiM Ultra (Latest as of today) : Squeezelite Firmware: v1.9.9-1432, From WiiM 5.2.705437
WiiM Pro (Latest as of today) : Squeezelite Firmware v1.9.9-1432, From WiiM 4.8.704531
It is clear the problem is isolated to the USB interface of the WiiM Ultra, as Optical works fine for DoP Passthru. I am sure Coax does too. There seems to be some kind of processing that is causing the DoP PCM stream not to passthru the USB Interface 100% bit perfectly causing problems for all DACs tested. I greatly hope this can be resolved as many of us have somewhat large personal libraries of DSD content and external DACs that are able to play it. We don't need the WiiM Ultra to be DSD aware or to convert anything --- rather just pass it thru without modification as PCM just like it does on optical.
Your help greatly appreciated.
Jim
Long time fan of WiiM, I have 2 Pros and just purchased an Ultra. I use them all as LMS (Lyrion) Squeezelite endpoints and Amazon Endpoints. Traditionally I have used the 2 WiiM Pros with 2 external DACs, one Coax, the other Optical connected. In my library I have configured the DVDPlayer plugin to scan for DSF files in my file systems and have checked the "Enable DSD-over-PCM" option in the Player settings to transparently convert the DFS DSD Data stream to a packed PCM DoP encoding. To the DAC this just looks like a 24/176.4Khz PCM datastream and should be passed through to DAC as such. As long as there is no processing on the signal (ie volume limiting, EQ, or other fading or other DSP) things should be bit perfectly passed through to the external DAC and the payload bits should be unpacked by the DoP aware receiver in the external DAC to recover the original single-bit DSD64 encoding.
I have two DACs I have used and tested:
Topping D50 ---- Support DSD DoP on all inputs
Wyred 4Sound DSD2SE --- Supports DSD DoP on only USB input
Over the last year or more I have used the DSD Plugin feature of LMS to passthru DoP through the WiiM Pro into the Topping D50 via the Toslink Optical connection with good results. Playback is registered as DSD format on the DAC and it is not converted at any step from native format until playback. Fidelity is preserved. This is ideal.
I was keenly excited to have the WiiM Ultra now finally with a USB DAC interface. Now I can feed both the Topping D50 and the Wyred 4Sound DSDSE which has a superior sound IMHO. Methodology:
1) Ensure Topping D50 continued to work with the WiiM Ultra in DoP Passthru Mode via Optical output just as well as WiiM Pro had for me over a long history with it. I verified it played through with DSD64 without distortion or noise and registered as DSD64 on the display of my Topping D50
2) I switched to the USB Interface of the Topping D50. Verified normal operation of PCM playback from 44.1 to 24/192 all playback without any problems.
3) I then tried Same DoP passthru test to Topping D50 USB Interface from WiiM Ultra. This time, I heard a loud hash/noise ....and faint music in the background. I verified all volumes are set to 100% on WiiM and LMS side. ReplayGain is disabled. EQ is off. Fade is off.
4) Verifying my Joggler Linux based box running Squeezelite connects perfectly fine to both D50 and W4S DACs without problem via USB interface using with DoP passthru. Understand it is not a Squeezelite issue.
Some versions of software tested:
WiiM Ultra (Latest as of today) : Squeezelite Firmware: v1.9.9-1432, From WiiM 5.2.705437
WiiM Pro (Latest as of today) : Squeezelite Firmware v1.9.9-1432, From WiiM 4.8.704531
It is clear the problem is isolated to the USB interface of the WiiM Ultra, as Optical works fine for DoP Passthru. I am sure Coax does too. There seems to be some kind of processing that is causing the DoP PCM stream not to passthru the USB Interface 100% bit perfectly causing problems for all DACs tested. I greatly hope this can be resolved as many of us have somewhat large personal libraries of DSD content and external DACs that are able to play it. We don't need the WiiM Ultra to be DSD aware or to convert anything --- rather just pass it thru without modification as PCM just like it does on optical.
Your help greatly appreciated.
Jim
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