Re: Configuring mpd for bit-perfect playback on the Mac
Reply #7 – 2022-06-20 03:58:26
I spent way too much time trying to get mpd set up properly on my Mac, and I finally found the right output config, so I thought I would share it. The mpd config file file is long, with lots of settings, but the "audio_output" section is what you need to configure for whatever DAC you use. The DAC I am using is a Topping D10s. Here is the exact config I used.audio_output { type "osx" name "D10s " device "D10s " # optional mixer_type "disabled" dop "yes" So here are the settings that drove me nuts. The device and name lines have the name of the DAC. For some reason, Apple adds a space to the end of the DAC name. My Topping D10s displays as "D10s" in system information, but will only work in MPD if you use "D10s ". Before this, I had a Grace SDAC, and I had to add "SDAC " to my config. So, if you've been struggling with getting your DAC to work directly without using CoreAudio, add the space. ... I hope someone finds this useful. Your post turned out to the most important post in getting mpd working on my 2012 mac mini. I have been a linux mpd user since ages. My current setup consists of a RPI4 with a 3Tb hard drive connected having the music_folder. I use the simple database plugin. All other mpd instances use the proxy database plugin and also mount the music folder nfs4. Recently I decided to re-purpose my mac mini to run mpd. The first problem was to get mpd with the proxy plugin compiled in. Second issue was to play all formats. Ultimately I managed to compile mpd with almost all features supported by Linux. The stumbling block was choppy audio. This got resolved by changing the audio_output to ao from osx. But I'm not sure about how good the ao plugin is. So I was looking for a way to use device names (Now I know thanks to this post - using the system_profiler SPAudioDataType command).audio_output { type "osx" name "CoreAudio" mixer_type "software" On my linux devices, I use mpd to directly output to the audio devices unlike the above. So I made an entry for my dac like yours and now even with device type as "osx", I'm getting music without any latency or choppy audio. Thank you. Now my mpd.conf entry is like this (for some reason Mac reports the DAC name as "Speaker". Linux reports correctly as Xonar Essence One and device name as hw:One)audio_output { type "osx" name "xonar essenceone" device "Speaker" format "*:32:2" mixer_type "software" dop "yes" }