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Topic: DSF file playback (Read 1054 times) previous topic - next topic
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DSF file playback

I have a copy of Foobar2000 version 1.6.7 installed on each of two computers - an ASUS desktop and a Acer notebook - but it is only one (the notebook) that is puzzling me at present, The following plug-ins are active in Preferences>Components in each Foobar: -
foo_out_asio (2.1.2 on both)
foo_bitcompare (2.3 on both, updated by Foobar from - I think - 2.1.1 when 'component updates' checked)
foo_dsd_processor (1.1.4 on desktop. 1.1.5 on notebook)
foo_input_dsddiff (1,6 on both)
foo_input_sacd (1.2.3 on desktop, 1.4.2 on notebook)

The component update check in Foobar did not dispute any of the other plug-ins and I'm not really sure if they are all really necessary for playing DSD files..

Under Playback>Output>ASIO there is: -
ASIO4ALL v2
foo_dsd_asio
ifi (by AMR) HD USB Audio (only on notebook because that system incorporates an ifi iDSD DAC for playback connected via USB 3.0 to the notebook)

Now the problem I am noticing concerns the 'bit rate' displayed when those DSD albums are playing. The following albums are involved: two from PS Audio that came as DSF files on a data disc together with an SACD.; 3 x 2XHD albums (one on the Ondine label and two on the Naxos label); and two recent albums from NativeDSD Audio.

When all those albums are played via the desktop, the two Naxos recordings show up as 24 bits per sample while all the others - correctly - show up as 1 bit per sample. The sampling rates are correct in all instances (more on that later, however) and so are the Codec displays (eg DSD64, DSD128 etc). However, when I play the same albums via the notebook. the two albums from NativeDSD Music also show up as 24 bits per sample (along with the two Naxos recordings again). The Ondine recording correctly shows up as 1 bit per sample via both systems.

I am really puzzled by these findings and wonder why there are such differences -in particular for one of the NativeDSD Music albums, which is stated to be 'Pure DSD'. The other NativeDSD Music album is on the PentaTone label and I think that might be a pure DSD recording as well. I suppose I am also puzzled as to why the two Naxos recordings display the incorrect bit rate on both computers but at least there is consistency with them.

There is music to be heard from all the albums on both systems, but I do wonder if the albums displaying incorrect bit rates are really being decoded correctly?

The other anomaly I've noticed is that where 'Playback stopped' appears at the bottom, when one of these DSD albums is playing I always see 44100Hz for the sampling frequency (instead of 2822400Hz, or 5644800Hz etc,, although these figures appear correctly above in the 'General' area each time). I realise that this is in reality of little importance but feel it should display the frequency correctly.

Thank you.
John Marchington


Re: DSF file playback

Reply #1 –
I've just realised I neglected to mention what could well be a very important difference between the two systems. The desktop is an i5 quad-core 64 bit system running 64-bit Win10 version 21H2. The notebook, on the other hand, only contains a 32-bit Celeron processor so it is running a recent 32-bit version of Win10. Are recent versions of ASIO4ALL 64-bit and 32-bit compatible? Apologies for neglecting to mention this before.

John Marchington
 

Re: DSF file playback

Reply #2 –
The bit depths you see are reported by the decoders. Assuming you use identical status bar configuration on both machines the differences must be caused by you having different version of foo_input_sacd.

The built-in update check can only update components that exist in the official component repository. SACD decoder isn't there, it must be updated manually.

PS: you can safely remove foo_input_dsdiff.

Re: DSF file playback

Reply #3 –
Many thanks for your assistance. I'll change the version of foo_input_sacd on the notebook to match the version on my desktop and see if that fixes the problem. I'll also remove the foo_input dsdiff from both machines.

Re: DSF file playback

Reply #4 –
I have essentially tried the suggestion about changing the version of foo_input_sacd on the notebook to match the one on the desktop but I did it in reverse, as I was working on the desktop at the time; that is, I deleted the earlier version that was on the desktop and installed the later version, my reasoning being that if that were the cause of the problem I should now see the bit rate change to 24 bits per sample with some of those DSD albums. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened, with the bit rate remaining at 1 at all times, so I have assume that wasn't the cause of the problem.