Hi,

I do on-the-fly conversion from PCM (16/24 bit) to DSD.
In the SACD section of Foobar properties, when I select DSD mode, almost all settings are grayed out. In PCM mode all settings are available. Can it be something wrong with Foobar settings?
My DAC is LKS MH-DA003 natively supports DSD up to DSD512.

My convertion settings:
Amanero driver Combo384
ASIO native option
Conversion to DSD256

Thank you, Alex

Quote from: Alex15 on 2015-08-06 19:20:54

Hi,

I do on-the-fly conversion from PCM (16/24 bit) to DSD.
In the SACD section of Foobar properties, when I select DSD mode, almost all settings are grayed out. In PCM mode all settings are available. Can it be something wrong with Foobar settings?
My DAC is LKS MH-DA003 natively supports DSD up to DSD512.

My convertion settings:
Amanero driver Combo384
ASIO native option
Conversion to DSD256

Thank you, Alex

When you installed foo_input_sacd there were two other files in the zip, something like: ASIOProxyInstall-0.7.3.exe  also there was a readme.txt, read the readme.txt

I do on-the-fly conversion from PCM (16/24 bit) to DSD.
In the SACD section of Foobar properties, when I select DSD mode, almost all settings are grayed out. In PCM mode all settings are available. Can it be something wrong with Foobar settings?

Quote from: Alex15 on 2015-08-07 01:44:33

I do on-the-fly conversion from PCM (16/24 bit) to DSD.
In the SACD section of Foobar properties, when I select DSD mode, almost all settings are grayed out. In PCM mode all settings are available. Can it be something wrong with Foobar settings?

The readme tells you how to set up foo_dsd_asio, that's what does the conversions of output PCM to DSD.  foo_input_sacd is an input plugin and is used to read DSD, it's not involved at all when converting from PCM to DSD.
After installing the foo_dsd_asio ASIO proxy you go to foobar2000's Output Options, select foo_dsd_asio as the output, then select ASIO under Output in the left column and double click on foo_dsd_asio and configure that as you choose.

Thank you. I did not make myself clear, sorry. Everything has been installed correctly according to numerous guides without any problem. And the sound seems to be O.K. I just paid attention to the SACD section of the properties where, when DSD mode is selected, most of options are grayed out. I have seen similar images of the DSD mode on the internet where these options were available. I am trying to figure out what are the reasons behind that.
Thanks, Alex

Quote from: Alex15 on 2015-08-07 02:17:05

Thank you. I did not make myself clear, sorry. Everything has been installed correctly according to numerous guides without any problem. And the sound seems to be O.K. I just paid attention to the SACD section of the properties where, when DSD mode is selected, most of options are grayed out. I have seen similar images of the DSD mode on the internet where these options were available. I am trying to figure out what are the reasons behind that.
Thanks, Alex

That SACD panel is just used for how to input DSD (tho it says output mode: DSD or PCM, that's the output of the SACD input plugin  ).  If you read DSD as DSD you don't need any convert DSD to PCM options.  I believe some earlier versions of foo_input_sacd allowed you to change them but they aren't used when DSD is selected.  None of the settings on that page are relevant when converting PCM to DSD, only the other way around.

That's true. Just in case, are we talking about SACD settings page at Preferences / Tools / SACD? This is where it grayed out. But in any case, most likely I saw images with the settings from old versions.

Quote from: Alex15 on 2015-08-07 02:28:24

That's true. Just in case, are we talking about SACD settings page at Preferences / Tools / SACD? This is where it grayed out. But in any case, most likely I saw images with the settings from old versions.

Yep, I've been looking at my options just to make sure I don't make a typo

Quote from: tedsmith on 2015-08-07 02:35:15

Quote from: Alex15 on 2015-08-07 02:28:24

That's true. Just in case, are we talking about SACD settings page at Preferences / Tools / SACD? This is where it grayed out. But in any case, most likely I saw images with the settings from old versions.

Yep, I've been looking at my options just to make sure I don't make a typo

PCM volume; PCM Samplerate and DSD2PCM Mode are grayed out when output mode is DSD at the Preferences / Tools / SACD page.
It looks like it is logical with my DAC with native DSD up to DSD526.
But I have another version of Foobar mini DSD from Art Adea-1 site where they are available at DSD output mode. So I just want to make sure that I did not confuse anything in my FB2K settings.

Sorry if this is a repeat query ...

How exactly (technical details) does Foorbar convert PCM to DSD?
E.g., is there a default algorithm(s) avail. (for inspection)?
Since one is changing from one format to another, me suspects possible degradation (to some extent or another). Yes, both are 'digital' formats, but they are quite distinct. I won't go so far as to say that they are as fundamentally different as analog vs. digital. Or maybe they are?
Please help me out.
Thanks!

Real-time conversion from PCM to DSD (version 0.6.1 and later) This is a new feature introduced in version 0.6.1 of the SACD plugin. It allows the user to convert PCM from WAV. FLAC, etc. to be converted to DSD as the music is played (the played file is NOT altered in any way) and sent to a DSD compatible DAC. All modern Sigma Delta DACs convert PCM to a format very similar to DSD before converting to analogue, this plugin lets the user do this process in software offering a choice of filters with a higher sampling rate (DSD128) instead of relying on the fixed algorithm present in the DAC. This feature is enabled by changing from “none” to any of the 4 options provided under “PCM to DSD method” in the foo_dsd_asio configuration window: NEW: Version 0.6.4 has introduced the possibility of choosing either integer  or floating point (FP32) based coversion, the conversion algorithm should produce very similar results but with FP modes being easier on the CPU

Unfortunately, the info in the link Alex14 provided is pretty much useless as it offers no real/further insight to my original query (how sampling, quantization, etc., is handled).
The Signal Path Blog proves useful in this tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9u-QTDAeaM

I think the central point is: a PCM stream is fed to a S-D modulator. I don't know how Foobar handles this. I assume the S-D modulator (or something similar) is a SOFTWARE device (algorithm) -- a custom-built Foobar plug-in handled by the computer's CPU.
And then the resulting DSD stream can be sent out (via USB, etc.) to an outboard device (such as a DAC capable of receiving a DSD pulse-stream).
Is this correct?