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In Reply to: RE: It was no problem to get 4X DSD on Exa E22 on my IMac. posted by oldmkvi on December 23, 2016 at 09:52:40
Headless Mac Mini with nothing else running and 16GB RAM.
Wish me luck!
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I could be wrong but I think Mac OS X is suitable up to DSD 128. If I'm not mistaken what oldmkvi has is a DAC with proprietary Mac OS driver able to get his DAC beyond DSD 128. There are pluses and minuses to this approach. The plus is obvious if you want greater than DSD 128. The minus is that you're at the mercy of the DAC company to provide updated drivers as Mac OS is updated possibly not supporting older drivers. The other potential problem is attaching this DAC to a Linux based streamer. Does Exa make a Linux driver? Does the streamer manufacturer support that driver or do they allow the end-user to install the driver?The other challenge with your Mac, or any laptop w/o nVidia graphics, is that you will not be able to use CUDA GPU offload which HQPlayer supports. That doesn't mean you cannot use HQPlayer, it just means your CPU utilization will higher than that of a PC/Mac with nVidia graphics and HQPlayer GPU offload enabled. No big deal unless you do some heavy duty sample rate conversion that taxes the CPU.
Let us know if you are able to get beyond DSD 128. I'd be real curious about this as my knowledge about the above is not 100% but I have my suspicions. What DAC will you be using?
Mercman (Steve) has lots of experience with this on PC and Mac.
Edits: 12/23/16 12/23/16
Which claims support for native DSD 512 via I2S via HDMI cable.Right now I know of no way to interface a laptop USB to I2S at those rates but I have plans to purchase a Singxer SU-1 XMOS XU208 box anyway as it is supposed to be a superior USB interface, much better than the AMANERO USB card currently internal to my DAC which has I2S via HDMI input anyway.
I've heard the Singxer pcb card in a small box with the new XU208 chip in another system driven by a uRendu and the owner is very happy with it.
It only goes to DSD 256 but there are indications that may change early next year.
The idea of upsampling to DSD 512 in software and streaming to a DAC capable of dealing with that would be interesting, if one could do it for less than $1500, the price of the GUSTARD DAC and the Singxer box.
Add a Windows 10 computer with a high end graphics card and suddenly I am losing interest.
Seem to recall that older MacBook Pro had a discrete nVidia graphics option?
Edits: 12/24/16
It only goes to DSD 256 but there are indications that may change early next year.My PS Audio can do DSD over HDMI I2S but limited to DSD128.
The idea of upsampling to DSD 512 in software and streaming to a DAC capable of dealing with that would be interesting, if one could do it for less than $1500, the price of the GUSTARD DAC and the Singxer box.
Interesting yes, but worthwhile? I guess you'll find out if you go that route.
Add a Windows 10 computer with a high end graphics card and suddenly I am losing interest.
You don't NEED the high-end graphics but HQPlayer can be CPU intensive. In simple terms HQPlayer can shift much of the processing load to nVidia graphics cards because HQPlayer was written using the CUDA API to take advantage of certain nVidia GPU cards if present.
HQPlayer is definitely fun to play with. I found it interesting to observe HQPlayer's CPU utilization doing different sample rate conversions. Some were fairly modest while others really taxed the CPU. That was on my Mac Mini 2.6GHz i7 Quad-Core with 16GB RAM.
Oh, and if you do decide to get a Windows PC at some point, an old one may not be the bargain you think it is. Newer CPU's, even in our tiny Mac Mini's, can out perform huge PC workstations that are only a few years old.
This was a comparison I did a while back of an inmate's eBay 39-Lb. Dell T5500 workstation that he was very excited about. It is slower than my 4 year old 2.6-Lb. Mac Mini in terms of CPU performance.
Seem to recall that older MacBook Pro had a discrete nVidia graphics option?
Some did, but like many older computers they also had slower CPUs, slower memory, slower graphics cards, and overall slower internal architecture. Probably not worth the investment going that route if you want GPU performance. If you want nVidia graphics you will likely want a decent PC after all - must have x16 PCIe slot and aux power to support power hungry high-end GPUs - or get a "gaming laptop" similar to the one Mercman has, but it must have nVidia graphics to support HQPlayer GPU offload. I would not waste money on an old noisy PC that starts out being slower than your present 2.6-Lb. Mac Mini.
As an aside, you may have seen the webpage linked below from Mojo Audio. It's an interesting read on DSD, PCM, and R2R DACs.
Edits: 12/24/16 12/24/16
2.6GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz) w/ 16GB RAM is all I have going in my current production Mac Mini.
I doubt it would be able to deal with up-sampling PCM to DSD 512.
They are quite different devices. XMOS relies on Thyescon TUSB drivers which are customised and updated frequently. Most devices omit the essential elements in the driver ie TUSB Control Panel and TUSB Spy. The former allows for things like Latency to be varied, allowing for minimal buffers. I guess that many customisations use the safe or nearer safe setting, which doesn't to me sound as good. TUSB Spy allows for the monitoring of usb errors which can be seen in some systems. Many Chinese XMOS cards come with up to date drivers but do not contain the CPL and monitoring features. Many other XMOS implementations use 1.6x drivers whereas the latest is 3.34 . The newest drivers do sound better.
Amanero is a different beast. It has a stable driver set from 2013, aimed at accessing the KS mode. Manufacturers who use it have add ASIO drivers to some devices. Curiously they cost more from China than XMOS devices.
The two cards sound different but I would'nt say which is better. It all depends on the setup and peripherals. DSD via KS at 352.8k 24/32 bit actually sounds very good using a good filter using either hardware.
A majot reason why usb cards sound different lies in the quality of USB to I2S conversion where 44.1 x and 48 x related frequencies have to be generated by XOs. It is the qulity and implementation of these which matter.
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