Raspberry Pi 5 as network storage, music server, and player - PART 10

10. DSD playback - dsf and dff files

For DSD playback the DAC atttached (or contained within) your streamer needs to be DSD-capable.  There are 2 methods of DSD playback:

- native DSD

- DSD-over-PCM (DoP)

Which method you use depends on your DAC.  Check the specifications to find which mode your DAC supports.

native DSD

For native DSD playback there is no configuration change necessary for Lyrion, and no need to install the "DSDPlayer" plugin.

But there is one small configuration change necessary for the player component - squeezelite.

In the pCP configuration page, under "Squeezelite Settings" "Device supports DSD/DoP" enter this text -

3:dop

This tells squeezelite to delay/mute the audio for 3 milliseconds when Lyrion switches between PCM and DSD sources, to avoid audible clicks.

And although this setting is related to DoP, bizarrely it affects native DSD playback as well.  Without this setting squeezelite will transcode DSD audio files to PCM - and in my case this resulted in my DAC showing a PCM data rate of 352.8 kHz.  352.8 kHz is the sample rate of the DXD audio standard, if anyone is interested -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_eXtreme_Definition

There's probably some setting in Lyrion or squeezelite which affects the parameters of this DSD-to-PCM conversion, but I haven't bothered to investigate.

This is my rPi5 Lyrion server & PLAYER, connected via USB to my DAC, playing a DSD64 file, confirmed by "2.82 DSD" displayed on the DAC.

DSD-over-PCM

For DoP playback, you must first install the Lyrion plugin "DSDPlayer".

Once installed there is NO separate menu item for DSDPlayer, but additional settings will then appear in the "File Types" menu, which you don't need to change.

Next, in the left menu bar, go to the Player Settings, then "Extra Settings", then in the drop-down menu "DSDPlayer"

select "Enable DSD-over-PCM" - if available !

If Lyrion detects that your player/DAC is capable of native DSD input, then I think it makes DoP unavailable!

then "Save Settings" and reboot.

This is my attempt to stream DoP via optical S/PDIF to my WiiM Mini and E30 II DAC - unsuccessfully - I cannot hear any audio, because my DAC is capable of DoP only via USB, not S/PDIF ... but what's interesting is that 176.4kHz PCM is displayed, which is how DoP should appear to a non-DoP compatible DAC.  So clearly DoP is being correctly generated by Lyrion, but the WiiM sees it as a conventional PCM audio stream, and passes it on to the DAC as such.  If the connected DAC was capable of DoP via S/PDIF I'm confident the DAC would recognise the stream as DoP, and happily process its true DSD state.

NEXT - 11. USER INTERFACES

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