SimonInd

I'd try MPD then, on linux. I managed to get bit perfect output in Linux Mint using mplayer, it was just XBMC that messed up the stream, however you need something that can be controlled from a phone and MPD is probably the solution. You can ultimately use a Raspberry Pi if you have a USB soundcard but any old PC should be sufficient to prove the concept. I'm sticking with W7 for the home cinema, which is the other function of this machine, so its not such a pain for me.

I suspect the cheapest solution is a Raspberry Pi running MPD (music player demon) but I've no idea if it's actually bit perfect. I've settled with Foobar2000 on Windows 7 with ASIO and that works a treat, controlled by FoobarCon on my Android phone

On the Pi I'm using OpenElec and the analogue out (it's primarily for TV in the kitchen) so that's what does the popping, a USB sound card (or your speakers) would avoid this I suspect. On my PC I've set up my RME Card's S/PDIF output to be an ALSA sink(?) by editing /etc/asound.conf so I can select it as an output in XBMC. Annoyingly it's not recognized as a passthrough soundcard so I can't get dts/ac3 through it yet.

Yes I use the Pi too, although hate the popping between songs. Should I be looking at MPD for audio? Can I run it on the PC connected to the DAC and control it from a phone/iPad? Thanks Simon

It's because XBMC is messing with the bitstream. I have a HDCD decoder which relies on the least significant bit to work so it's a great test of whether unadulterated data is making it's way to my DAC. Foobar (ASIO) and even aplay (on Linux) manage bit perfect playback using my RME HDSP9632 soundcard. XBMC on either platform can get the light to flicker but it's not stable so something is going on. I'm using WASAPI on Windows 7 and ALSA on linux (to bypass PulseAudio) and see the same results on both. If anyone can suggest a way to get XBMC to work or an alternative media player that I can ideally control/browse library from a phone or iPad, I'd be extremely grateful?