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80sCarsAreBest

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  1. Aries Technical Support confirmed that "DSD convert to PCM does not work with current version of firmware". There were some qualifications to this statement but it does explain the extreme bewilderment I experienced when trying to make my desired setup work. My takeaway from all this is that the Aries is -still- a work in progress. It is awesome today and it will be even awesomer when fully developed. Thanks for your help and suggestions.
  2. Non DSD files from the Aries to the Berkeley play in a most excellent manner when the two are connected directly through AES only. It is the most natural sounding playback of a digital file I have ever listened to, almost phono-like.
  3. Yes, I did indeed. I am puzzled mainly because the Berkeley, when connected to the Aries through AES directly, does produce some sound in response to being fed a Dsf file; it is not just silence it is just very, very faint.
  4. Thank you for your continued effort to try and answer my question. Yes, I did try to play the DSD files on the Berkeley with the 'DSD over PCM' option disabled. This is when I did hear sound but it was very, very faint as if the device was on 'Mute'. I more or less convinced myself that this was due to a bug in the Aries firmware as the Aries functions exactly the way one expects as long as the DAC is connected through the USB out, but not when connected through the other digital outputs (like AES). No apologies necessary; hours worth of forum posts will not be as clear as a few minutes worth of demonstration when it comes to the puzzling interplay between these devices.
  5. bplexico, this is not a bad suggestion, thank you for your response. I am thinking that I don't understand how this option of 'DSD over PCM' works. Part of my confusion stems from the fact that the Berkeley does produce a sound when I feed it a Dff file in PCM format, it is just very, very faint. It seemed like I was missing a 'Mute' option somewhere. Separately, I hooked up the Berkeley through a Musical Fidelity V-Link II, using the USB out on the Aries and the AES input on the Berkeley. This worked but -for non-DSD files- doesn't sound as good as connecting the Aries to the Berkeley directly through AES alone, so it is not an acceptable long-term solution. Do I understand correctly that the V-Link is converting DSD files into PCM on the fly? Lastly, I connected the Aries to a DSD capable DAC (a Matrix X-Sabre) through USB. This DAC correctly recognized Dff as 'DSD' with the Aries 'DSD over PCM' setting one way and as 'PCM' the other way (at 48*4=192khz, that is the way the Matrix unit indicates sample rates). Too bad it doesn't sound as good as the Berkeley. Is the Matrix unit somehow 'tricked into believing' that it is decoding a PCM signal? Thanks again.
  6. The DAC in question is the Berkeley Audio Alpha DAC 'Reference Series', a wonderful piece of kit albeit somewhat limited in its inputs. Through the Lightening App it is possible to instruct the Aries to output Dsf (DSD, Dff) files in S/PDIF format; the option is something called 'DSD over SPDIF' (I am going from memory here, I am at work and don't have access to my iPad to check the correct verbiage). All works well over USB but falls apart when using the other Aries digital outputs.
  7. I've been lurking for quite awhile but this is my first time posting. I have what appears to be a pretty standard setup with the Aries being fed by a Synology NAS running MinimServer, controlled through an iPad running the Lightening app. I did update the Aries with firmware version 1.9. The DAC I would like to use does not 'do' direct DSD decoding and does not have a USB input. I would like to connect to the Aries through AES. This works great for Flac (and some legacy Mp3s) but doesn't work for DSD files 'down-converted' to S/PDIF 192 KHz at 24-bit. Flac files encoded with the same resolution play fine and although the sound of the (down-converted) DSD files can be heard it is very faint, almost completely muted. I tried with a different, less desirable, DAC that does have DSD capabilities as well as an USB input and -through USB- DSD files play fine, both in their native form as well as 'down-converted' to S/PDIF. It seems that down-converted DSD files cannot be played through any Aries output other than the USB. Am I missing something? If not, is this something that might get fixed in a future Aries firmware update?
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