Audirvana 1.4 with DSD Playback on Resonessence Invicta DAC

[ZagatoV12]

This might seem a noddy question, but if I have a native DSD recording (downloaded from Downloads Now) that I want to play using A+ through an Invicta DAC, which has just updated its software to be able to play native DSD files through USB, does the interface show that a DSD file is being played? In other words, does the interface confirm that it is playing the DSD file natively? The reason I ask this is because I know the player is capable of rendering DSD files by translating them into another format but, naturally I want to be sure I am hearing the DSD file at its native best.

 

I have the A+ 1.4.3 options set to Exclusive, Direct and Integer and 'automatic detection' on the Audio System page and just above that the Invicta is recognized as the active audio device and shows 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4 and 192 (in color) as available source formats but the DSD64 and DSD128 text is greyed out on the right. DSD to PCM Algorithm option is set to 64bit Multistage. This leads me to suspect that despite the software upgrade, the player is converting the DSD file on replay.

 

Can anyone offer any guidance on this? I may not be the only one confused. It's my first foray into DSD!

[valenroy]

This might seem a noddy question, but if I have a native DSD recording (downloaded from Downloads Now) that I want to play using A+ through an Invicta DAC, which has just updated its software to be able to play native DSD files through USB, does the interface show that a DSD file is being played? In other words, does the interface confirm that it is playing the DSD file natively? The reason I ask this is because I know the player is capable of rendering DSD files by translating them into another format but, naturally I want to be sure I am hearing the DSD file at its native best.

 

I have the A+ 1.4.3 options set to Exclusive, Direct and Integer and 'automatic detection' on the Audio System page and just above that the Invicta is recognized as the active audio device and shows 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4 and 192 (in color) as available source formats but the DSD64 and DSD128 text is greyed out on the right. DSD to PCM Algorithm option is set to 64bit Multistage. This leads me to suspect that despite the software upgrade, the player is converting the DSD file on replay.

 

Can anyone offer any guidance on this? I may not be the only one confused. It's my first foray into DSD!

 

You will have to set the option to DoP instead of auto-detection to ensure that you are bit-streaming DoP (i.e. force A+ to output DoP). If the DAC is not capable of decoding DoP, noise will manifest. A+ may not be updated to detect the Invicta yet as the recent 4.0 firmware is fairly new. Same thing happened to my TEAC UD-501. Is there any indication/information on the Invicta that confirms your input signal? - You might like to look into that as well.

[ZagatoV12]

You will have to set the option to DoP instead of auto-detection to ensure that you are bit-streaming DoP (i.e. force A+ to output DoP).

 

Hi valenroy. Thanks for the suggestion. I'm not sure how to do this because no such option is available in the pull down menu in A+. Can you elaborate please?

[valenroy]

Hi valenroy. Thanks for the suggestion. I'm not sure how to do this because no such option is available in the pull down menu in A+. Can you elaborate please?

 

So in the preferences menu, and under the Native DSD Capability drop-down menu, select "DSD over PCM standard 1.0". This will force A+ to output DoP. Actually, come to think of it, Damien should be updating the standard to 1.1 since is streams DSD128 via DoP as well at the moment.

[ZagatoV12]

So in the preferences menu, and under the Native DSD Capability drop-down menu, select "DSD over PCM standard 1.0". This will force A+ to output DoP. Actually, come to think of it, Damien should be updating the standard to 1.1 since is streams DSD128 via DoP as well at the moment.

 

 

Thank you valenroy. That seems to work! :-) Here is the interface after settings as you suggest:-

 

 

 

Many thanks for your help. In the top image it looks as if A+ is sending DSD64 data and the Invicta is playing it. The bottom image shows that DSD64 replay is now available from the Invicta, because of the DSD over PCM setting, I think.

 

Can you please elaborate on what this setting actually means and / or what A+ is actually doing under this setting?

[valenroy]

Thank you valenroy. That seems to work! :-) Here is the interface after settings as you suggest:-

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3591[/ATTACH]

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3592[/ATTACH]

 

Many thanks for your help. In the top image it looks as if A+ is sending DSD64 data and the Invicta is playing it. The bottom image shows that DSD64 replay is now available from the Invicta, because of the DSD over PCM setting, I think.

 

Can you please elaborate on what this setting actually means and / or what A+ is actually doing under this setting?

 

You are most welcome... I guess you must be a year late in the dsd game but late is better than never I say! Why don't you head over to this site to have a better appreciation of the DoP 1.1 protocol to overcome limitations of the Mac OSX CoreAudio foundation.

 

DoP open Standard | DSD-Guide.com

[ZagatoV12]

Aha! All is clear now. What a challenge it is to have to engineer around the OS limitations of both major systems! At least they are providing something, although it may take several more years before they really catch on and implement core systems that support a growing technology.

 

I am probably far more than a year late on all this stuff, being a forty year analogue man until last year, so most of this technology is relatively new to me though not the basic science behind it. Having listened to some excellent recordings by Blue Coast since Resonessence facilitated DSD playback on the Invicta I'm really impressed and hope it goes from strength to strength.

 

Thank you again for the information.

[No Disc]

Would you mind sharing your impressions of DSD with your Invicta?

[ZagatoV12]

Would you mind sharing your impressions of DSD with your Invicta?

 

Absolutely, would be delighted. I'm just busy acquiring some more DSD tracks and, for comparison, different PCM encodings of the same material and will report back shortly.

[No Disc]

Thank you.

 

 

Absolutely, would be delighted. I'm just busy acquiring some more DSD tracks and, for comparison, different PCM encodings of the same material and will report back shortly.

[ZagatoV12]

Well, I was reserving judgement on the new DSD functionality until I had acquired some more DSD material, which I am still doing, and then, while I was researching and downloading new tracks at various resolutions, I thought, why don't I wait until my new Grand Illusion interconnects arrive from VeraStarr? I was expecting greater clarity from my system with these in place, so it kind of make sense to me that it would be worth doing the comparative listening with these in place. They arrived yesterday evening. I duly fitted them and burned them in for 24 hours before doing any kind of listening at all - even though Mike Powell stipulates at least 200 hours of burn in before they reach their best! Couldn't wait.

 

Well, I'm sitting here with my mouth open! OMG - what a difference! The Dark Star is, now - full of light!

The veil lifteth and revealeth all.

 

I can't take my LCD-3s off my head .......... :-)

[wappinghigh]

^ Z. Can you go to the other Invicta thread and test the 128DSD download from dsdfile.com and load it into your Audirvana and check to see if it plays 5.6DSD files. ALso test on an SD card? Thanks! It should work. It's got the same sabre DAC as the 12b capable exasound20 right?

[ZagatoV12]

With Pleasure W. Would that be Wapping in East London by any chance - Ratcliffe Highway perhaps? :-)

 

I've requested a download link from the site to test DSD128 as you suggested. I've also emailed Mark at Resonessence to get a straight answer from those who know (or should)

[ZagatoV12]

Now the Grand Illusion interconnects have had just over 200 hours of burn in I will get started on the DSD replay comparisons mentioned above. The VeraStarr interconnects have settled in wonderfully. They've warmed a little, since my sneaky listen at 24 hours or so of burn-in; giving even more 'body' to the music. PRAT is markedly increased, the music seeming to have improved micro dynamics and more 'speed' and overall 'energy'. Transparency, detail, soundstage are all improved over the Wireworld Gold Eclipse 6 cables (which are pretty good to start with).

 

I've spent a lot of time listening to my favorite chamber music with these two cables and the VeraStarr wires give the music a wonderful sense of just plain 'rightness'; instrument timbres are even more realistic now and the whole presentation is even more engaging and very 'analogue' in character - effortless, audio 'Nirvana'.

 

These cables are not inexpensive, but for the remarkable transparency and quality they bring, they're well worth the extra investment. I'm delighted.

[ZagatoV12]

^ Z. Can you go to the other Invicta thread and test the 128DSD download from dsdfile.com and load it into your Audirvana and check to see if it plays 5.6DSD files. Also test on an SD card? Thanks! It should work. It's got the same sabre DAC as the 12b capable exasound20 right?

 

I've just requested this file link, but Mark Mallinson of Resonessence has just replied to my emailed question saying they are working on DSD128 ' in the background' and are currently focused on the development of the forthcoming firmware version 4.2 release, but it wasn't clear whether he was suggesting it would be in that release or not - it'll probably be a little later. He would have said so otherwise, I think.

[ZagatoV12]

Would you mind sharing your impressions of DSD with your Invicta?

 

 

My first impression of the difference is of greater refinement of presentation, increased clarity and improved dynamics over the PCM rendering. The PCM rendering of course sounds very good to begin with - these are first class recordings after all - but the PCM version sounds slightly coarser, 'flatter' and one-dimensional by comparison.

 

For this first test I used DSD64 and 16/44.1 versions of Emily Palen's Glass: Live at Grace Cathedral tracks on Blue Coast. The particular track I used was Light in the Fracture. This is an improvisation played on solo violin, close mic'd in a wonderfully spacious acoustic. There is a volume difference in the two versions, the DSD64 files being lower in volume, which I had to compensate for with a SPL meter.

 

My approach was to use repeated listening of the whole track and then specific sections, making notes and swopping files and repeating again and again in order to separate out and describe, as carefully as I could, the different characteristics of the two renderings.

 

The first thing that strikes you is DSD's richer tonal rendering of the violin, particularly during double stops, the additional, creamier 'bloom' of the overall sound as the direct sound merges into the lusher reverberant field and melts away with clearly discernible 'waves' of reflections until those notes are subsumed by those following in the next phrase. You get a harmonically richer rendering from DSD; more 'wood' in the violin's character with just as much bite at bow reversals as in the 16/44.1 PCM file, but with more subtlety. It's as if the scratchy 'edge of the bow's initial excitement of the string as it changes direction under Palen's 'push' is broadened into a fatter note of greater body and substance. Palen's high E string notes and harmonics on the DSD version are also notably sweeter and more rounded, less strident, as if more even harmonics are getting through.

 

The DSD sound at times feels slightly more relaxed yet there is the sense of better micro dynamics, - a greater sense of 'pulse' - particularly as Palen is swinging from side to side as she plays the more lilting phrases - you can feel the lilt, the sway, in her phrasing somewhat more clearly than in the PCM rendering.

 

There is tangibly more clarity from DSD, which leaves audible room for her third and fourth string notes to persist deep into the reverberation field while other notes increase in intensity around them without obliterating the former. The PCM rendering drowns these notes out much more quickly. The natural , huge, acoustic character of the cathedral space is more clearly discernible in the DSD rendering. There is a richer 'aura' of reverberant sound which seems to 'roll' away in three dimensional waves, whereas the PCM rendering is more short tailed and one dimensional. There

 

Finally, you can hear more low level detail in the background of this track - outside traffic and movement noises are more evident in the DSD rendering than in the PCM version.

 

This is of course only one instrument playing in a superb acoustic, so I will now repeat the audition with other recordings to see how a more complex and denser sound field fares in DSD versus 16/44.1 PCM.