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Carbon Playback Buffering Issue with SACD Files - Is This a Server Design Flaw or Config Issue?


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This past week I built a Carbon. Thus far I have had no problems playing any files except SACD. Is this a design flaw with the Carbon or simply something I need to change or alter in my Win 8 or MC 18 config? Does anyone have a suggestion that may help my situation?

 

Resource Monitoring on my Carbon NT2800MT running Win 8 32 bit for a variety of files trends as follows:

 

44.1 kHz at 16 bit => CPU & Max Frequency averaged 15% and 65% respectively

192 kHz at 24 bit => CPU & Max Frequency averaged 17% and 70% respectively

352khz (SACD)* => CPU & Max Frequency averaged 60%-70% & 98% respectively

 

*Note: My Weiss DAC is limited to 192 Khz input. Given that Media Center application must via programming reduce the resolution of the bitstream of the file prior to feeding my DAC. Also note that the 60-70% CPU utilization for the SACD playback is mostly a result of MC18 (40-45%) and System Interrupts (15-20%)

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I'm not sure which exact name to use, there are a few tools that list activity in Task Manager, such as threads, IO reads and writes... One of these can measure the computations/sec and these are perhaps exceeded by the conversion from DSD to PCM. Just check in the Properties for the DAC in Jriver, the above 192kHz are set to convert to 192kHz. If that's already done...

 

This conversion needs to be completed in real time, and fellow CA member Bernhard stating his Atom330 could not decode DSD and was looking for a program to convert DSD to PCM.

 

Can advise what the CPU load is for an i5 and DSD DAC for playing DSD in JRMC 18 later today.

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352khz (SACD)* => CPU & Max Frequency averaged 60%-70% & 98% respectively

 

Looks OK to me since your CPU must convert samplerate to your soundcard range, most likely to 192kHz.

 

On my P4 dualcore a trial DSD64 playback in linux takes 100% of one core, all taken by sox resampling to 192kHz, command

 

cat /home/pavel/tmp/2L50SACD_tr1_DSD_stereo.dff | ./dsd2pcm 2 m 24 | sox   -t raw -r 352800 -s -3 -c 2 - -t alsa -r 192000 -b 24  plughw:0

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The answer to my question should be straight forward. I need CA Chris' input or someone else that has either solved the SACD playback issue with a Carbon or has exhausted all possibilities and has given up.

 

Chris' original Carbon Build "Wrap Up" stated that he could play DSDs with the Carbon at that to-date it was his favorite server. Given that, why can't I and a buddy of mine (that just bought a Carbon from Green Computers) do the same?

 

Help us please!!

 

btw... Thanks to all that have relied thus far. I appreciated your input.

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The answer to my question should be straight forward. I need CA Chris' input or someone else that has either solved the SACD playback issue with a Carbon or has exhausted all possibilities and has given up.

 

Chris' original Carbon Build "Wrap Up" stated that he could play DSDs with the Carbon at that to-date it was his favorite server. Given that, why can't I and a buddy of mine (that just bought a Carbon from Green Computers) do the same?

 

Help us please!!

 

btw... Thanks to all that have relied thus far. I appreciated your input.

 

When you say "SACD" what do you mean? If by that you mean ISOs then there is your problem. As I've reported elsewhere here, the Atom-based CAPS v3's (like my V2+) have too little horsepower to handle the load of decompressing an SACD ISO (remember, SACD ISOs most often need to be decompressed from DST). I first reported it after Axpona when I told the Mytek guys I wanted to have a DSD-based sonic comparison of direct SACD ISO playback vs DSF file playback (I have 1100 SACDs ripped to DSF files). No brainer. The DSF files play magically and wonderfully...beautiful music. The SACD ISOs stutter, cough and peter out. No worries. I hate the lack of flexibility and lack of tags in SACD ISOs anyway.

 

Net/net, when Chris (and I) say that the CAPS V3's play DSD wonderfully we are talking about DSF (or DFF, but they have no tags so don't extract to DFF :) ) files. Hell, even multichannel DSF files, although freaking huge, play back perfectly on our Atom-based CAPS servers (see my stacked Mytek first DSD multichannel server review thread).

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Here is a simple primer to take ISOs and convert to DSF folders (in batch, even):

 

1) First make a new folder close to a root drive (so the naming path doesn’t get too long..sometimes the classical ones are ridiculous). Call it anything, say, C:\ISO2DSD.

2) Then make a subfolder in it called Programs (capital “P”).

3) Put the SACD-extract.exe (first link below, unzip) executable in the Programs subfolder.

 

sacd_extract_0.3.7_WIN32.zip - sacd-ripper - SACD Extract 0.3.7 (WIN32) - SACD ripping software using a PS3 - Google Project Hosting

 

4) Put the bat file (link below, unzip) in the main folder.

 

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3487125/Extract%20DST%20Stereo%20DSF%20Files.zip

 

5) So then put any number of ISOs (rename the ISOs if their name is too long; something that will uniquely identify them but not too long) you want to extract in the main folder (the one with the bat, the one we hypothetically called ISO2DSD).

6) Click on the bat file and voila……and then each ISO will extract to DSF tracks, putting one album full of tracks in a folder each (20 ISOs, 20 new folders created). When you do this again (for more ISOs) remove the already-extracted ISOs or they will get worked on again! Each ISO can take 10 minutes or more, so once you have this down well do a shitload overnight.

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IMO the key difference is whether your DAC supports DSD natively (low CPU requirements) or not (high CPU requirements due to conversion to PCM and quality downsampling to e.g. 192kHz).

 

Again, the OP's issue was surely DSD, but not native file-based DSD. Instead he was trying to play SACD ISO's, which require some cpu overhead to simply decode, let alone often decompress from DST. Although I no longer participate in DSD-to-PCM conversion, I don't find DSD-to-PCM on-the-fly conversion to anywhere close to this cpu load he was describing. YMMV.

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I don't find DSD-to-PCM on-the-fly conversion to anywhere close to this cpu load he was describing. YMMV.

 

 

What PCM samplerate did you use with low CPU load? In my case in linux the DSD to PCM 352,8kHz conversion took about 9% (dsd2pcm) and about 90% of my CPU core was used for quality downsampling to 192kHz, my soundcard upper limit.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ted, I wanted to thank you for your help. As you stated they would, the extracted .dsf files play wonderfully. My CPU load with the Atom Dual Core is maxs out at 20% playing the files. No buffering issues at all. I'm in bliss. Tagging is a no brainer as well. thanks again!! BTW... Are you still partial to the Granite Digital Firewire 9-6 pin? I'm in need of a cable for my Wiess and can go either 6 pin to 6 pin OR 9 pin to 6 pin given my using a SIIG card with FW 400 and 800 posts. What would you suggest?

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