#48 Only Noise When DAC Outputting Native DSD

[Anonymous]

Symptoms > 1.) I can only hear noise when playing back native DSD. It sounds mostly like white noise and it comes throught very loud unless DAC volume knob is turned down quite low. 2.) I can use other outputs like WASAPI and get noise-free playback but I'm limited to PCM (BLUE DAC LED) rather than true native DSD (RED DAC LED) in such cases.

I've tried using a multitude of older foo_input_sacd plugins and well as ASIO Proxy in several different combinations. No matter which versions I use, once I get their respective settings configured properly, and the appropriate output selected, I still get the same noise when the DACs rear LED is RED (native DSD).
I've read through and followed every relevant instruction from the Foobar tutorial here: https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/digital/pc-software/foobar-2000-for-dummies-part-3-new-experimental-sacd-plugin-v-0-9-x/

Using foo_input_sacd ver. 1.1.9 & DSD Transcoder 1.0.10 with Foobar 1.5.1

USB DAC = Topping NX4 DSD (driver 4.14)

This DAC has an led at the rear that lights RED only when it receives DSD signals. Otherwise, it always illuminates BLUE.

Audio source material > DSD64 (28224000 Hz) dsf files

Plugin Settings > please refer to attached images.

What am I doing wrong? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Nevermind, I figured it out. A Google search for "topping nx4 foobar native dsd transcoder noise" led me to a forum comment saying the volume slider in the DAC's control panel needs to be set to max (attached image).

Anything less than 0 db here and you'll get nothing but noise.

Hope this helps other people with similar hardware/software configurations.

[Maxim V.Anisiutkin]

Ok, nice to know:) By the way, your DAC supports DSD64-256 DoP and should play DSD even without DSD Transcoder.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your reply. Now that I know understand the importance of the DACs master volume being set to 0 db in the driver's control panel, I learned that the DSD64-256 DoP modes that my DAC supports (as you pointed out) are also toggling that DSD LED at the rear to red as well, letting me know that I'm indeed in native DSD using the other DSD specific WASAPI and ASIO output options available in Foobar due to the foo_input_sacd (ver. 1.1.9) plugin.

As a side note, I also learned that the "current sample rate" field in the DACs control panel displays PCM frequencies while playing back DSD native sources. Which makes sense when you factor in that the mode being utilized is DoP and a standard PCM source is 16 bits per sample. So when you take the displayed current sample rate and multiply it by 16, you'll always get the appropriate MHz value of the DSD source being played.

Thanks again for your feedback and certainly for your feature rich Foobar plugin projects.

If there are any other little details you think I should know, I'm all ears.

[Maxim V.Anisiutkin]

Luckily nothing special. XMOS/Thesycon is pretty much of mainstream.