"Bit Perfect Output"

[The Red Guy]

Hello Folks,

I've been saving like mad and have just put down a deposit on an Audiobyte Hydra Vox DAC.

The way this DAC updates it's firmware is rather unusual, the update files are encoded within .wav files.

For this to work, the file needs to pass to the DAC unchanged, so I'm wondering if Moode allows data to pass "as is" via USB?

I'm using an Allo USBridge Sig as my source BTW.


Thanks to anyone taking the time to reply,

Red.

[TheOldPresbyope]

Hello Folks,

I've been saving like mad and have just put down a deposit on an Audiobyte Hydra Vox DAC.

The way this DAC updates it's firmware is rather unusual, the update files are encoded within .wav files.

For this to work, the file needs to pass to the DAC unchanged, so I'm wondering if Moode  allows data to pass "as is" via USB?

I'm using an Allo USBridge Sig as my source BTW.


Thanks to anyone taking the time to reply,

Red.

This scheme sounds pretty radical but when you're designing with an FPGA I guess all ya need is a bunch of extra gates to code the in-band updater!

Their documentation says

1.Download and unpack the appropriate zip file;
2.Set the DAC input on USB;
3.Make sure that on the PC side the playback is bit-perfect(attenuation is set to 0dB, channels are not inverted, no DSP effects are added etc.);

while the docs for MPD (the renderer in moOde) say

By default, MPD attempts to do bit-perfect playback, unless you tell it not to. Precondition is a sound chip that supports the audio format of your music files. If the audio format is not supported, MPD attempts to fall back to the nearest supported audio format, trying to lose as little quality as possible.

So, bit-perfect playback should be possible if you observe what's said in the two quotes.

Good luck.

Regards,
Kent

[Tim Curtis]

Does the manufacturer support Linux?

[The Red Guy]

Hello Kent and Tim,

Thank you both for replying, I'm sorry for not getting back to you sooner, it's been quite a hectic week.

I currently have Moode   setup to just output music, no volume changes or EQ, so I'm guessing that should suffice?


Tim, reggarding the DAC being Linux compatiable. It currently needs Windows + drivers to accept DSD512 over USB. An existing user has used a Android TV Box to send DSD128 over DoP. 

There's another component called the Hub coming out in January that they say should work at DSD512 with Linux or Windows.


I think I should be OK applying any updates via Moode but I'll also email Audiobyte to make sure.
Thank you for your help and thank you for making Moode!

Best regards,

Red.

[TheOldPresbyope]

reggarding the DAC being Linux compatiable. It currently needs Windows + drivers to accept DSD512 over USB

I'm guessing they're aiming their sales commentary at Windows users. The audio driver built into Windows is a bottleneck and many dacs require the 3rd party Thesycon audio driver or something like it.

That's true, for example, with my Khadas Tone Board 1, which works natively with Linux, hence with moOde, but requires the Thescon driver with Windows.

The KTB1 is rated only to DSD256 so I have no way of testing whether DSD512 is a special case for Linux.

Regards,
Kent