[joseph69]

Joseph, I was also having some Problems at first with Static and not getting anything to pass through the SU-1 But after several attempts at rebooting everything and taking everything in and out of the chain, everything started to work, I'm also on a Mac, Tim says most of his issues are with mac issues.
I do know with your MicroRendu, you should be able to pass the signal, I myself am using Audirvana Plus newest version...
Tim wrote this to me below about my situation.

Also i2s cables are not hot swappable, so hopefully you did not plug or unplug them when either device is powered on.
Try a power reset of all devices. And plug and unplug the input side of the intona also. Mac's often are picky with USB sometimes. Most of the tech support I do ends up being about 80% Mac and I wish I had a Mac so it could be a little easier. I'm not too familiar with Mac. And the only way Mac can do dsd is with DOP. And limited to dsd256 over DOP. Never can do native unless they update the os.

I've rebooted everything countless times last night as well as this afternoon, and always shut down before doing any cable swapping as a safe practice. When the mR or any AoIP in the chain the Mac "MIDI" settings and JRiver "Audio" settings cannot be accessed, so I don't believe it has anything to do with the Mac, rather it is just easer to blame. Don't forget, there are no drivers to install for the Mac to use with the SU-1. I'm waiting to hear from Tim at this point being I've spent a good 6hrs now trying to figure this out to the best of my ability.

This suggests to me the issue lies with the dac or your computer. Have you try uninstall and reinstall the driver?

As I mentioned above, I highly doubt it's my Mac because there is no access to any settings using AoIP so I hope it's not an issue with the DAC or the SU-1.

Thank you both very much for your replies, I do greatly appreciate them!

 

[joseph69]

Another thing, try another usb cable. Last time I ran into static issue was cable related. I'm using supra usb cable, no issue with dsd on my win10 machine.

I will try another USB cable as well as another i2s cable, thank you.

 

[x RELIC x]

so I don't believe it has anything to do with the Mac, rather it is just easer to blame.

I don't own the Holo Spring DAC, but it likely is the Mac as they don't use drivers for USB audio. DoP is still DSD and it plays as DSD, but it fools the USB interface in to thinking it's PCM audio, which is the only audio standard that is in the USB specification without a driver.

Since the Holo Spring supports DoP I'd say that you need to use DoP to play DSD files without converting to PCM on the Mac. DoP stands for DSD over PCM, not DSD converted to PCM. You still get 100% DSD playback as the DoP capable DAC sees the DoP flag in the signal and extracts the DSD data exactly from the PCM wrapper, and plays as DSD.

From the Kitsune tuned Holo Spring website (Bold emphasis added by me):

DSD is natively supported for the first time on this R2R Discrete DAC

HOLO Audio is the world’s first to support DSD natively on R2R DAC, so far the only one. This is not the DSD converted to PCM before digital-analog converter, but directly by the discrete components of the DSD digital to analog converter. Supported currently on MAC (DOP)and Linux (DOP), and Windows/PC (Direct Native and DOP).

https://kitsunehifi.com/product/springdacgreen/

 

[joseph69]

I don't own the Holo Spring DAC, but it likely is the Mac as they don't use drivers for USB audio. DoP is still DSD and it plays as DSD, but it fools the USB interface in to thinking it's PCM audio, which is the only audio standard that is in the USB specification without a driver.

Since the Holo Spring supports DoP I'd say that you need to use DoP to play DSD files without converting to PCM on the Mac. DoP stands for DSD over PCM, not DSD converted to PCM. You still get 100% DSD playback as the DoP capable DAC sees the DoP flag in the signal and extracts the DSD data exactly from the PCM wrapper, and plays as DSD.

From the Kitsune tuned Holo Spring website (Bold emphasis added by me):

I'm getting confused because I'm not using the USB output from the Mac, I'm using an Ethernet cable from my Mac to my mR for AoIP with JRiver…so would be relevant to me, no? Forgive me as I'm getting burnt out from this at this point. Also, you can access the "Audio" settings in JRiver for DSD but only prior to selecting AoIP (otherwise you can't after selecting AoIP which is what I should have said in my previous post, sorry). I also have my mR set for DoP as well? I just don't understand. Thank you.

 

[x RELIC x]

I'm getting confused because I'm not using the USB output from the Mac, I'm using an Ethernet cable from my Mac to my mR for AoIP with JRiver…so would be relevant to me, no? Forgive me as I'm getting burnt out from this at this point. Also, you can access the "Audio" settings in JRiver for DSD but only prior to selecting AoIP (otherwise you can't after selecting AoIP which is what I should have said in my previous post, sorry). With that, I was able to use all available DSP/Format settings in JRiver with no impact at a all, and DoP is included in the choices as shown below. I also have my mR set for DoP as well? I just don't understand. Thank you.

I'm on the iPad and for some reason can't see the pic you posted. Also, I don't use Jriver, and like I said I don't own the Holo Spring DAC. DoP is also used for other interfaces besides USB but the reason it was created was to overcome USB's lack of recognizing DSD audio without drivers. There's not much more I can help with but I thought I'd pitch in to say that DoP may be the solution. I know how frustrating it must be but that's all I can help with, hopefully others can help more. I wish you luck.

 

[joseph69]

Yes, I understand you're trying to help me and I definitely appreciate it very much. I just can't seem to figure this out and to my knowledge everything in my chain is set up to play DoP.

Thank you again for trying to help out!

 

[x RELIC x]

Yes, I understand you're trying to help me and I definitely appreciate it very much. I just can't seem to figure this out and to my knowledge everything in my chain is set up to play DoP.

Thank you again for trying to help out!

Hopefully, it's just that one needle in the haystack that needs to be set.

 

[whirlwind]

Hopefully, it's just that one needle in the haystack that needs to be set.

I was thinking the same and I am not much help ...I am using Foobar and a Windows 7 PC

 

[joseph69]

I'm on the iPad and for some reason can't see the pic you posted. Also, I don't use Jriver, and like I said I don't own the Holo Spring DAC. DoP is also used for other interfaces besides USB but the reason it was created was to overcome USB's lack of recognizing DSD audio without drivers. There's not much more I can help with but I thought I'd pitch in to say that DoP may be the solution. I know how frustrating it must be but that's all I can help with, hopefully others can help more. I wish you luck.

Hopefully, it's just that one needle in the haystack that needs to be set.

I was thinking the same and I am not much help …I am using Foobar and a Windows 7 PC

You and I both know it's going to be the most simple thing I'm missing. This also makes it that much more frustrating.
On the up side, at least I can listen to it at 352kHz now.

 

[MacedonianHero]

Reintroducing the microRendu into the chain, I can now only play the file at 176kHz once again, and can't even get DSD playback.
Sorry for the consistent/consecutive posting, but I'm just trying to get to the bottom of this, especially when having all of my components in my chain, being they are all capable of playing 2.8/5.6 DSD.

EDIT:
I also have the box checked for "Enable Direct DSD Support" in my mR settings.

Joesph, I'd try downloading a free 30 day trial of Audirvana 3 and see what happens. Select DoP, I've never had any issues with this.

 

[joseph69]

Joesph, I'd try downloading a free 30 day trial of Audirvana 3 and see what happens. Select DoP, I've never had any issues with this.

Thanks for the advice, Peter.
I'm going to tackle this in the morning again being other have sent me a PM with the same issue and have solved it by disconnecting/reconnecting cables as well as powering on/off (which I did) but I'll try again. I also want to try a different USB cable from the mR into the SU-1 as well as a different HDMI cable. I'm sure I'm missing something simple…that's the way it always goes for me.

 

[MacedonianHero]

So far you've eliminated the SU-1, this will eliminate whether its the software. Do you have a PC you could try?

 

[joseph69]

So far you've eliminated the SU-1, this will eliminate whether its the software. Do you have a PC you could try?

No, I don't have a PC…only my Mac. I have to agree with you that it is JRiver software at this point. This morning while switching settings/eliminating/reintroducing components in my chain and switching between USB and Ethernet connections from my Mac, I found that JRiver was not at all consistent with playback. Even after rebooting JRiver many times. I'm going to take your advice and try the free 30 day trial from Audirvana 3 and see what happens.

 

[bflat]

After more listening across my music library I have to admit, the Level 3 is a very unforgiving DAC. I suppose that is a negative way to say that the Level 3 is an amazingly transparent DAC. I've pretty much eliminated poorly mastered albums from my collection, but I have a lot of mediocre ones that are more sentimental value than music experience. Now those mediocre albums sound pretty bad only because my "good" masters sound so incredible! I suspect I will start a long journey replacing a lot of my albums with modern masters in hi res or DSD. Ironic isn't it? There is so much time and energy spent on buying the gear, but I don't think an equal amount is spent on finding great recordings.

 

[joseph69]

OK, so I can't use Audirvana 3 because I'm still running 10.8.5 Mountain Lion because it runs excellent for me. I've stuck with this OS because I had nothing but horror when I downloaded Mavericks when it came out, so I swore I would never install another new OS on my Mac again.

I had seen that I could dowload Audirvana 2.2.5 but this version from what I've read doesn't support DSD playback.
A few weeks ago I was debating whether I should download Roon but I had already used the free trial a long time ago, so I would have to purchase it and my OS may not be compatible, I'll have to read their FAQ. I have 1 DSD download and about 10 SACD's which I imported 1 of to JRiver that wouldn't play either. So I really don't need to buy another software player when JRiver suits me fine for the 99% files I have.

EDIT: My mistake, I didn't use the free trial for Roon, it was something else so I'm going to give their fee trial a go! And it's compatible with my OS.