What DSD Format Is Required To Play On an NDX?

I saw that Sonore does convert to DoPFLAC . . . I'll check it out!

I know the OP was trying to avoid it, but you could just use a conversion program to turn the DSD files into 176.4/24 or 88.2/24 FLAC files, and then store those on whatever you're using to feed the NDX. It's a bit of a cop-out, but at least it'll get your music playing until you have a serving solution able to deliver them 'as is' to the NDX. There's a decent DSD2FLAC converter available for free from the same source as the ISO2DSD one.

If you want to avoid that conversion, then just use mp3 tag to tag DSF files, ensuring you have both the Artist and Album Artist artists fields filled out, then save the whole thing. Works for me without fail on QNAP/MinimServer/NDS.

I currently use Sonore's DSD2FLAC converter to turn the DSD files to 24/192 FLAC files, which works fine.  Seems like it defeats the purpose of DSD though since there is presumably some loss from DSD64 to FLAC 24/192 . . .

Indeed, converting DSD to PCM is a lossy process and ultimately a subjective process that is there is not a precise way of doing it... It's not like going from FLAC to WAV which is a precise lossless conversion.

Naim do the conversion themselves with thier DSP SHARC high precision processors ..so yes you can do the conversion yourself before Naim, but subject the accuracy and quality of the  conversion implementation you will  be losing data and almost possibly gaining artefacts.

Simon

Indeed.

The whole point of listening to a DSD file is to benefit from it. Provided the actual recording was done inthe DSD format, which actually uses a different encoding technique when the sound is being convertd from analogue to digital.

That's the one, Motoman!

I wasn't suggesting the DSD2FLAC conversion as a total solution, but merely as a means of getting to listen to the music while the OP works out what the problem is with serving the DSF files to the NDX. The FLAC conversion is merely a temporary 'fix'.

Andrew,

I think Motoman has tried converting from DSD to FLAC i.e. he mentioned conversion to 24bit/192kHz FLAC in an earlier post although, as you suggest, maybe 24bit/176.4kHz might be a better option owing to simpler math in the conversion.

I'd be interested to know though whether the DoPFLAC method works as it could perhaps then be used for other UPnP servers such as Asset which is not yet able to  stream native DSD files in its QNAP NAS versions although it can in its Windows PC version. Unfortunately, I can't yet try out DSD2FLAC as I understand it is only available for Mac and Linux.

Some positive and negative news to report about using DoP.

Firstly, the positive. I've used dBpoweramp's advanced settings on their converter to covert dsf files to DoP flac and DoP wav files and can confirm that these can indeed be streamed using the NAS version of Asset UPnP (v. R4.5) installed on my QNAP NAS drive. The naim app confirms that the audio stream is 2,822kHz DSD.

Unfortunately however, there is a rather loud click at the beginning of each new track which isn't present (or not so noticeable) when I play the native dsf files using Minimserver.

I'm sure that I've heard mention before of this "DSD click" issue on the forum and wonder whether it is an artefact of the DoP conversion process or if it is likely to be addressed in a future software/firmware release for the naim streamers.

That click is not limited to DSD conversion.  I have also got that "click" randomly using other conversion software, such as Aimersoft Video Converter, which is a very flexible and useful conversion program, but randomly has caused clicks.  Its hard to pin down sometimes because I can't remember whether I converted a FLAC or that's the way it came . . .  But I am going to convert some ISO's to DoPFLAC with Sonore and see what happens.  

I also discovered that Plex recognizes DSF and DFF files.  My concern with Plex is I don't want it to transcode the files to FLAC in the background.  I'll report my results later . . .

I have converted DSF and DFF files to DoPFLAC with Sonore and the files are recognized by Naim's IOS app and play, so that appears to work.  I do not get any "click" on the converted files.  However, the IOS app is not showing any bit rate or sample rate, apparently on any of my FLAC files, something I noticed yesterday, before doing any of this.

Is this issue only with flac files? Is this an issue with all  flac files or just the ones converted to DoPFLAC?

I've not heard of this issue previously. Does the sample rate show up on the NDX screen when you toggle to the stream info using the remote? What about trying a wav file?

Well, things have gotten stranger.  Using the remote, I toggled the info on the display to show "streaming info" and it displayed the sampling rate on a FLAC.  Now, the IOS app shows the name of the artist, song and sampling rate scrolling on the bottom, as it did before.  However, although the app now displays the folder and song for files that I converted from DSF to DoPFLAC, the app cannot play the DoPFLAC and the screen display on the Naim says "unrecognized file format" for both DSF files and the DoPFLAC that I played yesterday.  I also reset the IOS App to see if that did anything and it did not.  So after all of that, I appear to have come back to where I started!

Not sure what to suggest other than perhaps restarting your NAS and the NDX.