DSD Files on SD Card

Have you tried enabling server mode in the app settings menu, and then viewing the music files in the UPnP input, where you should find them listed under Local Music. I can’t say what effect this will have on your DSD files, but I have found that generally this method seems to deal with metadata better than the USB input. 

My bad - I should have said that I am browsing the 'Local Music' server (with Server Mode enabled). Using the USB Input just shows disc filenames for everything (FLAC and DSD).

EnglishRogue posted:

 tags embedded in DSD files stored on an SD card which lives in the slot on my Nova are not scanned

Roguishly...

it's the same on my Star with SD and USB drive (via UPnP server). I hope that fuction willy be update in the future 

I've come to the conclusion that copying DSD files to an SD Card or USB drive for playback on a Uniti product is not the best approach.

From what I can gather, every Uniti input is processed by the DSP. Digital inputs cannot directly access the DAC and Analog inputs are not passed to the preamp. Consequently, DSD will of necessity be converted by the Uniti to PCM because a DSP cannot work on single-bit formats.

I'm contemplating having JRiver convert every DSD file to 192 kHz PCM before copying to the SD card.

Using a single-box player provides conveniences and imposes consequences.

Roguishly..

Well how would anyone know this without a manual with their purchase.......and no the website will not explain this.

I sure agree that the lack of a proper manual and published specifications is very trying. Having used JRiver in conjunction with a DAC for years, I find the Naim gear to be extremely inflexible.

The Nova sounds good enough, but the usability issues constantly antagonize me and I end up yanking the power cord out of the socket in frustration. And the device sits powered down for several weeks behind a closed door.

With an updated Chord Hugo DAC soon to be available I may well ditch the Uniti and replace with the Hugo and an integrated amp,

I don't have any DSDs currently, but it it a case of them not playing off the card or that metadata is wrong.

Might not be what you want but would Roon help?

The DSD files play perfectly fine either from a UPNP Server or from an SD card. The embedded tags are not read when they play from the locally-connected storage.

I did use dbPoweramp to convert a DSD album (The Allman Brothers Band, Eat A Peach) to 96 kHz 24-bit FLAC files. Big mistake - the sound quality degradation was way worse than I expected. The bass line in particular just vanished into an indistinct mumble and the treble notes were badly muted.

I am back to having to fire up JRiver on my laptop so I can play DSD and see the track names displayed on the app. I have 800+ DSF files and my experiment has shown that I need to play them as-is to continue to enjoy their amazing sound quality.

Fix the bug Naim!

Roguishly...

So is the sound quality of the DSDs from NAS or SD card on a par with the sound from JRiver?

I've been tempted for a while to look for some DSDs - Qobuz were supposed to be offering some I seem to recall but don't think they are yet.

One good source of DSD is to purchase SACD discs from some of the reissue labels like Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab or Audio Fidelity and then rip the DSD layer using an old Playstation 3 that still runs the original firmware. There is another method using certain Oppo or Pioneer disc players that use a specific chipset. I have an Arcam CD/SACD player that I use exclusively for yanking DSD off SACD discs.

Out of curiosity, I tried playing a couple of DSDs via USB, on both NDX and Atom, and they both play them fine, and display track names, but not artwork and other metadata. Playing the same albums using either Minimserver or Roon shows the artwork properly.

The DSD albums sound very good indeed on the Nova, even though I am sure Naim are converting single-bit into PCM internally so that the DSP can process the digital signal.

The purist method for handling DSD is to put it through a low-pass filter. That is sufficient to turn 1-bit digital into an analog signal. The guy who designed the PS Audio 'Direct Stream Digital' DAC is quite the evangelist for that approach.

@chrissu: Are your filenames the same as the track names?

All my files are named as: <album-artist>-<album>-<tracknum> (e.g., Butterfield, Paul, Blues Band, The - East-West - 01.dsf). The track name is stored within the 'Title' tag in the header.

So when I play DSD from the SD card, the app shows the fielname and not the track title.

EnglishRogue posted:

One good source of DSD is to purchase SACD discs from some of the reissue labels like Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab or Audio Fidelity and then rip the DSD layer using an old Playstation 3 that still runs the original firmware. There is another method using certain Oppo or Pioneer disc players that use a specific chipset. I have an Arcam CD/SACD player that I use exclusively for yanking DSD off SACD discs.

I have an original release PS3 but suspect I updated the firmware beyond that required for ripping despite holding off for ages, and from memory there is no way to revert to older firmware even if available.  Must check however - I primarily got it as a Blu Ray player with the advantage of being able to play new/older PS titles.  Must search on the Oppo/Pioneer players as I have a few of those but probably the wrong models!