Aurender N100H and Mcintosh D1100: A few pearls and tid bits I have learned

[nfreemer]

I believe Edward is correct.
DoP irequires high rate PCM capability for those who want to be able to playback high rate DSD files: DSD 64 requires a 176.4 PCM package, DSD 128 requires a 352.8 PCM package, and DSD 256 requires a 705.6 PCM package. Not a lot of DACs can do 705.6 PCM, so DSD 256 delivery is generally limited to Native DSD streams. It is not considered upsampling and to my knowledge DoP has limited artifacts and to my ears I can not tell any difference.

[edward3132]

What I find interesting is the following:

Aurender manual/specs mention that all USB transmission of DSD is over DoP v1.2

McIntosh D1100 mentions accepting native DSD over its USB input but there is never a mention that it can accept DoP.

[1KW]

Originally Posted by edward3132

What I find interesting is the following:

Aurender manual/specs mention that all USB transmission of DSD is over DoP v1.2

McIntosh D1100 mentions accepting native DSD over its USB input but there is never a mention that it can accept DoP.

Please feel free to correct me, but below is my understanding:

From what I read is sounds like what is happening with DSD over DoP, the DSD information is transmitted over USB in a PCM format where there are 8 bit markers and 16 bit data . This is because the PCM equivalent to DSD64 is a 16bit PCM at a rate of 176.4kHz. The next bit rate up from this is 24 bit which is divided up for DoP as 8 bits as markers and 16 bit for DSD data. When the information is seen by the D1100 DAC the 8 bit markers are discarded and the DSD data from the other 16 bits are read as native DSD. Keep in mind the data rate for DSD64 is 2.8224Mbits/sec. For DSD128 it is double so the PCM sample rate is increased to 352.8kHz. I have found this whole difference between PCM and DSD very interesting .
It goes without saying that there has to be a way for the D1100 to know when it is about to receive DSD or PCM. To switch from PCM to DSD mode the D1100 has to detect 32 consecutive DSD marker bytes on all channels used. The D1100 has to detect at least 1 single missing DSD marker byte in at least 1 channel to go back to PCM.

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by 1KW

From what I read is sounds like what is happening with DSD over DoP, the DSD information is transmitted over USB in a PCM format where there are 8 bit markers and 16 bit data . This is because the PCM equivalent to DSD64 is a 16bit PCM at a rate of 176.4kHz. The next bit rate up from this is 24 bit which is divided up for DoP as 8 bits as markers and 16 bit for DSD data. When the information is seen by the D1100 DAC the 8 bit markers are discarded and the DSD data from the other 16 bits are read as native DSD. Keep in mind the data rate for DSD64 is 2.8224Mbits/sec. For DSD128 it is double so the PCM sample rate is increased to 352.8kHz. I have found this whole difference between PCM and DSD very interesting .
It goes without saying that there has to be a way for the D1100 to know when it is about to receive DSD or PCM. To switch from PCM to DSD mode the D1100 has to detect 32 consecutive DSD marker bytes on all channels used. The D1100 has to detect at least 1 single missing DSD marker byte in at least 1 channel to go back to PCM.

David.......No offense intended but you know what? All these numbers and alphabet groups are making my head spin. I just want to listen to good music and don't really care how it happens. All of that stuff is what electronic engineers are for. Whether its DSD, DXD, PCM, MQA, DoP, 16Bit, 24Bit, blah, blah, blah. I don't care. I just want to press Play and be thrilled with the sound and the performance of reproduced music in my home. Pretty simple really.

[1KW]

Originally Posted by jdandy

David.......No offense intended but you know what? All these numbers and alphabet groups are making my head spin. I just want to listen to good music and don't really care how it happens. All of that stuff is what electronic engineers are for. Whether its DSD, DXD, PCM, MQA, DoP, 16Bit, 24Bit, blah, blah, blah. I don't care. I just want to press Play and be thrilled with the sound and the performance of reproduced music in my home. Pretty simple really.

I was just try to understand what was happening with my situation
By the way it sure does sound good

[crwilli]

I find it interesting that David has moved from a staunch analogue guy to talking about digital like he has been 'in it' for years!

It is impressive how you have jumped in and grabbed it by the horns.

[1KW]

Originally Posted by crwilli

I find it interesting that David has moved from a staunch analogue guy to talking about digital like he has been 'in it' for years!

It is impressive how you have jumped in and grabbed it by the horns.

I was streaming sonos through my MCD500 which was inferior to my turntable. It was like eating a frozen pizza compared to fresh out of the oven
The D1100/Aurender combination is superb. I would say certain music sounds better than the vinyl albums I have as well as vice versa i.e. Vinyl sounding better than certain digital but now both sources are more equal even though I have much more dollars now invested in digital hardware. Now have a reason to explore hd digital music. I also have had to figure little problems along the way and was told by both McIntosh and Aurender originally they were not compatible which is so not true. My problem was that I tried to use my NAS on my apple time capsule to play HD music which caused skipping, once I loaded the music onto the Aurender internal HD it works beautifully.

I'm waiting for you to give me a lesson in ripping my SACD's

[crwilli]

Easy peasey!

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by 1KW

I was just try to understand what was happening with my situation
By the way it sure does sound good

David.......I know, and you did a fine job explaining it. I was just having one of those moments. .

[1KW]

Here is a update: I have had the Aurender and the McIntosh D1100 for a few weeks now, both sound like they are broken in. Listening to music from Tidal is really phenomenaly outstanding . The detail in the soundstage and clarity are on another level that is hard to put in words. I can hear the breath of the artist between words in the lyric, the subtle undertones of bass is also now more audible even at lower listening levels, decay of a string instrument or the fade out of a keyboard note is very realistic. I can be listening to a song and suddenly I'm immersed in what I hear , I was up until 1:45 am and back down having coffee. Trying to plan my day thinking oh just one more song . Tidal has replaced my cd collection and in many cases is as good or better as some of my cd's are from the late 80's . My vinyl is in the wall unit on my left and I have not had a desire to reach to play any in over a week. Usually I would play vinyl . Mcintosh did a great job, I have to attribute what I am hearing to the D1100 since my music was playing through the McIntosh MCD500 at first and was nowhere near as good as this.