Any DSD features on Pro Plus?

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weiland555

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Some early reviews mention DSD capabilities in the Pro Plus's new DAC. Are any such features available at the moment? Can the internal DAC decode DSD?
 
weiland555 said:
Some early reviews mention DSD capabilities in the Pro Plus's new DAC. Are any such features available at the moment? Can the internal DAC decode DSD?
Click to expand...
No mention of this from WiiM themselves - raise a ticket via feedback in the WiiM home app to ask them directly.
 
Hi,
I have a Pro Plus since Saturday and have been trying to play DSD files stored on a NAS. Actually I only purchased the Pro Plus as Wiim claims DSD512 support on their website (https://wiim-audio.de/products/wiim-pro-plus). There are a few threads here discussing the feature, but I could not find any information from Wiim how it supports DSD.

In my setup the Pro Plus is fed with music files via Ethernet/ UPnP. The first thing I've tried was to play DSD64 from Audirvana Studio (2.5.2) music player running on a mac mini, to the internal DAC of the Pro Plus (Line-Out). Audirvana is set to send DSD over PCM (DoP), so without converting DSD to PCM. It seems the Pro Plus converts DSD to PCM as the Wiim app shows the Pro Plus is playing back 24bits, 176,4 hKz (PCM).

I will do further testing with an external DAC (CHORD Mojo2) and with the internal DAC using Minimserver (DLNA) on the NAS from within the Wiim app. Actually, however, it would be great if there was documentation what DSD-capabilities to expect.
 
2nd test case with the internal DAC was to select a DSD file via the DLNA-Server Minimserver (2.2) from the Musicshare section in the Wiim app. The artwork of the file is shown, but the file does not start playing. I've tried with several different DSD-files (.dsf). Any PCM-file (e.g. FLAC 16bit 44.1kHz) plays without problems (obviously)

3rd test case with the internal DAC was to select a DSD file via Minimserver from the iOS DLNA Control-Point-app 8player Pro v7.1.2. The artwork of the file is shown, but the file does not start playing. Any PCM-file (e.g. FLAC 16bit 44.1kHz) plays without problems.

Uncertain whether something might be wrong with the Minimserver setup I've played DSD64 files without issue to a CHORD Poly/Mojo2 (Streamer/DAC) combo over Wi-Fi/UPnP.

Next up, DSD passthrough to external DAC....
 
See this thread relating to DSD and the Squeezelite client, inter alia

DSD transcoded on the fly to PCM-192kHz?

I've been enjoying the new Squeezelite functionality of the WiiM Pro and thought I'd see what would happen if I played some of my .dsf files from my LMS music library. To my surprise, music immediately played in decent sound quality with my DAC indicating PCM 192kHz. Firstly, I was not...
forum.wiimhome.com forum.wiimhome.com
 
Tom Schultz said:
2nd test case with the internal DAC was to select a DSD file via the DLNA-Server Minimserver (2.2) from the Musicshare section in the Wiim app. The artwork of the file is shown, but the file does not start playing. I've tried with several different DSD-files (.dsf). Any PCM-file (e.g. FLAC 16bit 44.1kHz) plays without problems (obviously)
Click to expand...
If you have the licensed version of MinimServer you could try changing the advertised mime type as described here.

I don't have any DSD files, but if you can't test that change I'd be happy to if you can supply a heavily truncated track.
 
simbun said:
If you have the licensed version of MinimServer you could try changing the advertised mime type as described here.
Click to expand...
Thank you, I was aware of the mime type issue and had created Minimserver-profiles with and without the mime type string. During testing I toggled between the profiles, but it did not impact the (negative) results.
 
It is probably not a mime type issue. The hardware can do DSD on the Pro+, but native transcoding to the internal DAC is not there from a software perspective. Kinda false advertising on WiiM’s part. I logged ticket regarding this with an apology for a response, but nothing since September of 2023.

If you want native DSD like I do, log a ticket. Enough complaints might get real DSD support moved up on the development backlog.
 
Quite sure I will run once more into some outrage 😂 but:
DSD is a completely pointless format that Sony invented for copy protection at SACD. It requires more space than PCM with the same amount of information, nothing else. 99.9% of all recordings are created in PCM anyway or converted for mastering in PCM, because the DSD format cannot be edited - i.e. not mastered in the studio either. And a PCM recording that has been converted to DSD can only take up more space, but has certainly not improved.
Seconds out! Ring free!
 
Just tried again to hear any differences. My good old Atoll with SACDs sounds absolutely great.
The same album as DSD file, Qobuz or CD sounded exactly as good. May be Golden Ears will hear something 😉
And that is the way DSD was handled this morning:

IMG_1884.jpeg
 
Why on earth are those concerned about DSD even considering using the dac on the Wiim Pro Plus it really isn’t the best analogue stage regardless of it being an improved dac over the pro. If you want the quality of DSD you’re better served elsewhere really.
 
Achim1811 said:
Just tried again to hear any differences. My good old Atoll with SACDs sounds absolutely great.
The same album as DSD file, Qobuz or CD sounded exactly as good. May be Golden Ears will hear something 😉
And that is the way DSD was handled this morning:

View attachment 3242
Click to expand...
You have broken DSD there using volume control on the DAC you can’t apply DSP to a DSD stream.
 
Seems some people got triggered, sigh. I won't pretend that I can hear the difference between an SACD/DSD and 24/192 kHz. And I'm not here to debate DSD/SACD merits vs PCM.

However, I do have a sizeable collection of SACDs, started in 1999 when the format came out. For a long time, SACD was the only way to get high res audio content. I hate the copy protection also, but fortunately with the help of an old PS3, I was able to rip my SACD collection to ISOs.
I still buy new SACDs, and have some that I have yet to rip. I have about 600GB worth of SACD ISOs. I can easily convert them to high-res PCM, but that will take even more space unless I delete the ISO originals, which I wouldn't. I would rather let the WiiM device handle the DSD->PCM conversion itself as needed. DSD can be and is used without copy protection, too. I have a DSD AD/DA (Tascam DA-3000) which can record in DSD, and there is no copy protection on the output files.

My point is mainly that WiiM advertised the DSD512 feature in the specs, so we all technically paid for this feature, yet it is missing. It cannot hurt to have this feature implemented, even if you don't use it. And if you some day part with your WiiM Pro Plus, it'll be more valuable with DSD support than not.
 
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