Issue with a non native DSD DAC

Help and Support Help
1

Hey there,

I have a Sony UDA-1, I also have a FiiO K5 Pro. Volumio is working as well as it can with the former, as this is seemingly old enough not to support native DSD, whereas the FiiO does.

Is there any sort of work around so I can take advantage of DSD playback with the Sony? Granted, Volumio does a good job of just “converting” DSD so I can play the files back at high res PCM, but I wondered if, similar to Roon, running the client on a PC and connecting my Sony to that via USB, if I’d then get DSD decoding?

I enabled SSH and checked what the Sony is compatible with; the results below:

volumio@volumio:~$ cat /proc/asound/card*/stream0
Sony Sony USB DAC Amplifier at usb-0000:01:00.0-1.1, high speed : USB Audio

Playback:
Status: Stop
Interface 1
Altset 1
Format: S16_LE
Channels: 2
Endpoint: 7 OUT (ASYNC)
Rates: 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000
Data packet interval: 125 us
Bits: 16
Channel map: FL FR
Interface 1
Altset 2
Format: S24_3LE
Channels: 2
Endpoint: 7 OUT (ASYNC)
Rates: 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000
Data packet interval: 125 us
Bits: 24
Channel map: FL FR
Interface 1
Altset 3
Format: S32_LE
Channels: 2
Endpoint: 7 OUT (ASYNC)
Rates: 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000
Data packet interval: 125 us
Bits: 32
Channel map: FL FR

This proves connecting to my raspberry Pi for DSD decoding is impossible, but if there is a way around it, I’d be interested. Thanks!

1 Like
2

I hope someone would develop a driver for it eventually, but I’m not holding my breath!

3

Yes, you could switch to a Volumio device like the Rivo, or select a Rock Pi 4b(plus), these are boards for which either the core team can do something for you (in case of Rivo), or community maintainers in case of a Rock PI.
There are some more community devices where a usb audio driver can be adapted. What it needs is the output of lsusb.
Linux has one single driver for all usb audio devices, native DSD needs to be registered there, which Sony obviously has not.
PI is being used with a kernel directly from the PI foundation, Volumio does not make any modifications for it.