MacMini 2012, Windows 10 & Benchmark DAC2 issues

[SnakeCoils]

Hello to all MacMini/BootCamp fellows around, I am writing here hoping to be in the right place for an advice.
Other than being a Mac user since long time I am also an audiophile and my MacMini 2012 has found a second life as entertainig center in my living room both for console/arcade emulators and video/audio streaming.
The audio chain is composed as follow:

- MacMini Late 2012 2,60 GHz quad core i7 with BootCamp (Windows 10 only)
- Audio converter Benchmark DAC2 in USB 2.0 mode
- Tube PreAmp Primaluna Prologue Premium
- Solid state PowerAmp Primare A32
- Loudspeakers Sonus Faber Olympica III

The audio player installed on the Mini is the well known MusicBee that I love because its completeness and the ability to direct drive the BenchMark bypassing the Windows audio system layer (and it is also freeware!)
I was really happy with my system until the day I decided to add DSD files to my collection.
To make a long story short the DSD streaming from MacMini to DAC2 via USB is a mess, sometimes it works and sometimes not. This seems a common issue on Benchmark DACs where optical and coaxial connections works perfectly and USB is all but reliable, it happens mostly when DSF files are natively played while PCM files (or DSF converted to PCM) usually works as expected.
What I am doing here is to track down the cause of this issue and I don't know if it is a problem with MusicBee or the USB drivers themelves or the MacMini USB ports or whatever.
Do some audiophiles around with a similar setup (Win10 on a MacMini) have other software player DSD-enabled to suggest for trying?
Also I have a big question here: is WASAPI able to stream a DoP (DSD on PCM) file or is it a pure ASIO feature?
In the first case do someone know about a DSD/DSF player able to stream this format via WASAPI?

Many thanks in advance...

 

[AndyMacAndMic]

Hello to all MacMini/BootCamp fellows around, I am writing here hoping to be in the right place for an advice.
Other than being a Mac user since long time I am also an audiophile and my MacMini 2012 has found a second life as entertainig center in my living room both for console/arcade emulators and video/audio streaming.
The audio chain is composed as follow:

- MacMini Late 2012 2,60 GHz quad core i7 with BootCamp (Windows 10 only)
- Audio converter Benchmark DAC2 in USB 2.0 mode
- Tube PreAmp Primaluna Prologue Premium
- Solid state PowerAmp Primare A32
- Loudspeakers Sonus Faber Olympica III

The audio player installed on the Mini is the well known MusicBee that I love because its completeness and the ability to direct drive the BenchMark bypassing the Windows audio system layer (and it is also freeware!)
I was really happy with my system until the day I decided to add DSD files to my collection.
To make a long story short the DSD streaming from MacMini to DAC2 via USB is a mess, sometimes it works and sometimes not. This seems a common issue on Benchmark DACs where optical and coaxial connections works perfectly and USB is all but reliable, it happens mostly when DSF files are natively played while PCM files (or DSF converted to PCM) usually works as expected.
What I am doing here is to track down the cause of this issue and I don't know if it is a problem with MusicBee or the USB drivers themelves or the MacMini USB ports or whatever.
Do some audiophiles around with a similar setup (Win10 on a MacMini) have other software player DSD-enabled to suggest for trying?
Also I have a big question here: is WASAPI able to stream a DoP (DSD on PCM) file or is it a pure ASIO feature?
In the first case do someone know about a DSD/DSF player able to stream this format via WASAPI?

Many thanks in advance...

I have no experience with MusicBee on a Mac Mini/Bootcamp, but I do have experience with other music programs on Windows/Mac.

- Wasapi on Windows is able to handle DoP streams perfectly well. Wasapi can not send direct DSD to a DAC.
- ASIO on Windows is able to send direct DSD to a DAC. For ASIO on Windows (as you probably know) you have to install a driver (provided by your DAC manufacturer) to work.


On Windows I use 3 programs for playing Audio:
- Foobar2000. Free. Needs plugins to work with Wasapi, ASIO, SACD and DSD. Streams DSD direct over Asio and via DoP on Wasapi perfectly well. Foobar needs some work/tinkering to configure, but is a very good audiophile program once you have it working. You can also upsample PCM to DSD if you are into that.

- Audirvana+ (versions for Windows and Mac). Is not free. Works very well with Asio (direct DSD to DAC) and Wasapi (DoP). Much easier to configure than Foobar and has a nicer look as well. Highly regarded by audiophiles. The advantage here is that you can install Audirvana directly on MacOS if you want to. You can also upsample to higher PCM rates or DSD if you want to.

- Roon. The most expensive of the bunch (monthly or yearly subscription fee). Does not sound better than Foobar or Audirvana in my ears. Has the advantage of a very rich user interface with lots of background info about artists/albums etc. Can also do ASIO/Wasapi etc. Can also install directly on MacOS. I am still in doubt if am keeping the subscription for this one. But if you are into discovering music maybe it is worth it to you.

Audirvana and Roon both have trial periods.

Hope this helps.

 

[SnakeCoils]

Absolutely! Thank you very much! Now I have a concrete basis to start from a first hand user. Just for curiosity (I know is a bit off topic but...) how is configured your audio setup?

 

[AndyMacAndMic]

Absolutely! Thank you very much! Now I have a concrete basis to start from a first hand user. Just for curiosity (I know is a bit off topic but...) how is configured your audio setup?

- Speakers: Dali Oberon 7.
- Two mono blocks Hypex NCore class D amps as power amps.
- NAD C658 stereo pre-amp.
- I had a Mac Mini with Audirvana (native, not on Bootcamp), but I have replaced that with an Intel NUC i7 (Windows 10) as a dedicated music computer. On the NUC I run Foobar, Audirvana and Roon.
- Topping D90 external DAC.

 

[SnakeCoils]

- Speakers: Dali Oberon 7
- Two mono blocks Hypex NCore class D amps as power amps.
- NAD C658 stereo pre-amp.
- I had a Mac Mini with Audirvana (native, not on Bootcamp), but I have replaced that with and Intel NUC i7 (Windows 10) as a dedicated music computer. On the NUC I run Foobar, Audirvana and Roon.
- Topping D90 external DAC.

A really nice and up-to-date setup, my compliments! I had a short experience with Benchmark AHB2 as power amp but the mating with the Olympicas was not very good (excellent transients but lacks of control if compared to A32) so I went back to the Primare. There are two experience I still miss as audiophile: pure Class-A and pure Tubes amplification: the idea would be to shorten the signal chain driving the power amp directly from the DAC2-L (which has a volume control itself) but since it took me so long time to balance everything I am a bit undecided to make this step, maybe some day I will find a good bargain and so...
Thanks again for your advices, very precious to me (and I am sure to all the audiophiles around).

Best regards!

P.S.: Sooner or later I will go for dedicated PC too, but for now the Mini in the Sonnet Rack enclosure has a damn good hi-fi device look! ;-)

 

[SnakeCoils]

Quick update.
After the installation and configuration of both Audirvana and FooBar it is clear that the problem was ENTIRELY in MusicBee that never handled properly both ASIO and WASAPI protocols for the USB communication with Benchmark...
With Audirvana and Foobar now I can stream my DSF files perfectly fine using WASAPI and DoP format 1.1 and also quickly switching the audio playback between DSF, 44/16 and 96/24 files (all of them ripped from my CD/SACD/DVD collection) does not confuse the DAC2 anymore!
Since WASAPI is working so well I have uninstalled the Benchmark USB driver that, accordingly to their reccomendations, it was not needed anymore when used on Windows 10.
And yes, Foobar is not so intuitive to set-up compared to Audirvana but once the communication between the Mini and the DAC2 has been configured the remain settings are mostly aesthetic and I hope to found soon a nice skin GUI to replace the default one. You can't imagine how I am happy in discovering that was only a software issue!

 

[AndyMacAndMic]

Quick update.
After the installation and configuration of both Audirvana and FooBar it is clear that the problem was ENTIRELY in MusicBee that never handled properly both ASIO and WASAPI protocols for the USB communication with Benchmark...
With Audirvana and Foobar now I can stream my DSF files perfectly fine using WASAPI and DoP format 1.1 and also quickly switching the audio playback between DSF, 44/16 and 96/24 files (all of them ripped from my CD/SACD/DVD collection) does not confuse the DAC2 anymore!
Since WASAPI is working so well I have uninstalled the Benchmark USB driver that, accordingly to their reccomendations, it was not needed anymore when used on Windows 10.
And yes, Foobar is not so intuitive to set-up compared to Audirvana but once the communication between the Mini and the DAC2 has been configured the remain settings are mostly aesthetic and I hope to found soon a nice skin GUI to replace the default one. You can't imagine how I am happy in discovering that was only a software issue!

Nice to hear that. Yes Foobar2000 has a bit of an archaic GUI, but it has also some nice GUI plugins (simlist, can show your playlists with thumbnailes of coverart etc.). Foobar also has quite powerful tag management. Also in the settings you can change a lot with the layout, colors etc.

Audirvana in my view looks nice, but is also heavily depending on good meta information in the music files. If the meta information is not quite correct things can be difficult to find in Audirvana. In that case a folder view would be nice (Foobar has one, but Audirvana has not).

That's probably why I still use both .

Roon is the master of library management (also no folder view sadly), but I still think it is very expensive for what it offers.

 

[SnakeCoils]

Well, also Aurdivana with a price tag of $96 is not so cheap and the lifetime updates are free for version 3.5.x only, this means that when they will come out with a 3.6+ version an additional fee will be required (as you can see on their site if you are upgrading from a previous version the 3.5 "lifetime" upgrade will cost about $60).
For comparison, the much more complex Daemon Tools for Mac has a TRUE lifetime upgrade path included in the price of licence and it costs just $25. If Aurdivana will change its policy going in the same way of Daemon Tools I could seriously consider the purchase, otherwise once the tryout period will be expired I will stick with Foobar (or back to MusicBee if in the meantime they will fix all the annoying bugs).
Anyway I still have a whole month to play with Audirvana and if I will be convinced enough about its feature in the end I could change my mind, we'll see

 

[SnakeCoils]

Okay, I think I've found the Foobar 2000 parameters for a correct DSD playback (and all other formats) via ASIO4ALL, I report them here in help of those are experiencing crackling sounds when driving the Benchmark DAC2 via USB (ASIO)
Of course the installation of ASIO4ALL in Windows and the ASIO Component in Foobar is required.

In Preferences/Playback/Output be sure in the "Device" field to have "ASIO: ASIO4ALL V2" selected

In Preferences/Playback/Output/ASIO be sure the "Run with High Process Priority" box is checked

Double click on "ASIO4ALL v2" string in "ASIO Drivers" frame to open the ASIO Prefrence Panel
Click on the little wrench icon in the right bottom angle and more parameters will be shown

Be sure "Benchmark DAC2 USB Audio 2.0" is the only device listed with the green check (uncheck the others)
Move the "ASIO Buffer Size" slider to rightmost position (2048 Samples)
Move the "Buffer Offset" slider to righmost position (20ms)
Leave all the rest untouched and close the ASIO window

That's all, from now on the playback will be crystal clear and every DAC2 "legal" format will be quickly recognized and played with the native resolution and samplig frequency.

Enjoy!