And then the DS Dac changes it back to DoP…
Internally? Sure it does. But sending unencapsulated DSD data to the Matrix is different than sending DOP encapsulated DSD. It called experimenting…
I didn’t make any claims suggesting native DSD is better than DOP, did I?
Just trying to give you a little information I thought you’d like to know if you didn’t already… most people would like to be aware of a redundant conversion they are implementing on a data stream - let the experiments begin!
But I am not doing any redundant conversions. HQPlayer get the DSF files from Roon and outputs native DSD. The data stays native DSD until the DirectStream converts it internally.
@tedsmith has done a pretty good job of educating us on what is going on in the DAC. I know what Roon and HQPlayer are doing.
Cover art file? Which of the 5 download files is the cover art file?
None. Leave a blank SD Card and the Dac will create it.
No. I won’t give you the site. They are happy there!! 
5 Likes
Just catching up. You can pick up a USB dongle with an SD slot in it from eBay et al if you’re interested. It’s about the same size as a thumb drive and very convenient. 
Thanks Mike. I’m not very savvy and even with the SD card capability my last laptop had I managed to turn my DSD into a brick trying to load one of the upgrades.
I’m burned out trying this Windom thing and will just play around with what I have. . . or spin LPs. . . for a while.
A blank formatted card? I tried that, but no luck with album art. Does the dac need to be turned off/back on to create the album art file? It’s bewildering and fascinating learning how these things work. Does the album art file on the SD card store the data sent to it from the music server? Permanently?
This if off-topic. Sorry
The SD card acts as a kind of temporary flash drive when you have the Bridge Ethernet card. The DSD/Bridge searches for the metadata/cover art and displays it on the screen c/o the SD card. AFAIK, none of the data for the screen display is permanently stored on the SD card. B/C the DSD will reboot the DSD firmware contained on a SD card every time you power cycle the DSD, many choose to replace the SD card bearing the Firmware with a blank SD card for displaying the screen data.
FYI.
Have to have an internet connection to the DAC to get cover art, is my understanding…
Apologies. I should’ve been more precise. As @watchdog507 wrote, it (COVERART.BMP) is not one of the firmware files. AFAIK it’s just a ‘working’ file used by the Bridge as a copy of the cover art picture for the track currently playing (or last played) through the Bridge. I think it’s used for the front panel display. Not required for a firmware load but (optionally) used during Bridge operation. (It won’t matter if you don’t have an SD card inserted.)
I tried setting DoP to “none” in hqplayer. The result was hqplayer down sampled DSD to PCM 176. Just wondering how you’re sending native dsd to the matrix.
1 Like
scotte1, you say:
B/C the DSD will reboot the DSD firmware contained on a SD card every time you power cycle the DSD
I don’t think that’s the case unless the loader is configured for ‘forced load’.
Correct, which is the case for the cards PSA sends me…and I thought was the default now with the files PSA makes available on line. Maybe this is no longer the case with downloads from PSA site…? Would be news to me…
It has actually rarely been the case with FW taken off the download page.
It would be really great if psa could propose a date for the next set of fixes
The last I checked both the DS and DS Jr release downloads were both configured for a force load. For a few releases the DS Jr releases were force loads - that helped with the load problems.
In general having the card in the DS or USB stick in the DS Jr means that it’s much more likely to get corrupted and eventually cause a bad install. Having a separate card for the bridge to display album art is probably the best idea whether or not the release is configured for a force load.