Dirac Live 3, JRiver MC and Qobuz

[Bioman65]

To start with I can't say enough good things about Dirac, I don't want to part ways with it. I have been working on getting everything to play nice in the sandbox with mixed results for a handful of weeks now. I have had an open ticket with the Dirac folks, who while helpful are not getting me where I need to be. Here is the issue. I am now running Qobuz (my main digital music source) within the JRiver application as a streaming source. I have JRiver set to upsample all incoming to 24/192. It works well for 44.1 through 96K, with very rare minimal lag/halting issues. However, not so with 192K files. The DAC bit (16/24) indicator drops in and out randomly and the music halts; it will play for a short period, then stop and start again. I have tried every buffer setting I can find on JRiver and Qobuz, but it does not stop it from doing this. The Dirac support group's last guidance referred me to a discussion where usage of WDM was discussed; oddly the thread discussed similar issues that I was having that WDM did not necessarily correct. I tried WDM as well, but it does not improve anything, so I set it back to where it was. Here are the current settings. I want to verify that I am correctly routing the music. Settings are:

Qobuz:

*Streaming Quality = 24/192

*Listening Preferences; Audio Output Device = ASIO JRiver MC 28; buffer 10seconds; cache management 30Gb.

JRiver MC28:

*Options; Audio: Audio Device = Virtual Audio Device (Dirac) (Direct Sound); Prebuffering = 6 seconds; Volume = Application Volume

*DSP Studio; Output format = all in upsampled to 192K; plug-ins = .VST3

Dirac DSP:

*Settings; Audio Settings = ASIO; Device = Benchmark DAC2 ASIO driver; sample rate = 192K.


I am hoping something here is obvious to someone. Any assistance is appreciated.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

I have the same set up as you. Qobuz, JRiver MC 28, and DL3. That set up is fiddly and I have found something that's stable, perhaps it can help you.

First of all in Qobuz, I use 24/96 as my maximum streaming quality. I find it stalls in 24/192. Secondly I set it to stream via Wasapi (avoid Wasapi exclusive as it really leads to problems). Qobuz volume to maximum.

On the Windows Sound Card set it so MC28 is default playback device. Configure it for the maximum number of speakers in your set, probably stereo in your case with speakers set to large. In properties set default playback to 24 bit, 48 khz (studio playback).

On MC 28, set sample rate to output 48khz for all inputs. Channels to 2 channel stereo. I would recommend you use the vst plug in for DL3 which means it will run within JRiver instead of being passed via a wdm or Asio driver to the virtual sound card version. I think it greatly simplifies everything especially since it can be easily run in JRiver.

For further JRiver Settings remember that if you are using this exclusively for two channel stereo music playback, you can expand your buffers with very little penalty. Within the audio device settings I've set mine for 500 milliseconds. Obviously, you will set your audio device for the Benchmark 2 Asio Driver.

Within the Tools==>Options==>Audio==>Advanced set the volume to internal and it's level to 100%, set Live Playback Latency to 50 milliseconds and check on the "Set active zone for WMD/Asio driver playback" and set VST buffer size to 512.

On Dirac Live, back the volume level down by 4-8 db to prevent digital clipping.

Finally control volume with the Benchmark 2's volume control.

Good luck. 24/48khz is plenty adequate to deliver impeccable sound, so don't worry you are missing out on anything by not using 24/192 b/c you will not.

I use this set up with my Octo 8--Purifi Eigentact--LS 50 Meta+SVS Sb2000 system and I use a Dephonica Software Crossover for the Meta/SB 2000 high/low pass and it does not stall.

 

[Bioman65]

Nice response, appreciated. So if I read this correctly, Qobuz is the issue of being unable to actually stream 24/192? Interesting as I have had no issues to speak of, or rare with 24/96. Worth a try. Thanks for the assist.

 

[Tom C]

Found this thread while searching for answers to a similar problem I am having. I’m not running Dirac (yet), not that sophisticated. Want to start simple with JRiver equalizer, Qobuz, and Okto 8.
Found that pretty much glitch free play can be had if the top stream rate is set to 96/24. But if 192/24 is selected, static and stutter are constant when trying to play 192 or 176 files. I understand that 44.1/24 or 48/24 are more than sufficient for fully transparent, but I worry about potential problems related to downsampling of material originally supplied at higher bit rates.
It seems maybe to be built into the Qobuz app for Win10. If I select the ASIO driver for the Qobuz app instead of routing to JRiver, the 192 and 176 files play perfectly. But then no EQ.