Odroid C4 DSD Direct I2S

Community Portings Odroid
#1

So I have an C4 connected directly to DAC using I2S connection from the 7 pin Odroid board.

My DAC is Audio-GD R7.

All my codecs work perfectly, MP3, WAV, FLAC to my DAC. DSD plays but in 24/192 format. I believe Volumio is converting this because it believes my DAC does not handle DSD direct.

I have setup the Volumio to output as Hifishield/Hifishield+ to get I2s from 7 pin.

Is there a way to change the DSD restriction on player or select a different DAC that Volumio recognizes as DSD compatible?

If I switch over to USB all codecs work including DSD direct. I prefer I2S.

#2

Screenshot from 2022-12-03 14-05-38
Screenshot from 2022-12-03 14-05-381498×178 92 KB

#3

Known to work fine with a number of USB DACs.
Using a Khadas Tone 2 Pro and a Cambridge DACMagic 200M myself, both fine up to DSD256.
I don’t think you will get anywhere near the necessary bandwidth for DSD with the amlogic I2S driver.

#4

Yes I stated my DAC works using USB but I prefer I2S and want to find a solution with that input.

#5

Here is my user.boot.ini file for reference. Anything that can be done here?

Screenshot from 2022-12-03 15-43-16
Screenshot from 2022-12-03 15-43-16956×1023 132 KB

#6

I also heard about this problem. I could be wrong but this is my opinion:

  • through I2S, DSD DOP is transmitted, and DSD Direct (Native) is transmitted through USB. And this, in my opinion, is a feature of an Odroid and not a Volumio.
    If you want to listen to DSD Direct, the signal output must go through USB
#7

good luck with it

#8

I believe Volumio purposely resamples DSD to 24/192.

Screenshot 2022-12-03 4.25.51 PM
Screenshot 2022-12-03 4.25.51 PM2040×152 16 KB

but my DAC will handle DSD via I2S.

Screenshot 2022-12-03 4.21.38 PM
Screenshot 2022-12-03 4.21.38 PM2040×220 14.2 KB

http://www.audio-gd.com/R2R/R7MK2/R7_MK2EN_Specs.htm

#9

Iancanada (the developer of high-quality peripheral audio board for RPI) writes that this is a Linux kernel problem:

#10

I’m really sorry, but nobody is going to do anything about it. Please accept the C4 version “as-is”, there will be no more development for this board.

Iancanada is a much appreciated audio device developer and probably right, but unfortunately we are discussing a proprietary Amlogic BSP kernel that Hardkernel is using for the C4.

Volumio only acts according to device/driver capabilities.
Check the Odroid forum, perhaps @odroid, @tobetter or @ckim can better explain to you why there is nothing Volumio can do for you with DSD via I2S.