Using XXHE with a RME HDSPe card and MADI

[dreefe]

I am new to XXHE .  I am using Vista driving the RME HDSPe MADI card. In turn I use my MADI output to drive a Digital Audio Denmark  DAD AX24 DAC. The entire system is word clocked using an Antelope clock with an outboard Rubidium atomic reference.  Things work great with my current player JRiver MC12(latest).  I have installed XXHE and found things to work but only using engine #1 and selecting the MADI 1&2 driver from the dropdown. So far so good!  If I try to use Engine #3 XXHE defaults to primary sound driver only.  This obviously knocks out my MADI driver and I have no output.  Is there a work around to allow me to use my current hardware and have Engine #3 active and usable?  If I use the only working combination as noted above, I only see 16 bits when using a 24 source. Suggestions and ideas would be appreciated. BTW, a great sounding result even with the 16 bit restriction I currently have.

[PeterSt]

Hi, and welcome !

For Engine#3 you should make the MADI device the primary device (hence the default device); then it should just work ...
Or do I understand you wrongly ?

Engine#1 (and #2) were never explicitly made for other samplerates and bitdepths than 44.100/16. If other combinations work it is by accident.

Do you have the 384K version of the DAD ? that would be great ...

Peter

[dreefe]

Peter,

Many thanks for your quick responce to my issues.  BTW, my DAD is a 96K unit. I am thinking of upgrading the cards so your input as to the advantages would be welcome.  Things are now functioning well as long as I use 24/96 FLAC as a source.  I can not play anything less such as the majority of my WAV 16/44.1 files.  If I try to do this I get a message that my DAC cannot handle the file as presented.  I have tried to upsample the file but continue to get a similar message. Any thoughts?

Again , thanks for your help.

Don

[PeterSt]

Hi again Don,

What you describe doesn't seem logic to me.

In the Settings Area, your DAC Is should be set to 24 bits 96KHz. But I suppose you did that.
Then the radio buttons thereunder should be set to 32 bits (so not at 24). I think you did that too.

Now, since your MADI will be able to play at 16 bits and 44.1KHz, I would not know why it can't work. Also, if you mean "upsampling by XX" (see the checkboxes at the left side of the player), you will be outputting at 32 bits and 88.2 KHz. So this is the least that just should work.

The only thing I can imagine (though still not completely logical to me) is that you fixed the sample rate in the driver interface from the RME somehow. So, this sure should *not* be so. That is, I assume the MADI will pick up the samplerate etc. it is fed with.

If after the above "knowledge" things still don't work at 44.1/16, please examine whether the DAD can handle less than 24 bits. But then again there is no logic regarding the upsampling issue.

Let me know what happens.

Peter

[dreefe]

Peter,

Problem solved. The word clock was setting the RME to 96K. As soon as I reset the clock to 44.1 all was well.  It creates a bit a paine to change the word clock setting with a change of file but it works!

Again , thanks for the guidance. 

Don

[PeterSt]

Ok.

But what about playing 96K files now ? Do you then have to change it again ?
Anyway that is what I meant about it being "fixed". Thus, it looks like you still have it fixed, although now on 44K1.

Don't you have something like the below picture ?
For me (hence the Fireface) it would be a matter of not activating DDS (in the DDS tab). Of course this is not exactly the wordclock, but I think it goes along with it.

If you currently don't have any problems it's okay, but a wordclock running on 44.1 doesn't seem good to me for 96K ...

Peter

[dreefe]

Peter,

The RME card is not 'fixed' and DDS is not activated.  Currently the only way I can make things work is to physicaly change the word clock output ( 96K for 96K FLAC files and 44.1K for most other files. ) The screen shot you sent is similar to mine except I do show 96K or 44.1K depending on the selected word clock setting. 

Don