Fiio m9 DSD lag

Support questions for Neutron Player only.
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rstoyanov
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2021 7:20 pm

Fiio m9 DSD lag

Post by rstoyanov » Mon Jul 26, 2021 8:11 am

Hello dear all,
I am using the mentioned dap which runs the latest stock firmware from Fiio - 1.0.7 and Neutron v. 2.17.2 neon usb no Def, in balanced mode with a 4.4 to 2.5 connector, with the settings from the below screenshots. When I listen to some WAV files, when the screen is on there is a pretty strong lag in the sound, I can't understand what is playing. But when I turn the screen off the sounding becomes clear and normal. It lags again when I change the volume, even when the screen is off.

Does anyone have any idea what might be the reason behind this behaviour? Thank you!

Bellow I am posting a path with the settings pictured. There is one combined image, holding all others for anyone who finds it best to see them that way.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... eZUJ9XfO6k

blaubär
Posts: 3313
Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2019 6:48 am

Re: Fiio m9 DSD lag

Post by blaubär » Mon Jul 26, 2021 12:38 pm

The DAP might be out of its depth. If I interpret the screenshots correctly you've got "Audio Hardware > DSD, Dover PCM (DoP)" enabled. Did you also enable the submenu "PCM to DSD" ?

pcmtodsd.jpg
pcmtodsd.jpg (17.6 KiB) Viewed 1637 times

rstoyanov
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2021 7:20 pm

Re: Fiio m9 DSD lag

Post by rstoyanov » Mon Jul 26, 2021 3:10 pm

Thank you, blaubär, I have this option enabled, yes. But inside of it (in it's submenu) when I disable DSD128 the lagging starts, but then the DSD 64 format is outputted.

blaubär
Posts: 3313
Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2019 6:48 am

Re: Fiio m9 DSD lag

Post by blaubär » Mon Jul 26, 2021 5:55 pm

Okay, then I suggest you disable "PCM to DSD". It uses a lot of CPU and I don't see why a wav-file that contains PCM data should profit from a conversion to DSD.

Julius Decimus
Posts: 25
Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2021 10:47 pm

Re: Fiio m9 DSD lag

Post by Julius Decimus » Tue Jul 27, 2021 7:08 am

Yes, the distortion in sound you get is from the CPU in M9 not being able to do the conversion to DSD realtime.

You need (roughly said) device with 1.8-2 or more ghz CPU.

rstoyanov
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2021 7:20 pm

Re: Fiio m9 DSD lag

Post by rstoyanov » Tue Jul 27, 2021 12:57 pm

Thank you, blaubär and Julius Decimus. I will consider disabling this option.

Julius Decimus
Posts: 25
Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2021 10:47 pm

Re: Fiio m9 DSD lag

Post by Julius Decimus » Wed Jul 28, 2021 3:16 am

rstoyanov wrote:
Tue Jul 27, 2021 12:57 pm
Thank you, blaubär and Julius Decimus. I will consider disabling this option.
Ok.

You can try turning off 64bit processing (this option is in 'Playback', not in 'Audio hardware' section right) and try upsample to DSD64 to see if that works (in 'Audio hardware' check only PCM to DSD without DSD128 right). The most light mode for the CPU 32bit+DSD64. When you hear noticable improvement in sound though is when 64bit is On with DSD128. So...from this point view i wrote you need 1.8+ghz on the CPU.

But meybe you could try using your phone (or tablet, considering CPU is better than the Fiio) and use this Fiio M9 as external DAC. It has this function yes ? So that the phone is running Neutron doing the upsampling and you just hear the music through the Fiio. It may not work because it can try drain power from the phone and Android will notify you that you connected device that will drain the battery and so disable the connection (so need cables that disable charging, another thing to think for if the Fiio does not have 'disable charging' in its settings). I see the Fiio can work as DAC on Windows, but don't know for Android. Overall you could try and see what it does.

Is this worth doing at all since M9 is a DAP and you know....kind of strange to use phone for playing the music when the whole purpose of DAP is to do exactly this. There is improvement in sound upsampling to DSD, though it will depend much on your headphones or speakers if you hear it. And the effect is best noticable in the high modes, 64+DSD128 or at least 64+DSD64.

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