LMS: Native Playback

So what is native playback? In essence it means the digital music files are played back in:

• Native Format: music files are played in their original format using the original codec (without re-sampling, format conversion,etc). In other words, lossless audio such as FLAC is played direct as FLAC, DSD direct as DSD, WAV direct as WAV, and so on.
• Bit Perfect Mode: data is played directly without any manipulation, digital signal processing or volume control applied. 

This method does not necessary imply worse/better sound quality, or less/more accurate reproduction. There are far too many variables in an audio system for anybody to reliably state native playback on it's own is good or bad for you.

However, one advantage with native playback is it allows you to better understand some of the variables in your audio setup. Grasping these variables gives you a better picture of what is good and what is bad in your audio system, insights that may well prove invaluable when auditioning gear for your next upgrade.

As an example, your system may be better at playing DSD when compared to standard 44.1 kHz redbook, or WAV better than FLAC. People often choose the better playback method and move on to something else, and that is not a good thing. This is call masking - masking happens when you do something that changes (masks) the effects of another.

Is Masking Bad?

The danger of masking any observations you made prior may no longer apply after a component change. Because the variables that introduce all these different sonic signatures were not addressed - you are merely masking away the bad and the masking effect may no longer work with a new component in the chain.

Thus when you are changing a component you are  introducing additional variables into the audio system. Somewhat un-intuitively, you'd be better able to decide what needs to be changed when you are confident what is the cause of the 'bad'. And conversely knowing what is good will stop you from trading/selling gear you'd regret in the future.

Obviously you don't have to do native playback all the time. Why spend all the money on expensive gear, only to listen to music when you're not enjoying it? Just saying it is a good idea to do so once in a while.

Think of it as a raw re-calibration of what your system can and cannot do.

So how to do native playback? My playback of choice is Logitech Media Server (LMS) and Squeezelite v1.6.4-test. LMS by default don't do native playback (something I'd addressed in the future). Here are the steps to configure native playback for your Snakeoil computer. 

Native Decoding

First thing you need to do is to access the LMS web portal. Do this by going to the Snakeoil WebApp -> Software, make sure you are using Squeezelite as your player.

You should see the following, click on it to start the LMS web portal:

Go into the LMS settings by clicking the Settings button located at the lower right corner of the LMS web portal:

Now click on the Advanced tab (circled in blue), and then select "File Types" (refer to the blue arrow)

You are now in LMS's file format configuration page, like so:

Go through all the file formats (or just the formats you need), and go through each and every text box, if you see the word native, keep it, everything else set it to disabled. Use the above graphic as a guide on how to set this up.

Once completed you're now telling LMS to use it's native decoder for each file type. But there's more.

Disable Volume Control

Native decoding is but one aspect of native playback. You still need to configure LMS (or other processes) to not digitally manipulate the music too. By default Snakeoil uses hardware access to control your audio device so you're safe. You only need to disable the Digital Volume Control (DVC) provided by LMS. Follow these steps to disable DVC.

From the LMS Settings, click the Player tab. You should see your Squeezelite player in the first drop down box (in this example, my player is called the KillerDAC). Click the second box Basic Settings, and select Audio from the drop down menu.

Set the four settings (three of them are highlighted by the arrow markers) to the following:

These settings will disable all form of DVC, and you should be playing in bit perfect mode. 

A caveat with squeezelite is will still open the device as 24 bit or 32 bits even when playing 16 bit material. With MPD and playing redbook material, you would see something like the following:

Meanwhile, when using Squeezelite, the format  entry will be S24_LE instead. This is normal I think, as the Accuphase DC-37 still identifies the stream as 16 bit. My guess is it's 16 bit with 8 bits of nulls (or padding).

So there you have it, a few quick simple steps to achieve native playback. Your WAV file will no longer be transcoded as uncompressed FLAC and so on. For better or worse, now you know where your audio system stand, rough, raw and unmasked.

Let me know how you find this tweak in the comments below, or post in the forums.