Thread: T+A PDP 3000 HV and Linux Compability

For a new source for my T+A PDP 3000 HV transport/dac, I am looking at acquiring a Mojo Audio Deja Vu Evo Music Server which utilizes a Linux OS. Output from the server will be via USB from the new JCAT XE 0CX0 card. Has anyone had a successful experience with Linux based servers and the handshake with the T+A USB Dac Section?

I am currently using a Windows based server, and after installing the T+A USB drivers, functionality is fine. The users manual says that no drivers are necessary if using a server with OSX or Linux with UAC2 kernel. T+A support in the USA tells me that there may be issues with Linux, and I would like to hear from your experiences.

not your gear but i run a similar topology with t+a which might be useful as a data point:

i have the t+a dac8 dsd which is connected via USB to a server/transport running ROCK -- roon optimized core kit. ROCK is roon's "custom LINUX based operating system, tailored for running Roon Server and ... to host the Roon Core."

no issues whatsoever - runs perfectly / as expected.

at least on the dac8 dsd, t+a uses a pretty standard USB receiver (amanero)... so, can't see any reason why the mojo will not play to the t+a pdp 3000 hv via USB. however, it might make sense to bring up this question with mojo to see what they say.

in the event of any unsolvable issue, i see the mojo has a 45-day no-risk audition.

btw: if you do go the mojo route i would be interested to hear how the JCAT XE 0CX0 PCIe card performs. maybe, an A/B test of it versus the standard USB 3.1 ports on the server would be interesting?

also, i see mojo offers the option to add a JCAT XE OCXO or Femto Ethernet card which means they have an extra PCIe slot on board. if it were me, i would use that available slot for an SFP+ ethernet PCIe card. this would add fiber optic ethernet and, thereby, provide optical isolation which eliminates ALL upstream electrical noise. this is the way i have my server/transport configured and the SQ improvement was in no way subtle with the addition of fiber ethernet.

aKnyght – excellent information, thanks very much.

Regarding the Linux compatibility – since my post, I heard from Amanero (the USB card mfg) – and they say that DSD up to DSD512 is supported only on Windows. On Linux you can play PCM in UAC2 and DSD over PCM but it's not possible to get native DSD256,DSD512. Which is ok with me, since I only playback .flac and .mkv files. David Schultz, the T+A USA rep has been very responsive, and is looking into it – however the T+A engineers in Germany are all out until 05Jan on holiday. David says that they have switched to a USB card by Thesycon on more recent T+A units, which has more flexibility and compatibility with Linux.

Regarding Mojo Audio – Ben Zwickel is a very patient and knowledgeable guy, and his products are amazingly organic, rich, and other audiophilia words. I have his original Déjà vu in my study, sending files to a new Mystique Evo Dac via JCAT Femto USB – and it is magnificent. I am upgrading the server to the new Evo with the JCAT XE OCXO USB card, and will let you know of SQ improvements. The new server is much more powerful and will play video files, which is the main reason I am upgrading.

Thanks for the heads up on the SFP+ ethernet PCIe card – I will get with Ben on that.

Originally Posted by Scotty

...Regarding the Linux compatibility – since my post, I heard from Amanero (the USB card mfg) – and they say that DSD up to DSD512 is supported only on Windows. On Linux you can play PCM in UAC2 and DSD over PCM but it's not possible to get native DSD256,DSD512. Which is ok with me, since I only playback .flac and .mkv files. David Schultz, the T+A USA rep has been very responsive, and is looking into it – however the T+A engineers in Germany are all out until 05Jan on holiday. David says that they have switched to a USB card by Thesycon on more recent T+A units, which has more flexibility and compatibility with Linux.

if it ever becomes an issue, it is possible to upgrade the amanero receiver firmware to a version capable of playing DSD natively from a linux OS. in my case, after implementing the amaero firmware upgrade it allowed me to stream up to dsd512 to my t+a dac8 dsd from my ROCK (linux) server/transport. see this post. i am happy to help more if you end up going in that direction.

fwiw: the separate DSD conversion chip in t+a DACs is absolutely outstanding. i notice a HUGE positive difference between it and the PCM converter ...it is well worth doing some A/B testing to see which converter you like better, PCM or DSD.

I heard from Lothar Wiemann from T+A Germany this morning, and will copy and paste his response below - I am very impressed with customer support from T+A.

thank you very much for your positive comments on the PA3100HV and PDP3000HV that you own.
We are delighted to hear that you like their looks and performance.


Regarding your questions about Linux compatibility of the PDP3000HV:

Linux is not a operating system that is officially supported by the PDP3000HV.
Nevertheless Linux sources in many cases can be used to stream audio via USB to the PDP's USB input.

The Linux source should have a UAC2 (= USB Audio Class 2) compliant kernel (i.e. kernel version 2.6 or higher).
A more recent kernel will of course be better (the current linux kernel version is 5.10).

With Linux and PDP3000HV it should be possible to stream PCM up to PCM192 or PCM384 and DSD via DoP up to DSD64 or DSD128 (depending on the specific server hard&software) to the PDP3000HV. If and how good a Linux/PDP3000HV combination works can not be told generally because there are hundreds of different Linux varieties and "flavours" and also very different player software.
So to sure a specific Linux/PDP combination really works well needs to be tested in each case.

High DSD rates up to DSD512
For native DSD with rates up to DSD512 a Windows based server is required.