I have been experimenting with dowlnoladed DSD files via USB2 and the ASIO driver. Player is Jriver.
It works and seems the sound is excellent. Therefore, I would like to download more dsd albums. I do not stream online, or use a disc player so it has to be files on local storage.
Is there a way to set all this up without having to switch from network to USB via Mosaic, and then from the Batok network connection to ASIO? In other words, I would like to play dsd just as if it were pcm.
Hi Peter and welcome to the community.
The way to do it is not to use JRiver and ASIO using USB (presumably from a PC). As you become familiar with this forum you will find over and over again that the best sounding connection to the dCS DACs is network. So you need to have all of your files including the DSD ones available from the same network source. To do this you need to copy the files to network storage . A basic home NAS from QNAP or Synology for example will work well for this purpose. You also need to load UPnP server software on to the NAS. For ease this should be Minim Server, see FAQ:
Once set up ( it is not difficult) and with both the NAS and the device running Mosaic connected to the same network ( use inexpensive certified but unshielded CAT 5e or 6 ethernet cable for the NAS/Bartok connection) when you open UPnP on Mosaic all of your music files, irrespective of file format, will be listed and be ready to play. MinimServer allows you to list and select them on Mosaic in various permutations as you wish e.g. A-Z album title or by genre or by artist or year of release etc.
You will also find that no matter how good you think JRiver/ASIO/USB sounds there is a lot more there. I remember when I made the same transition and which I described as " a whole new listening world".
I hope that this is helpful.
JRiver works with ethernet, too. I’m listening to something right now on a different PC, via ethernet.
Personally, though, I much prefer Roon, which also works via ethernet.
Thanks for the replies. I was not very clear, earlier. I am currently using the network connection to the Bartok and running a server that I also use for home theater and other amusements -. Hence JRiver.
However, when I tried to play DSD files in the same configuration it would not work unless I used the ASIO driver and USB. I am not crazy about USB for PCM, so I can’t just leave that selected. Switching between the network and USB configurations is a PITA. I was hoping there is a way to do this, within JRiver, and without having to futz about with Mosaic to switch to USB on IOS and then driver selection on the PC. Small things but each menu selection is annoying especially because you have to reverse them every time you want to change activities. I like easy.
I guess you can’t get there from here. I will have to use Mosaic for music playing if I want to enlarge my DSD library. I have loaded up MinimServer (thanks @PAR) and that works seamlessly (with Mosaic) for PCM and DSD. Sounds good, but I have not found the difference from networked JRiver to be massive, at least not so far. I’ll have to try removing the 1000 horse power PC and running MiniServer from the Synology NAS to see if that makes an audible difference. Every setup is different and it’s way too early to tell what affects sound quality here.
Running Mosaic is not all good. I miss my big screen to navigate about with, check disk info, adjust tags, etc. Maybe it’s time for a dedicated music server.
Don’t get me started on Roon, Audirvana and others. When I find one that respects my messy file tagging (JRiver does, sort of) I’ll use it. Given that I don’t stream online, there is no compelling reason to fix my tags and move to another player.
I would also recommend Roon for managing network playback. And dCS’s Roon Ready implementation is one of the best.
Peter, I’m pretty sure JRMC supports DSD streaming over DLNA/Ethernet to your Bartok. You just need to get the configuration right for DoPE (DoP over Ethernet);
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/DLNA
Since MC23 we’ve added more options to the DLNA server settings that allow you to select which particular files are sent in a specified format. The checklist of file types to be converted is under the DLNA server settings Audio->Advanced.
…
The option under the DLNA server configuration Advanced section “Bitstream DSD” (requires DoPE compatible renderer) will ALWAYS send dsf, dff and sacd files as DoPE regardless of the audio format settings above. If you have a native DSD compatible renderer, you should not use this option. Instead use either “Original format” or “Specified format only when necessary” as de-select the file types including DSD that you don’t want converted.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any real experience with JMRC to help you with how exactly, but I’m sure someone else on dcs.community does. 
It all works now. As suggested by Anup, I enabled DSD bitstreaming in JRMC and that now plays DSD files. Now I will start comparing my new NAS and PC MinimServer configurations to see if there is an effect of having the PC in the playback circuit, and then trying JRMC vs MinimServer to compare minimal (Mosaic) and complex host software. All with the Bartok singing sweetly at center.
Thanks to all for the help.