Hi
I am relatively new to Linux so I would appreciate any help/advice with regards to getting the best audio from my rather old system. I want to be able to play PCM as flac and DSD (although that is probably a separate issue). My flac files are both red book 16/44.1 and higher res up to 24/192. I have a USB DAC (Ifi Zen Dac) which is recognised by the OS. The playback issues occur with both the on-board audio card and the external USB DAC. I can play all files using Audacious even .dff but only with Pulse. Changing to Alas generates an error message: "ALSA error: snd_pcm_open failed: Device or resource busy".

With Deadbeef I can play flac with Pulse but not .dff. With Alsa It plays sometimes but often it just displays the file info and "Stopped". On other occasions it will play flac at the wrong pitch - 16/44.1 too fast and higher res eg 24/96 far too slow. My aim is to get Deadbeef to work perfectly with Alsa to obtain a bit-perfect playback system. Any help greatly appreciated.

<System: Host: GA-MA790FXT-UD5P Kernel: 5.3.0-62-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 7.5.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.4.8
Distro: Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia base: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic
Machine: Type: Desktop Mobo: Gigabyte model: GA-MA790FXT-UD5P v: x.x serial: <filter> BIOS: Award v: F8n date: 01/07/2011
CPU: Topology: Quad Core model: AMD Phenom II X4 955 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: K10 rev: 2 L2 cache: 2048 KiB
flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4a svm bogomips: 25716
Speed: 3200 MHz min/max: 800/3200 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 3200 2: 800 3: 800 4: 800
Graphics: Device-1: NVIDIA GP107 [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti] vendor: eVga.com. driver: nvidia v: 435.21 bus ID: 01:00.0
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.8 driver: nvidia resolution: 1680x1050~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 1050 Ti/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 435.21 direct render: Yes
Audio: Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia vendor: Gigabyte driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
bus ID: 00:14.2
Device-2: NVIDIA GP107GL High Definition Audio vendor: eVga.com. driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1
Device-3: XMOS type: USB driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid bus ID: 1-1:2
Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.3.0-62-generic
Network: Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Gigabyte driver: r8169 v: kernel
port: de00 bus ID: 03:00.0
IF: enp3s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Gigabyte driver: r8169 v: kernel
port: ce00 bus ID: 04:00.0
IF: enp4s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:
ID-1: /dev/sdb vendor: Crucial model: M4-CT128M4SSD2 size: 119.24 GiB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 32.45 GiB used: 24.12 GiB (74.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb3
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 39.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 27 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 30%
Info: Processes: 233 Uptime: 24m Memory: 15.64 GiB used: 1.25 GiB (8.0%) Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 7.5.0
Shell: bash v: 4.4.20 inxi: 3.0.32 >

<$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: ALC889A Analog [ALC889A Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 1: ALC889A Digital [ALC889A Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: Audio [iFi (by AMR) HD USB Audio], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0>

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