I run Roon Core on a sonicTransporter. If I configure my MacBook as an endpoint can I stream 5.1 to my surround receiver via HDMI?
Can the sonicTransporter stream 5.1 audio? If so, the answer is a resounding “Yes.” I play 5.1 perfectly from my Nucleus to my AVR, and it streams to a Mac Mini with Roon Bridge to a separate zone with 5.1 playback.
So the question is “if” it streams 5.1, because the sonic Transporter apparently does not pass 5.1 from from its HDMI connection.
I’d have a go and see if it works. Whether the Sonic Transporter supports multichannel over HDMI wouldn’t seem to be relevant. Presumably the Mac can pass multichannel PCM over HDMI - is there anything to say it has to be the core to play multichannel?
I will give it a try. It is my understanding you can stream 5.1 from a SonicTrsnsporter to an ultraRendu but one needs a multichannel DAC. I have over 100 5.1 discs and would like to sit and play random cuts without having to get up and pop discs into my Oppo.
I have a SonicTransporter (i5 version) and can confirm it will stream 5.1 audio to other Roon endpoints. Here’s a screenshot of my current signal path when playing 5.1 FLAC to an endpoint running Roon Bridge (the endpoint then passes the audio via HDMI to a receiver):
Here’s another example with 5.1 DSD. The processing drops to 2.9x due to the sample rate conversion in this scenario because my system can’t stream native DSD, but that’s not an issue for my use cases since I don’t have other active zones/DSP running:
I currently use a NUC with Windows 10 for the endpoint, but I assume a MacBook endpoint would work similarly.
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A low-spec NUC with ROCK would work just as well, because it’s being used as an endpoint and not the Roon Core…
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This is very helpful and encouraging. I am away from home now and will give it a try next week. Also I can rip my DVDa and Bray using DVD audio Extractor. How did you rip your SACD files? Or did you buy them if so from where.
Luckily, I have a compatible old Pioneer SACD player so I could use the process outlined in this huge thread to convert my SACD collection: https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/28569-sacd-ripping-using-an-oppo-or-pioneer-yes-its-true/
The SACD gets ripped to 1 big ISO file, and from there I used TraX (a Mac program) to convert the ISO into individual DSF files for each track.
Like you, I use DVD Audio Extractor to convert my DVD and Blu-ray discs 
Thanks for that tip. I was not aware of the SACD ripping process. Doesn’t look to bad if you use a MAC.
Just as easy, if not easier if you use Windows.
It works and was simple to set up.
