I thought I would report on the successful fix I applied to my usbridge (Dietpi) last night following the instructions in the post from Wouter_du_Toit.
I recently changed my dac from a Mojo to a RME ADI 2 Dac. I leave the usbridge powered on 24/7 and Roon would sometimes not be able to find the Mojo when it was powered on. A power cycle (off/on) of the usbridge was required to get the Mojo to show up in Roon. Since it was only an occasional issue I just lived with it. However, with the ADI 2 dac it was always necessary to power cycle the usbridge to get Roon to see it which was a PITA. There are various mentions of this issue with various dacs within this thread and the suggested solution is to edit /DietPi/uEnv.txt to change the aotg.urb_fix value from 1 to 0.
I have never attempted to tinker with the inner workings of the usbridge so this was a new adventure for me! However, using āputtyā to āSSHā (whatever that means) into Dietpi it was straight forward to do this edit. I would clarify on the instructions to say that following the edit I issued āsyncā followed by ārebootā commands by simply typing these words followed by āReturnā. The reboot resulted in a āfatalā error message, so I was not hopeful that I had done all correctly, and concerned that the usbridge might never work again! However, it worked. Switching on the ADI 2 dac from stand-by now results in Roon seeing it within a couple of seconds.
Thanks to all who contributed to my education on this via this thread.
Julio, Did you ever find a resolution to Native DSD in HINT1 ?
I have the same issue with HINT 1. Native DSD is not even in the menu option. DoP provides an output, but frankly it sounds poor. The more of us who insist on a driver update from Parasound, the more likely they may work with Roon for a fix. I sent them all the details in an email today, but told them about it on the phone a few weeks back. I donāt have many DSD tracks in my library, but it is supposed to work native and they should fix it.
Thanks,
Jack
No I havenāt. Hopefully they have fixed it with the new HINT. I now use an external DAC (Mytek Brooklyn) and itās much much better. The HINT1 is an excellent integrated but upgrading its DAC and phono stage bring it to the upper level in my opinion.
Julio,
Thanks for reply. I opened a Roon support topic for the HINT, and also provided the specifics directly to Parasound and they are looking into it. I believe the issue exists with the HINT 6 also. I think I read a user found native DSD to work over USB2.0 using JRiver, so this appears to be a Roon integration issue. For now, I am satisfied with the HINT digital I/F (both SPDIF and USB) except the lack of native DSD. I very few DSD tracks, so itās really about having it function as advertised, and having the option to buy more DSD in the future. I am putting together a headpone setup (Pro-ject Stream Box S2 Ultra WiFi->USB, SMSL SU-8 DAC, DROP THX AAA 789, and Senn. HD700) today and will see how that plays with Roon. Honestly, Iām not sure DSD is worth the trouble compared Hi Res PCM.
Thanks,
Jack
Would it still be worth buying the USB bridge new today? Thinking of doing this for a headphone setup. It is quite a cheap and simple setup, but the signature is maybe well worth buying instead?
Hey Ross,
I am curious about your experience with connecting the DAC to a sparky usb port.
Dietpi cannot detect my modi 3 connected to the clean port, so I had to use the usb 3 on the sparky board.
The sound is pretty good. Am I missing out big time by not using the clean port?
Thanks
I guess it depends on whether you want to spend any more to get it working. The clean input is essentially the point of the Sparky, so a shame not to use it, otherwise I understand the Ethernet and USB ports share the same bus so can be noisy. But, as ever, your results may vary etc.
I did get the idefender and it has been working ever since in my kitchen.
I have the Signature version now too which is great (along with the Shanti PSU). Having said that, I have also have an rpi4 running for a week and it too sounds really good (with Ropieee and Gentooplayer). So, lots of choice!
I think its very hard to compare two products like this, I use them in different scenarioās (lounge vs home office), in different rooms and also with different kit, so extremely difficult to say, its too subjective. I will say, I am happy with both, and also I felt the USB Sig with Shanti sounds great in my lounge set up and it felt an improvement over the standard USBridge.
What do you think, will it be possible to perfectly convert USBridge USB output with the Douk Audio U2 Mini XMOS XU208 USB to Coax converter?
My problem is: Iām using a path from Roon via HQPlayer to my USBridge. Because my Trinnov Amethyst does not have USB digital input (only SPDif coax) I added a Allo DigiOne HAT to the Pi in USBridge. But this way Iām not able to upsample and play DSD from HQPlayer, only PCM is supported.
Now I hope I can use USBridge USB output (supports native DSD) and convert to SPDif as input for the Trinnov. DSD128 is enough for me.
Just looking at the specs for your DAC, it does not appear to take DSD at all. If you end up converting DSD from HQP to PCM, whatās the point of going that convoluted route, which may affect sound quality as well? The only benefit of DSD is as an input to certain DACs that can take advantage of that encoding.
What @Fernando_Pereira said, plus S/PDIF only supports a maximum of DSD64 over DoP when DSD is supported at all. Sorry, no DSD128.
Best solution with the Trinnov may be to buy a nice outboard DAC, like the Topping D90SE or Gustard X16 and go balanced analog into the Trinnov. I realize that the Trinnov will probably convert the signal back to digital internally, but with a top-flight product like that, I would not be too concerned.
Thanks, but I was on the wrong way. The Trinnov is not able to use DSD as input, because DSD isnāt changeable.
A coax SPDif to USB converter would help me to first put the stream from Roon through the Trinnov and then via SPDif out into my MacMini with HQPlayer. But such a converetr isnāt available.
So what is your final choice ?
I have a USBridge that works very well (gentooPlayer and NAA endpoint - DSD 256 or PCM 1.5) but I am wondering about an upgrade (Zen Stream / USB or MagnaHifi Streamer USB/i2S) ?
My final choice is the Lindemann Limetree Bridge II. And Iāll have a Lumin U1 mini the next days. Then I decide finally, I think the Lumin will win.
But the Limetree is a fantastic renderer for the price!
Problem with both devices: they donāt support HQP NAA (actual). Anyway, I think I will sell my MacMini M1 with HQPlayer desktop the next days, because Iām tired of fighting the problems and I did not use HQPlayer the last 4-5 months.
The iFi Zen Stream I have here and tested. Worse sound quality, no chance against USBridge or Limetree. Iāll send it back to Amazon.
Regarding gentoo player on USBridge: Iāve heared the best rendering sq is done by the moOde player. Maybe you test it and check the improvement?