That the Aurender storage automatically appears in Roon as a storage option is super convenient. I had imagined all sorts of tedious hoops.
1 Like
It doesnât see above.
Automatically appears as a potential accessible storage option in Roon. Of course, it must be enabled. But itâs nice that Aurender is making access to their internal HD so easy.
I had imagined far more complex hoops.
I connected an N20 to a Vivaldi DAC at home on a trial basis.
With the conductor 4 it plays DSF files fine and the DAC display simply shows DSD.
When I play the same files (or other DSF files) via Roon, it does not work.
Roon then returns them to PCM, the LED then turns green in this case.
Iâve already tried all the settings but I canât figure it out.
In Roon it is set to âdefaultâ and using the USB connection.
With XLR works everthing ok.
Does anyone have a suggestion where I should look?
Thank you in advance!
Not sure if matters, but out of curiosity where are your files stored? Aurender internal storage or somewhere else? I use a lot of DSD and this would be a deal breaker for me. I was about to take a plunge on an Aurender streamer myself before reading this.
It doesnât matter where your music is located, you must indicate in Roon where your music is located. Roon also plays the music on your disk in the Aurender. This is separate from the problem that playing DSD via USB is NOT YET possible with the RoonReady Aurender N20. And perhaps also with other Aurender models? Try it out and let us know, otherwise it will never be solved. I did buy the N20!!
While the music will play from a variety of storage locations, itâs preferable to use the Aurender internal storage. Back when the Aurender internal hard drives were not user accessible, owners would go to great lengths to install larger internal hard drives rather than utilize external storage.
My $1000 OpticalRendu has no issues playing DSD over USB to the Chord Dave, I will try to dig deeper into this potential limitation of the Aurender N20âŚI wonder if this is âwork in progressâ yet for Aurender or is it a limitation they are stuck with for now. I will write to them and inquire about this.
Ok, did a bit of searching here, and some of the answers I got are: the Vivaldi DAC does support DSD playback, but it is important to note that it handles DSD over PCM (DoP) rather than native DSD streaming. Specifically, the USB 2.0 interface on the Vivaldi DAC accepts DSD/64 and DSD128 in DoP format. This means that while the DAC can process DSD data, it does so by encapsulating the DSD information within a PCM data stream, which is a common method for transferring DSD content over USB connections.
For those seeking native DSD playback, which involves sending DSD data without PCM encapsulation, it would require a DAC with specific firmware and drivers designed to handle such a format. The Vivaldi DACâs design choice to use DoP ensures compatibility across a wide range of playback systems without the need for specialized drivers.
This might explain why in your case the DSD is converted to PCMâŚ
Ok, but this only happens with Roon. When I use the Aurender app, it plays DSD64 and DSD128 on the Vivaldi DAC with the same cable. Does that make sense?
What is the DSD playback strategy set to in the endpoint device settings? It should be set to âDSD over PCM v1.0 (DoP)â as shown in the image below:
Sorry but we are talking about Roon and Aurender here.
Whilst I am not familiar with the Aurender device, the signal path that you posted above shows that that the Aurender N20 is Roon Ready and the RAAT endpoint is being used. This being the case, the endpoint device settings for the Aurender in Roon should have the DSD playback strategy that I referenced above.
Setting DSD over PCM will mean that DoP encoded DSD will be sent over RAAT to the N20 which should, in turn, pass that on to the Vivladi DAC.
I think that the audio settings screens in Roon show options that depend on the connected device that Roon detects⌠In my case with the advanced settings using Chord Dave, Roon displays these options which differ from the ones shared by @Roony (I have a âMax sample rate (DSD)â optionâŚ
I am not expert, but I gather that it depends on the DAC, in your case the dcs Vivaldi uses DSD over PCM (DoP) and Roon detects that and shows it in the signal path⌠You can play the music just fine, but the DAC is not taking in native DSD⌠It could be that the Auralic Commander app does not show this type of signal path breakdown (I can tell since I donât have Aurender in my setup)âŚ
OK. Iâm sorry to have gone down a dead end.
That looks very much like Roon believes that the N20/Vivaldi combination does not support DSD.
This could be because of a fault in Roon (with the handling of the Aurender N20), the Aurender N20 Roon Ready implementation or it could be that the Vivaldi DAC is not reporting its DSD capabilities back to the Aurender (and thence to Roon) - at least not in a way that Roon understands.
This question might be better raised in the Support category. There may be some information in the logs that would help to nail down where the issue lies.
As a matter of interest, you state that:
I assume the N20 was the trial part?
Have you tried the N20 with another USB connected DSD capable DAC? If so does that combination have the same issue?
You also state:
Have you tried the Auralic streamer into the Vivaldi DAC via USB? If so did that handle DSD as you would expect?
While one should take answers generated by ChatGPT, Copilot and the rest of the AI models with a good pinch of salt, here is what I got when I inquired about this, there is a small difference between DACs that could explain why Aurender+Roon might behave differently, as well as offer different options in the audio setup depending on which DAC is being usedâŚ
I assume the N20 was the trial part?
Have you tried the N20 with another USB connected DSD capable DAC? If so does that combination have the same issue?
Yes, I connected the Aurender to my work amplifier/dac, a Cambridge EVO150 > NO DSD
My W11 computer to the same Cambridge EVO150 and same cable > plays DSD without problems
Have you tried the Auralic streamer into the Vivaldi DAC via USB?
If so did that handle DSD as you would expect?
YES, no problem > plays up to DSD128
1 Like
When you say âplays up to DSD128â is this through Roon or the Auralic player app?