Bit depth conversion 24bit to 16 bit

Core Machine (Operating system/System info/Roon build number)

Win 10, I5, Roon 1.7(667) stable 64bit

Network Details (Including networking gear model/manufacturer and if on WiFi/Ethernet)

WIFI 5Ghz on PC, Technicolor 5hzg Router

Audio Devices (Specify what device you’re using and its connection type - USB/HDMI/etc.)

Denon avr-x2200w

Hi all,

I am new to Roon. I am streaming music from Tidal and but for some reason Roon is converting 24bit to 16bit. When I click on the conversion, it says it converted for my audio hardware, but my Denon amp can do 24bit. I have found no settings to edit this, would anyone be able to help on this?

Sorry for being a newbie.

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I don’t think AirPlay supports 24bit. AFAIK 16/44,1 or 16/48 is max.

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Yes it’s because your receiver uses airplay. Depending on it’s inputs you could stream to another network device like a raspberry pi with a digital out board and then into a digital input on the receiver.

Thanks for the information and that’s a shame that airplay doesn’t support 24bits. I am not sure how to set up the rasberry pi that way - as I assume it’s not as easy as just plug and play. Are there plug and play devices I could use for this?

Yes. Try HDMI direct from the core if close enough.

It if defeats the purpose then. I started using Roon to wirelessly stream Tidal to the receiver.

Your receiver supports DLNA (UPnP). You could check if lms2upnp works in your setup. A bit of tinkering though. If you wish for plug-and-play it probably isn’t for you :slightly_smiling_face:

You will find also any hi res files downsampled to 16/48 due to airplay

RPi is pretty simple , has your amp got USB input ,

Just buy the bits on line , add an SD card with Riopeee , see audio products on forum, switch on and go

My 70 yr old dodgy fingers managed it, enough said

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OK, that is new information to me. Without purchasing new hardware your only other possible option is a Roon to UPnP hack (via the Squeezebox option). There is software that will do it on a Windows machine but it isn’t intuitive from what I can tell.


I understand that it may need an edit to transfer 24 bit files but you don’t have much to lose by trying it. The hardware option means something like a MicroRendu. A second hand 1.3 variant should come in relatively affordably and it just sits on your network behaving like a Squeezebox then forwarding that to your chosen DNLA endpoint. It is the closest to PnP but is not as cheap as a Pi, HAT and case.

A consideration here is the number of true 24 bit files you have. An MQA file is not true 24 bit audio but uses the extra bits to pack in extra information. So getting those through to your receiver is largely redundant if you do no unfolding. If you want to do this just to see 24 bits from Tidal you are putting a lot of effort in for zero results. The 16 bit CD version might actually serve you better.

Thanks for all the suggestions.
Will give lms2upnp a go, if it doesn’t work, it’s probably time to upgrade my amp, which has been in a plan for a while now.

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