Can't get 96kHz files to play back [fixed]

Just began a trial membership yesterday and all of my 44 kHz files (from an iTunes library, on a mid-2014 iMac running OS 10.10.5, with 8 GB memory) sound great. This is straight out of the computer into a Meridian DSP5000 system, through a Halide Bridge USB-S/PDIF device.

BUT: I also have a lot of 96 kHz 24 bit files that were made from records, with a Furutech GT40 DAC, in the same iTunes library. These appear in Roon as well, but they don’t have any info in the graphic display (or much–it’s just a tiny graph) and they won’t play back at all–no noise of any kind, though the counter progresses as if it’s playing. I do hear a pop when the system switches over to the different sample rate, but nothing more on any of them. And the strange thing, now that I’ve done all this, is that they won’t play in iTunes anymore either–still look OK in the library, but just no sound on playback. Until I went to Roon, I’ve played these perfectly in iTunes many times.

Since the system spent some time drawing the graphs and determining volume info for all of my songs, I was hoping that this was affecting its ability to play these back on demand or something, but now that’s all done and none of these play back still. What am I missing (and thanks much for any help I can get)?

Hey @Donald_Howard – sorry for the trouble here. Let’s start by determining whether this is related to the files or the output.

Can you go into Settings > Audio and enable the iMac’s Built In Output? Then you can select the zone here:

Then, just try to output via the iMac’s speakers. If that works, we’ll know a lot more.

Let @Eric and I know how it goes, and we’ll get this working for you.

Thanks!

Thanks much! Yes, it does work that way.

…meaning that it works through the system output speakers, but not the Halide Bridge.

Is that possibly because the Meridian system (it’s old) can’t handle the 96 kHz signal? Is the Bridge passing that 96 kHz signal straight through, or is it either translating it, or handling a lesser signal out of the Roon software? Sorry, I guess I don’t really understand what the software is doing.

Can you post a screenshot of the settings you’re using on the USB device, like the ones here?

You might also try limiting the sample rate in Roon. There’s an option on the Playback tab, in the device’s settings.

I limited the sample rate, as you suggested–to 48/16–and it works fine now. Still doesn’t quite make sense to me, because the 1994-vintage Meridians operate only at 44.1/16, or so I thought. At any rate, though, everything is cool now–thanks for your quick attention to this.

Though I need to keep playing with the software for awhile to figure it out, and am curious to see it integrating with Tidal, I like Roon a lot. Seems that it will raise my level of musical knowledge quite a bit, even for songs and albums I’ve been listening to for years. Thanks again!

DSP5000’s come in two flavours: the vintage ones being 18-bit, later models being 24-bit. The former play up to 48kHz, the latter up to 96kHz.

If yours are 18-bit, your current settings are just fine: Roon will downsample 192/96 to 48, and 176.4/88.2 to 44.1.

Happy listening! :slight_smile:

Before Roon you used iTunes and everything was probably set to send at 44 or 48 regardless of whether it was a 96 vinyl rip or not. So you never noticed and never go the full benefit of the 96k rips.

Roon sends bit perfect so gave you the 96 full fat signals that the v1 dsp5000 cannot work with.

Setting Roon to max 48 is the ideal way to resolve that without buying new DSP’s​:money_mouth_face::money_mouth_face:

Thanks for the explanations, makes better sense to me now. And yes, this will do fine until I can afford a new set of dspXXXXXs, whenever that may be. Thanks again for the quick responses!

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Hi are there any plans to upgrade the software to automatically determine this? Now I have a very loud noice on some albums and I have to change the setting to 48hz while the rest of the albums are playing fine.

If connected via USB, Roon does limit sample rates automatically and accordingly – because USB is a bidirectional link. But if connected via S/PDIF, Roon has no means to determine, for example, that downstream equipment does not support 96 kHz. Appropriate user intervention is required.

AJ

Hi AJ, I have a Sennheiser HDVD800 headphone amp connected through USB to my Mac. Some songs start with a very loud ticking and annoying sound. When I change the rate down to 48 hz everything plays fine. When I choose 192 hz some work and some don’t. The amp can handle 24 bit 192 hz according to the specs. Any idea what I am doing wrong?

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