Shipping the RoonReady dCS Network Bridge in Dec 2016.
No usb output. Itās a sin.
Dual AES to a Debussy along with a proper clock connectionā¦ Who needs USB? 
Donāt count out USB capabilities yet, thoughā¦
Does this receive the Roon stream wirelessly, by wifi, or does it need an ethernet connection?
Does anyone know of its price point?
How does it compare with, say, a Bluesound node?
It has a wireless network antenna so I donāt see why it wouldnāt work wireless with Roon.
List is Ā£3995 I believe.
Does anyone know for sure if the Network Bridge supports HQPlayerās NAA protocol? Iām thinking RoonReady might just mean RAAT is supported?
As a clarification to the posts above, the Network bridge currently has a list price of Ā£3250 in the UK.
The Network Bridge does not have any provisions for NAA. The supprorted protocols are Roon/RAAT, UPnP, Tidal, Spotify, and Airplay. You can also attach a hard drive or flash disk to the USB port and it will allow playback from that device.
I was listening to a dCS Network Bridge connected to a dCS Debussy at my local stereo-store yesterday. I was unable to play a DSD64 track (as DSD).
The Network Bridge was Roonās output here. With that configuration, I could not see any way to expose the DSD Playback Strategy setting for this device (so that I could choose DoP).
When I connect Roon directly to the dCS Debussy, I do see this option.
How can I select this option when connecting through the dCS Network Bridge?
thanks
The Network Bridge is a Roon Ready device so Roon already knows its capabilities. As such thereās no specific setting within Roon to enable DSD playback. Generally it just works.
There are a couple of different things that could be going on here.
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The Bridge configuration (accessed through the dCS app) may be incorrect. I wonāt be near my Bridge until Tuesday so I canāt check the settings for certain, but from memory I donāt think thereās a configuration setting that will convert DSD to PCM within the Bridge. There are some settings which can cause the Bridge to output a stream thatās beyond the capabilities of the DAC.
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Thereās a chance that Roon was configured incorrectly. If you were getting a conversion to PCM then thereās a good chance that sample rate conversion was enabled within Roon and setup incorrectly.
The configuration that you describe just works. Currently I have my Bridge connected to a Debussy using a single AES cable. Both DSD64 and PCM up to 24/192 work without an issue.
What you are describing sounds like a configuration issue either within the Bridge or Roon itself. I guess thereās also a chance that the firmware on that Debussy was so old that it doesnāt support DSD over single AES or S/PDIF, but that would have to be very, very old.
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It works for you, without converting DSD to PCM? (I just want to select DoP - DSD over PCM - but not convert DSD to PCM.)
If that works for you, I will need to check the firmware. (Though Iām not sure how to check the Debussy firmware version#.)
PS. Under āAbout this Macā, USB, the system report lists ādCS Debussy USB Audio 2ā. When I select that, it says āVersion: 2.20ā. Hopefully that is the software/firmware version. It would be the latest, according to https://www.dcsltd.co.uk/product-support/software-history/
I dont think this is quite true - the bridge is Roon Ready, but whether to send DSD directly, or as DoP, would be a function of the DAC thatās connected to the bridge (I think)?
No. Thatās incorrect. The Bridge informs Roon of its capabilities based on its settings. There is no specific setting within Roon to enable DSD playback to the Bridge.
Just looked at the Bridge manual and my memory is apparently failing me. There is a setting within the dCS app that enables or disables DSD playback (labeled DSD downsampling).
Iām going to take a wild guess and say that your dealer also carries Berkeleyā¦ If thatās the case then the Bridge was probably previously used with one of the Berkeley DACs (which is turning into a popular configuration) which would have required disabling DSD support within the Bridge.
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This is the most current release for the Debussy.
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Hmm. It was indeed, but we (he) made sure that the bridgeās dsd downsampling was disabled when we ran into these problems with the debussy.
Just to confirm, you can play dsd64 to your debussy /without/ any conversions, right?
Wouldnāt it have to be playing as DoP, then? (I didnāt think the debussy support DSD any other way - doesnāt it require DSD to be packaged as DoP?)
PS. Thanks for all this help.
That is correct.
The encapsulation is done by the bridge itself. Iām not sure how much more clear I can make thisā¦
There is no setting for DoP encapsulation within Roon when using the Network Bridge due to the way that all of the software components work. This is all handled automatically.
Reboot the bridge and kill the app on the iPad. Then re-do the setting. I canāt remember if Roon and the Bridge renegotiate capabilities when you make a change in the dCS config so you may then need to disable and re-enable the bridge in Roon.
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Ok thanks- Itās clear.
Iāll try this next time with the bridge.
hi, I have a nimitra PC music server, 4GB RAM, windows 10 Pro 32 bit OS, 16GB SSD, external SSD in an enclosure with my music library connected by USB to my server. Nimitra runs Roon server.
I am connected by ethernet to a switch and then to my dCS network bridge.
I sometimes have a weird behavior (not with all music files), after about 1mn, music has glitches and then stopsā¦
this particular file I attach is a 192khz 24 bit file. Tried to play with downsampling in Roon, with resync delay, playing music locally instead of externallyā¦no luck. Always same issue.
Iām not using any wifi connections and Roon apps/server etc are all up to date.
Here is the file where I recorded the issue Iām encountering
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5iPLqP24eAfdVQ5eExzWUtnTzA/view?usp=sharing
Can anyone please kindly help me?
signal path:
Hello to all, since 6 months I use Roon with a sonore microrendu and I could not get of Roon now (except to listen to Qobuz in DLNA). I went to Ć French reseller to test the DCS network bridge. This reseller does not have Roon installed and I can only test through upnp. This network bridge needs a long time to be at the right temperature and starts to sound but after 1hour it starts to be great. I would use it in mono AES and mono SPdIF as I donāt have any dcs DAC. It seems that a future firmware would enable the usb entry as an output for usb DAC. Next step would be to test it at home with Roon during September.
I read that there was some software issues in the past and dcs was working on it. Is it still live , should I do specific test in order to ensure that this network bridge is fully compatible with Roon ?
Thanks for your support.