Dear @kevin ,
I’m having trouble getting DSD over DoP to my SMSL M500 MKIII DAC. I’m pretty sure I have the right Roon settings on my MacBook Pro 9,2. Roon 2.0 (macOS Big Sur 11.7.6) shows that DSD is transmitting, but my DAC display only briefly shows 176.4 kHz, before dropping to 44.1 kHz. Can you please hep me troubleshoot and get DSD over DoP working?
The manual is sketchy,
There is this line
USB, optical, coaxial support DSD , coaxial and optical support
> DOP64;
Which seems to indicate that USB doesn’t support DoP. But, later…
DoP DoP256(USB),DoP64(Optical / Coaxial)
Which suggests that USB only does DoP256? You might try having Roon upsample to DSD256 and see if it works via USB.
Or try using Coax or Toslink with DoP64
I tried Roon upsampling from DSD64 to DSD256, and the result via USB is 176.4 kHz PCM on the DAC display. When I try upsampling from DSD64 to DSD128, the result is 88.2 kHz PMC on the display. Native DSD256 works from USB on Win10, but I haven’t yet gotten DSD over DoP to work on macOS. I haven’t yet determined whether the issue is in Roon or my DAC XMOS input. I will keep troubleshooting. All suggestions welcome.
How is the DAC connected to the MBP? It’s not clear from your description. What kind of cable (and dongles) are you using? Are you using a docking station or hub?
Do you have a Roon settings option to enable native DSD?
I can’t remember where this is located and I don’t think it’s available for all devices.
I realize DoP isn’t native DSD but I’ve seen this issue crop up here before where DoP is outputting as PCM and toggling native DSD was the fix.
DSP Engine “Enable Native DSD Processing” is not necessary for the signal path in the first post here. The answer I gave to a different thread was for a different kind of issue (DSD128 to DSD64 conversion).
Try DSD128 DoP from Roon on Win10, in order to rule out DAC firmware or hardware fault.
Disconnect the DAC from the Mac. Power cycle the Mac and the DAC. Try different cable, and different port.
Thank you, @wklie and all, for your great help. I have now tried DSD64, DSD128 and DSD256 DoP from Roon on macOS, and it never works. I have also tried DSD64 DoP from Win10, and it doesn’t work either. I’m using the USB cable that came with the DAC.
At this point, I believe there is a M500 MKIII DAC firmware or hardware fault with DoP only. PCM, MQA, and native DSD all work fine from various sources, and I have no reason to fault Roon, which AFAIK is working flawlessly.
See if it offers a firmware that you can manually reflash the DAC to, [Edit] but beware of the risks involved.
Factory reset the DAC.
Experiment with the DAC settings, e.g. MQA.
Over usb you shouldn’t need DoP. But usb straight from the Mac and DSD is always a problem.
I’d use a network streamer and connect the dac to the usb on the streamer. That dac can do dsd512 over usb.
I’d be careful updating a firmware on smsl, I’ve updated a D6 and I know @dabassgoesboomboom has gotten a D6 to update, I think we both agree it was a nerve racking process.
I have updated a D300 MCU firmware but could not update the usb firmware, I hate bringing this up as for whatever reason it worked for me, but @jussi_laako tried the same MCU firmware update on a D300 and it bricked the dac.
@Psychoakustik be careful with your D500 firmware updates. I checked the shenzhenaudio website and there are no updates for your dac. But… If you ever do need to update it may help to find someone that speaks Chinese as the update is not in English, you need to follow and match the pictures… scary process. 
Thanks everyone, for the great help. I’ve tried everything, including reset from the M500 MKIII menu. Everything works as claimed, except DoP. I’ve tried DoP from macOS (Roon), iPhone (Onkyo HF player), and Win10 (foobar2000), and it never works. I think my unit is defective. Buyer beware, I guess.
Try:
Also try doing DSD64 DoP over coaxial input (after setting SPDIF Mode).
I’ve tested a different 2022 model of SMSL MQA USB DAC that also uses the same XU316 as yours, both DoP and native DSD work fine in my setup.
I just read SMSL D300 update instructions PDF
I was sweating , just reading it 
I don’t recall D-6 being that complicated.
The best firmware update process I’ve seen was a Topping A90D headphone amp (why a headphone amp needs firmware updates is another discussion)
Leave it off and connect to a PC or Mac - it will appear like a hardrive . Copy the fimware single file to it. Done.
Disconnect from PC/Mac and power on. And pray to the audiophile Gods 
I tried installing Ropieee on a RPi 3B with Allo DigiOne HAT. Although Ropieee reported Roon Bridge running, Roon couldn’t detect it on my network. This was odd, because every other Roon-compatible device on my network is detected. I couldn’t find another easy way to test DSD64 DoP over coaxial, and I gave up.
After 3-4 support requests, I finally got a response from SMSL indicating that there might be a firmware bug, where the M500 MKIII screen shows PCM when it’s fed DoP. I’m not sure I believe that it’s just a display issue though. It doesn’t sound as good with DoP as it does with native DSD. I think something else is going on.
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