I have wanted to play Multichannel from Roon for ever. The system I currently have is Files on Synology NAS > Roon core on M1 Mac mini > Micro Rendu > Oppo 105 using USB in > Parasound P7 multichannel preamp from Oppo analog outputs.
I realize the best way would be to purchase a 8 channel DAC like the OCTO or even the new Topping. The problem with those is the balanced only outputs and the high cost of properly converting to unbalanced RCA. Upgrade to a balanced 8channel analog preamp you say, but one does not exist as far as I know. An Exasound DAC or the S88 would solve all my problems, but at this point I am making the decision that for that kind of money I can get up, put a disc in the player and get my surround that way. If I ended up getting surround downloads down the road that might change. There is also the Atmos thing now which could make the 8 channel DACs worthless. Anyhoo. A DAC is what would be best but for now I’m not willing to spend more than 1500 to maybe 2000 and it would have to be a quality piece with great sound. Waiting on reviews of the new Minidsp unit but their past DACs have not been highly regarded.
Now to my current issue. I decided to dip my toes in and decided to try the HDMI into my Oppo 105 route. After way too much time on google I ordered a NUC11PAHi7, installed Roon Bridge and connected it to the 105 by HDMI. Now I have it playing surround from PCM files correctly. At least I think so but It would be nice to confirm somehow. I am unable so far to get DSD DSF files to work. Roon will downmix to 2 channel and when I force it to stay surround I get an error (TOO MANY FAILURES STOPPING PLAYBACK). I don’t know what this means. I wonder if it is the Mac mini not being able to convert the DSD to PCM because of computing power. I am not given an option to send native DSD. Is this because the Apple won’t send native and the Oppo won’t accept DoP? The option to use DoP is available in the Roon setup, but when I check that there is no sound. Is anyone feeding a windows based bridge from a core on a Mac and having luck with this? I don’t really want to run the core from the NUC but if I was to install ROCK on the NUC and use it as the core could I hook up a HDMI cable from it and have native DSD to my OPPO? What would happen If I moved the Mac based core to the audio rack and hooked it up with its HDMI. Im guessing the no native DSD for apple would make that a fail.
Is anybody successfully feeding a Oppo 105 from the HDMI input from a Roon Bridge or Core and getting native DSD or even successfully playing 5.1 DSD files converted to PCM (I am perfectly happy with the sound of my 2 channel files converted.
Any help or advice is welcome. I am losing sleep. Computers can be confusing to me. Have I wasted the money I just spent on the NUC?
DSD multichannel is an iffy thing. You might try using an Eversolo DMP-A6 instead of the NUC, as I think multichannel DSD via HDMI is one of its unusual benefits. But, as always the end devices INPUT (ie Oppo) also factors into it, as those who have succeeded I think were all feeding an AVR directly.
See, this thread and read through to it’s resolution.
Currently Roon does not play DSD files over HDMI from the NUC/Rock. Those get converted to PCM. But it will play multi-channel PCM. I have NUC/Rock HDMI to my Denon AVR and it plays MC PCM without any issues. And I have had the same with an OPPO 205 via HDMI.
Converting multi-channel DSD to PCM for playback via HDMI is heavy load on the processor and that can cause dropouts and skipping. At least it does with DSD 256 5.1 files and my NUC8I7BEH. It’s possible DSD 64 5.1 would work fine.
You mentioned the exaSound S88 and that is the route I took. The S88 is connected to the 7.1 analog inputs on the AVR. The S88 gets the MC DSD files from Roon via Etherent and works great.
But even with that I still play MC PCM via HDMI to my AVR.
I really don’t have a problem with the DSD being converted to PCM. If I could run the NUC as my core and have it work feeding the Oppo with HDMI I could live with that for now. I would like to know why what I have set up now doesn’t work even telling it to convert. What does the Too Many Errors stopped playback mean? I would think the Mac mini would have the power to convert 5.1 DSD 64 to PCM
The S88 would be ideal. Im sure it is a wonderful piece of gear. But the price is just way more than I would be willing to spend for any audio component other than maybe speakers.
It was costly for me as well and more than I’ve ever considered spending on gear. I got frustrated trying to get MC DSD playback with the OPPO 205 and decided to bite the bullet. Speakers came later.
I run from the analog outputs of the OPPO to a Parasound P7 multichannel analog preamp. The OPPO is my processor and it sounds better than any home theater PRE/PRO I ever tried
Sorry what I am trying to make work for multichannel is Core on Mac mini > NUC11 (running Roon Bridge and I have also tried with full Roon via ethernet > OPPO 105 via HDMI >analog outputs from OPPO
I have read about it. Read good and bad reviews regarding HDMI. I would not rule it out but It would be money spent on doing something I may already be able to do with what I already own. Money that could be spent on a proper 8 channel USB DAC if one is ever introduced at a reasonable price.
This is what I recall from the different zone setups with the OPPO 205. Not sure it would be the same with the 105. With USB from NUC/Rock to 205 it would play DSD/PCM but it was 2 channel only (no sub channel), with Ethernet it was also 2 channel only (No sub channel), with HDMI it played MC PCM but basically a pass through to the AVR with the AVR DAC doing the processing. I can’t recall if the HDMI input would use the OPPO DAC and output via the 7.1 analog outs. It has been 4 years or so.
Have you tried HDMI from the core machine directly to the 105?
What is the signal path showing when the music is playing?
Native DSD multichannel output via HDMI is usually impossible with any sort of PC-like hardware (incl. nucleus), no matter which OS you use (Linux/ROCK, Windows or macOS).
Depending on the device fed by HDMI you may have luck with DoP.
Or you have to convert DSD to PCM in roon, first.
Actually I use the DMP-A6 as a roon endpoint. This device can output native multichannel DSD over HDMI pretty well. But currently, the latest F/W for the A6 shows some bugs.
Other option maybe via USB, mainly depending on endpoints/renderers.
I have a slightly less powerful core machine and both DSD64 6-Channel and DSD128 6-Channel work fine, with the latter pushing one core of the CPU to just under double processing speed. So it can be assumed that DSD256 multichannel might bring it to a limit and stuttering. Do not have such files to give it a try but they are anyways pretty chunky.
Yes that works with the Oppos 105 and 205 and PCM multichannel fed in via HDMI, even the internal speaker settings like phantom center, delay and channel leveling being properly applied. The only issue I encountered is sometimes a click noise appears when resolution from the HDMI is changing.
And eight channels is not obsoleted by Dolby Atmos. I run a 5.1.2 Dolby Atmos array in my main system and it sounds terrific. Using the Dolby Reference Player, I output 5.1.2 files that Roon can play, since that is within the eight channel limit of Roon. JCR
This is helpful. I have read so much that it is a problem. While OCTO does say those cables will work he defiantly discourages them. I have used adapter cables to go from unbalanced RCA preamp outputs to balanced pro amps but never the other way. What is your opinion of the sound of the DAC. stereo as well as multichannel? I would love to hear more about the Dolby Reference Player outputting to Roon Is that a computer software or a piece of hardware