No Procedural EQ or any other filters
Channels are mixed up on files ripped in ALAC from DVDAE. They seem be be fine when ripped to FLAC. This may not be a Roon problem at all but Im curious if anyone else has experienced it.
I am unable to even play DSD files in surround at all but can play them down mixed to stereo and converted to PCM. I am also able to play them down mixed to stereo DoP to a Topping DAC in my office.
Ah, ok.
I found the thread I was thinking of, but the issue seems to be related to issues when using Procedural EQ;
My thoughts are that My core machine(M1 Mac mini) does not have the power to convert 5 channels of DSD64 to PCM and that the ALAC problem may be a glitch in DVDAE but possibly Roon? I donāt really care about using FLAC instead of ALAC. I do want to play 5.1 SACD rips though.
That puts things even further over my head. Why can I just put a disc in and press play and everything works but I spend days online trying to make everything work from ripped files? I have never once had an issue playing stereo files with Roon. Iām sure it will all be worth it but wow. Itās not that simple.
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Eventually I will want to use prcedural EQ for bass Management.
How old is the M1 Mac Mini? If not really old, Iām surprised it has trouble converting 5.1 SACD to 5.1 PCM, though admittedly I know next to nothing about the Mac Mini capabilities. Iām using a Salkstream III which houses Roon ācoreā and my music files. I bought it in 2016. Itās essentially a small computer in a fanless case with an Intel i5 processor, 8 gb RAM, and running Linux Arch. It has no trouble converting my multichannel SACD files to multichannel PCM before sending the signal out to my Oppo 102 via HDMI.
I also use DVDAE to rip multichannel DVD/BD discs. Iāve only ripped to FLAC, so havenāt noticed any issues. Though my setup is a bit simpler than yours (5.1 speaker setup, no Mac or PC sending files over the network to a Nuc running Roon Bridge), if you like I can rip a disc to ALAC and see if I notice any issues. Unfortunately, if I do have issues with ALAC, it still wouldnāt answer the question if itās a fault with DVDAE or Roon. If I donāt have an issue, then it may point to something in your setup causing the issue. Let me know if you would like me to try. 
Your thought of converting an ALAC file to FLAC to see what happens is an interesting idea to try. You might also try converting a good FLAC file to ALAC to see if it introduces problems. That may narrow down whether DVDAE is the issue or Roon?
I appreciate your frustration with this. My journey to get multichannel working with Roon was also time consuming and frustrating. I love using Roon for multichannel, but there were times I almost gave up and just went back to spinning discs in my Oppo 103.
Though not as convenient, just spinning shiny discs has advantages in reliability and simplicity (less stressful to set up!). That said, when all is well, using Roon is great for having my entire collection at my fingertips. 
This is helpful I think maybe. I think my Mac should be able to do it but who knows. I think this week I will move my core to the NUC and try that.
That unless I force Roon not to down mix 5.1 DSD it does tells me it doesnāt like sending 5.1 to the NUC bridge for some reason. I thought maybe the OPPO but it works for you.
The Mac is only 2 years old I think.
I would certainly be interested in your results. I am using 8.6.0. Interesinlsy. I have a ALAC 5.1 rip from years ago from a much older version that as far as I can tell might be mapped correctly so there is that. I wasnāt ripping to 5.1 back then so I only have the one. I canāt find a way to install an older version now to check that out.
If I remember correctly, the Oppo will not accept DSD (or DoP) via HDMI, hence why I have Roon set to convert to PCM before sending to the Oppo.
Yes and that would be fine. I would be happy with that. Iām curious though I have read it might. Tomorrow I will plug an old Pioneer DVD player that I know will output native DSD from SACD into the OPPO input and see what happens. Im curious
Iāll see if I can do some test rips this weekend.
Today I created some multichannel ALAC files for testing. Sorry for the long post. I hope it makes sense. 
File 1 is an 8 channel (7.1) track from the Peter Gabriel i/o BD. I used the current version of DVDAE to create the ALAC file from the mkv backup of this BD I created in December 2023. This multichannel ALAC file does not play correctly using Roon. The channels are mixed up/incorrect. Btw, the multichannel FLAC file I have plays correctly in Roon, including properly down converting 7.1 to 5.1.
Hereās a screenshot of the signal path for file 1 (ALAC). It looks normal, but as you experienced, the channels are mixed up/incorrect:
File 2 is a track from another 8 channel (7.1) BD rip I created in 2020 using an earlier version of DVDAE (up until this past December, it had been a few years since Iāve ripped a DVD or BD). I used dBpoweramp to convert the existing multichannel FLAC file to ALAC. This multichannel ALAC file plays correctly in Roon, including properly down converting 7.1 to 5.1.
Hereās the screenshot for file 2 (ALAC). It looks normal and plays properly.
File 3 is a track from the same BD title as file 2, except I used the current version DVDAE to create a new multichannel ALAC file to see if using the current version of DVDAE makes any difference. This new DVDAE ALAC rip does not play properly in Roon. The signal path looks normal, but the channels are mixed up/incorrect just like in file 1.
I tried to see if I could isolate the Oppo as the potential offender by using the Oppoās network/file player, thereby removing Roon from the equation, but the Oppo network/file player proved a bit unreliable/buggy. It wouldnāt correctly play any of the ALAC files I created. With FLAC files, it would play some files normally, but not others it wouldnāt play at all; I have no idea why. I couldnāt find anything in the Oppo manual about file format compatibility, but I did find an old post on AVS forum that indicated the Oppo should play ALAC (no mention of multichannel though) fine.
After all this, I suspect DVDAE is the primary offender here. It seems somewhere along the line an update to DVDAE changed something in multichannel ALAC encoding thatās messing up the channel assignment, or something Roon doesnāt like. Fortunately, using DVDAE to create FLAC files seems to work fine.
I hope this helps.
Thank you so much. Thank you thank you!!!
I am not insane! Yay!
I have searched and searched for anyone with the same results and nothing.
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I am not crazy
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Thank You Saturn
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I also found oppo would not play ALAC files from USB drive
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I just pryed open my wallet and ordered an OCTO DAC8Pro. I hope it is the end of my frustrations and I can adapt its balanced outputs to my unbalanced inputs OK.
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Iām glad it was helpful. Perhaps weāre both crazy! 
Unfortunately, multichannel music fans are a pretty niche group, so getting help with issues can be a challenge.
I hope the OCTO DAC8Pro works out well for you.