How to play DSD as PCM?

Hi – I’ve downloaded tonight build 15, and it sounds great. My DAC does not play DSD natively, so when I try to play my DSD files on build 15, Roon now recognizes the files and will play them, but only static comes out of my DAC (like what happened before you built in 192 downsampling support to 96). Is build 15 supposed to convert to PCM (if so, how?). If not, I hope you’ll add this to the list for a future build.

Rincard

DSD to PCM is supported.

Settings -> Audio

Select your DAC.

Click on the gearboxes to the right of it.

Under DSD Playback Strategy choose “Convert to PCM”

Also if you DAC does only 24/96 You will need to choose an option from Mac Sample Rate PCM.

Thanks for the question @rbholbrook – what’s your audio setup like? What kind of DAC?

If you’re playing to your DAC using Exclusive Mode, you should be seeing the option to convert to PCM in the Settings popup for your output, like this:

You can access this by going to Settings, clicking the Audio tab, and then clicking the little gear next to your DAC.

Let us know how it goes!

Brilliant! This works perfectly for me. I hadn’t seen that box before, but it does the trick. And even though it’s labeled “beta,” no problems at all for me. Love your quick turn around time. I think the only thing I still need out of Roon is the iOS remote – keep up the good work!

Richard

I was about to post a question about DSD bitstreaming and then the forum software showed me this thread. I’ve change the settings to my USB DAC and, ta da…! Thanks Roon chaps, my library just instantly grew by ~60 albums :grinning:

2 Likes

I use an AURALiC Aries over RAAT. Unfortunately my DAC (Avantgarde Acoustic Zero) does not support DSD. Actually Roon supports DAD to PCM conversion on the fly. But I do not know, how to configure this with the current version.