Ok thanks for clarifying. This is some head scratching stuff for me.
Good thing you suggested earlier in the thread for people to give details of their system. I was clueless lol
Is a Windows 10 i7 7700K PC (Roon Core) guaranteed to be no issues with DSD up-sampling to DSD512 and direct USB playback to a USB Dac?
Or is that even a āit might be okā case?
Fully out of topic but I am sitting back here and laughing because DSD512 is like trying to stream 4K Movies! You need a HPC Cluster to even think about it. LOL
Media is getting out of controlā¦ You shouldnāt need so much power to decodeā¦ We are going backwardsā¦ We should think efficiency!
LOL no thatās definitely on topic because I was saying something like that earlier - I didnāt realise itās an expensive thing to achieve.
The more I think about it, Small Green Computerās sonicT i7 looks like good value. And I keep my Surface Pro 4 i5 as the Roon Endpoint.
The webpage says Sky Lake but the video at the bottom says Kaby Lake
Cheaper than an i7 Mac or Windows PC and full resources dedicated 100% to Roon Server and nothing else pretty much.
The single box solution is a bit risky (an i7 Mac or PC as Core and Endpoint) - the 2 box solution seems to be more proven for DSD512 up-sampling
1 Like
I just put an SSD in my 2012 mac mini with the quad core i7 and it is easily doing DSD 512 to my ifi microDSD! Sounds good too esp with the ifi set to the āstandard/DSDā not the ābit perfect/PCMā filterā¦on roon i have the āprecise-minimum and 7th order CLANSā selectedā¦still trying diff ones thereā¦endless tweaking! Now with the stability/speed of the SSD I may give HQ player another go! And it is doing this while roon has 2 cores going still analyzing my 73k track library! On the old HDD it couldnt have done this!
Doug
1 Like
Nice Doug. Whatās your endpoint though? Itās not USB from the Mac Mini to the iDSD at DSD512 (or is it!?)
Iām starting to learn from others that a Mac i7 can do the job as a Core but not if it has to handle local playback via USB at the same time as up-sampling to DSD512. Seems like a 2 box solution is the only thing that works reliably unless you can afford a super computer lol
Appreciated
Sorry forgot to mention thatā¦sonore microrendu!
1 Like
Nice, thanks for sharing.
Andrew from Small Green Computer said his i7 Kaby Lake only gets up to around 30% CPU usage for DSD512 upsampling, which means it barely breaks a sweat.
The price of a similarly specāed generic PC build here in Australia is actually more, so his Linux box is a really good value.
Should be future proofā¦ famous last words ay LOL
Just got an iFi iDSD Dac Black Label Edition. Currently doing DSD256 on my Surface Pro 4 but my sonicT i7 Kaby Lake is on the way to do DSD512 
Itās even cheaper than if I were to build the same i7 NUC - and fanless which the NUC is not.
This weekend I was testing the iDSD with the sonicTransporter i5 I got for my old man, and even that was able to do DSD512 reliably ! Processing speed was at around 1.5x.
DSD256 was a walk in the park for the sonicT i5 - the unit barely got warm.
1 Like
While I wait for my i7 to arrive, my Surface Pro 4 i5 has been up-sampling to DSD512 (7th order CLANS, smooth & linear) for an hour now without interruptions, even with processing speed at 1.1x. I know, Iām living life on the edge here LOL
The fan is definitely working. Roon is using 50% CPU usage.
I REALLY like the sound at DSD512 with my iDSD BL 
Well Iām officially properly doing DSD512 with my iDSD Black Label.
Iām using local playback via USB and itās currently doing fast analysis (8 cores) and it refuses to skip a beat.
And the sound? Wow. Itās just too smooth for my earsā¦ 
Iām using the Holo Spring (Level 2) with and Intona cleaner and an SU-1 DDC.
W10 HPZ420: Roon Server>HQPlayer localhost>Ethernet Lan>W10 Mac Mini: HQPlayer NAA reciever>Holo AUDIO ASIO Drivers>USB (Pyst)>Intona>USB(Kitsune Sig Shorty)>SU-1>I2S (Kitsune)>Holo Audio Spring>Sound System.
At DSD 512 with the XTR-2s filter it sounds really veryā¦very good. The server has a small GTX750 for cuda offloading which is enough to help render all the 2s or closed form filters with zero issues.
1 Like
I use an IFI Idsd black
- I-7 5820k / 16GB ram / video card geforce GTX 980
via USB / asio usb regen / windows 8.1 / asio
Upsamplig for DSD512 with HQplayer filters -2s runs fine.
Particularly (here on my system) the Upsamplig using the roon is inferior (in audio quality) to the HQP.
But roonās marriage to HQP is perfect.
1 Like
Agreed Newson 
The iDSD Black Label served me very very well for a long while.
I have one endpoint that uses a windows pc (atom) as a Roon Bridge feeding a Topping D50 and outputting upsampled DSD512 from Roon. Works well. The whole set up for Ā£250.
Sounds very good. (EDIT: at least I thought it did at first. Extended listening and varying music styles have left me far less impressed, especially at higher volumes which sounds poor. I am not sure upscaling to DSD512 or any conversion to DSD is worth it for me. Untouched source seems to sound as good and better when the volume is cranked.)
Core is a high spec W10 PC
Network is Netgear Powerline 1200Mbps (real world 200Mbps) - handles the c50Mbps bandwidth needed with no issues.
1 Like
AURALiC VEGA G2 with LEO clock. Roon core is on SonicTransporter i7 (upgraded 6 core processor - not sure of the model number). The VEGA is both streamer and DAC.
I only use volume leveling and upsample to DSD512. Iāve gone back and forth enabling and disabling the upsampling and enabled seems to have a slight benefit.
I get 2. something X for processing in Roon. I need to see if the parallelizing option needs to be changed.
Stellar sound, by the way.
1 Like
iFi Pro iDSD upsamples to 705K or DSD512/1024. I pass it a stream without any Roon DSP.
1 Like
Hi, this is my first post so if replying to this thread is inappropriate (should I read other stuff first?), please let me know.
This thread caught my interest as Iām just getting back into audio and want tio build an hpc over my xmas break. I have a few hardware options and am wondering which would be the best for roon and being able to do dsd512.
I have available a surface Pro (2017) with i7 and 16GB, a HP Z820 (pair of e5-2609, 32GB, win 10), or an i7-2700k, maybe 2600, 16GB, 5 ssd drives. I was just starting the last one by putting it into an older audio like case I have. Should I continue with that for the hpc orā¦
For dac, I have topping d30, Grace Design sdac, or my marantz sr6012 (not sure how I would use this).
If I should post elsewhere or read more first, let me know.
-mike
Nice. Thatās DSD512 over itās ethernet input right?