Hi Roon Team,
After I have installed my new Nucleus+ within my HiFi gear I have realized some differences to my old configuration which I cannot understand. I hope you can explain or help me.
My old setup: Ronn Server ran on my PC and controlled the music which was basically stored on an internal drive of my Auralic Aries mini. The Aries mini was connected via USB with my Pro-Ject Pre Box RS2, which is capable to play Native DSD 512 files. Pre-Box showed DSD 512 and native transport. Via Roon I was able to set and control these parameters.
My new setup: Now I have by-passed the Auralic Aries mini and the Pro-Ject Pre box RS2 ist connected directly via the newly installed Nucleus+. But now the Nucleus+ is only offering DSD256 via DoP for the Pre Box … ???
For me this can have 2 reasons: Either the Nucleus is not able to correctly identify the parameters of the Pre Box RS2 (or not correctly stored in you database) or the USB port of the Nucleus+ is restricted in some way and cannot give these options…?!
This is the limit for USB Audio Class 2. To get more, special drivers are needed. It looks like there are no drivers for your device or its predecessor. While Pro-Ject includes the “Roon Tested” logo on the product page, it’s not listed on Roon’s partner site or the partner devices matrix (where you can see that the limit for all listed Pro-Ject devices is DSD256). While Roon officials might be able to tell you something about the certification status, I don’t believe that you can get more than DSD256 with your current setup.
DoP requires about twice the bandwidth as native DSD so, if you were OK with getting the max of DSD512 into your DAC, DSD256 will be the max you can get with DoP.
The ports on the Nucleus are not limited, however The Linux Operating system which RoonOS is based on can only support devices dependant on the drivers released into the Linux kernel. If Project have not released a driver for Linux then it won’t advertise it’s full capacity and fall back to USB Audio Class 2 defaults. DSD on Linux is not always supported natively as a result and you are limited to using DoP.
Hi all,
Many thanks for your feedback.
In this case I am asking myself why my former setup with Roon controlling the Aries mini who was streaming the music to the Pro-Ject Pre Box RS2 was able to correctly stream Native DSD up to DSD 512 between the Aries and the Pre-Box ?
Is that perhaps because in this case Roon was connected to the Aries mini Through the network for which there was a proper driver available at Roon side? Or is there not any dedicated driver necessary if the parts are connected via the network ?
Again. It is probably because the overhead of DoP prevents DSD512 in your setup. Does your DAC support DSD1024?
You need hardware and drivers that support native DSD512 for this to work in your setup.
The Mini is taking care of the connection to the DAC not Roon in that case. Likely they built something in to Aries Mini OS to support that higher rate. Sometimes the drivers provided by the Vendor are also incorrect. The Dev of Ropieee often adds DSD support to DACs that normally don’t show support under Linux , there is just something missing in their code that he tweaks.
My RME DAC will only do DoP on Linux but windows your get native DSD.
As the other users have mentioned here, this is a limitation with the Linux Operating System, not the USB port. For Native DSD to work, you must use a driver, and since many companies to not have a driver for Linux DSD, you are limited to DoP playback. DoP still is DSD but in a PCM container.