Is Roon tested really a benefit?

Audio Gear Talk
1

Hey,
I’m using Roon on a Mac mini 2012 and just recently bought a topping d70s dac which feeds into a unison research unico nuovo.
Now I see in Roon this dac is not “supported”.
I have a few questions
1 is Roon currently working to get this dac line tested?
2 what’s the best setup for this dac in Roon?
3 is “Roon tested” really that much of a benefit for your system?

The sound by the way is AWESOME!! I know that’s what it’s all about but still…
I first had an arcam rPac. Real small, but very good for the time. Gonna use that one for my squeezebox setup.

Thanks for your replies. Looking forward to it.

2

It’s not Roon’s responsibility to test or certify devices; the manufacturer needs to initiate the process.

It not essential for a DAC. Roon Tested DACs are recognised and setup by Roon with optimal settings and line art. Roon also have the DAC so can provide better support.

3

Thanks. I did not know that the supplier had to do that. Thought Roon would do that.

Remains question 2. I’m pretty new to Roon, how do i get the best or is Roon that dummy proof…:wink:
Thanks.

4

If I where you I would spend some time on the Roon Knowledge Base.

https://help.roonlabs.com/portal/en/kb/roon-labs-llc/getting-started

1 Like
5

#2 depends on the DACs capabilities. Often Roon will detect these if they are advertised.

If you share your device settings we can take a look for you.

6

Roon Tested for DACs is not necessary and usually provides no more of an advantage than having an icon in Roon some automatic settings for that DAC (Like what the max sample rate it can handle is). The settings can all be manually configured though. I have used 5 different DACs with Roon, only one of which is Roon Tested. There are many Roon users all using different DACs with no issues. So, Roon is pretty dummy proof in that regards :laughing:
In terms of settings, there really is no universal best. Most of the settings are for compatibility, like if the DAC does MQA, or what it’s max sample rate is, but there are usually automatically set by the DAC when using USB anyways, so you don’t have to worry about them.

Edit: perfect answer right below :arrow_down:

7

If you connect the D70 via USB and it reports its capabilities on this interface to Roon, setup is automatic.

If you connect via coax, optical or AES, you must configure the device in Roon - PCM max 192/24.

None of the DACs I use are Roon-tested, and there is no problem in confguring the device in Roon’s setup. All work well.

Edit: Forgot to mention MQA… If you listen to MQA, you would connect the D70 via USB and you have the choice to configure in Roon the device as decoder+renderer, or let Roon do the decoding and setup the device as renderer, only.

2 Likes
8

Thanks, i noticed that. It is indeed pretty dummyproof…
I have a tidal masters subscription, whatever i try, i do not get MQA. Highest is 44.1/16bit. This is quite frustrating.
The settings of my dac are as follows:
Exclusive mode on.
DSD=> DoP 1.0
MQAsupport=> decoder and renderer
Fixed volume
Resync 0 ms
Max sample rate 768 kHz
Max bitrate 32
DSD256
Active MQA core decoder
Integer mode=on
Only channel mapping

9

Thanks! I put them down below.

1 Like
10

I don’t have experience with your DAC, so the only thing that occurs to me is configuring your DAC in Roon as MQA renderer only, letting Roon doing the unfolding. The other thing you could try is to set up max bitrate as 24. All this is obviously for a USB-connected DAC. If you connect it via S/PDIF or AES, there’s no MQA support and max sample rate is 192.