I’m having an issue when using roon to play via my Benchmark dac 3.
No audio at all…
the software starts playback, tries for 10 or so second and then skips to the next track, tries again, and skips again.
while this is happening the USB input LED on the dac blinks, indicating there is no audio present according to the dac.
short description of setup: MBP 15" retina, I7, 16gb ram, 500gb ssd, running latest macOS (10.13.3) connected via a nice (1 mtr) USB cable to the benchmark dac 3, set in usb 1.1 mode (tried usb 2.0 mode too, same result)
i’ve tried several different files and file types (aiff, flac, wav),different sample rates, all same result.
roon is set to exclusive mode, integer mode, fixed volume, force device to max volume at start playback.
the really strange thing is the Tidal app does work…
any suggestions on how to fix this?
Can you try playing back to the USB 2.0 driver with “exclusive mode” turned off? Obviously this isn’t how you’d ideally want to play back media to your DAC using Roon, however it should give us some insight into where in your playback chain the issue is occurring.
Do you have another Mac or PC in your home that you could run Roon on? This would help us determine wether this is an issue with Roon and the Benchmark DAC 3, or with an environmental variable somewhere on your MBP that is preventing Roon from being able to properly communicate with the Benchmark DAC 3.
But the op said the Tidal app works so am not sure the MBP is the problem?
How annoying with such a beautiful DAC.
My suggestions:
Make sure tidal app is not open at same time as Roon. I have had issues with the two apps conflicting on my iMac
Remove the DAC(disable) from Roon settings completely
Power cycle the DAC and MBP
Unplug DAC and start Roon
If you connect DAC when Roon is open does it appear in Roon as an endpoint?
Not sure if it matters but I don’t have system or coreaudio enabled in Roon.
I tried running Roon on my company Macbook Pro, similar specs, older generation, got the same result.
However, when i switched back to my own MBP, now Tidal no longer works anymore either. Even playing a 44.1/16 bit wav file directly in the finder with the DAC set to system output in Mac OS audio/midi setup will not work…
I’m starting to think this is a Mac OS issue, not a Roon issue…
The strange thing is that in audio/midi setup I can set any sample rate, but it always jumps back to 88.2 after a couple of seconds. (88.2 being the sample rate of the file I first tried to play through Roon.)
Weird right?
I going to try Steve C’s suggestion now, be back in a bit…
Thank you for joining the fray on this issue!
I tried your approach, got some interesting results, but still no audio.
I disabled the Benchmark from Roon settings, did the power cycle on both units and after booting reconnected the DAC to my MBP. it did show up as an endpoint, I set it to fixed volume but not to exclusive mode, now the file does play (i.e. the counter/progress bar runs) so it thinks it is playing audio, however still the blinking LED on the DAC’s usb input, meaning no signal present.
When I then switched the DAC to exclusive mode in Roon, same result as before when I hit play. so it tries to playback, doesn’t succeed, skips ahead to next track, tries again, doesn’t succeed again, and skips again…
In the meantime i’ve tried three different USB cables, including the one supplied with the DAC and three different computers (two MBP’s and a MacBook Air).
The only way i’m getting audio from the DAC is when i’m using the MB Air running spotify…
I’m at a loss here…
Sounds like you have reason to go back to Benchmark on this issue and at least try and get it running even from iTunes. I would think they would have extensive Mac experience given the studio pedigree. Do you have a CCK for you phone or iPad? You could try one of those?
Sounds like it indeed. However, unfortunately benchmark support does have a nine to five job. (so no support on weekends)
I switched back to my old dac, just to check if I was going crazy, and after a couple of reboots that did work.
Switched back to Benchmark, no luck.
Switched Benchmark back from usb audio 2.0 to usb audio 1.1 (although my mac calls that usb audio 1.0), no audio.
In 1.0/1.1 mode the progress bar does run, implying it is playing, but no audio and still a blinking LED on the dac.
In 2.0 mode, no playback at all, just the trying, failing, skipping like reported before.
Starting to get annoyed here… before I start throwing things, let me step outside for some air.
I’ll keep you posted if I figure it out, but plz do keep posting suggestions if you have any!
Hmm running out of ideas. You seem to have narrowed it down to the Benchmark as the problem. I have Windows and Mac so next thing I would be trying is a Windows machine to see if that is the issue.
Is your MAC OS up to date?
Maybe there is a firmware update for the Banchmark.
Hi guys,
went back to my supplier, tested the DAC I bought and compared it to a demo unit (with same firmware). Conclusion: the issue was with that specific unit. They exchanged it for an other unit, and will send the faulty one back to Benchmark. I hope to get feedback what the problem was. next up, reconnecting and hopefully lots of listening fun!
thank you for al your helpful suggestions!
I have the same problem with DAC3 B. Have tried Jriver Id for past six months and now trying a Nucleus and keep getting the same behaviour as detailed in this thread. Is there any update on the issue or is it time to for me to go back to Benchmark?