Issues with Roon Bridge connected to McIntosh DA2 DAC via USB

Roon Core Machine

Running ROCK Version 1.8 (build 988) stable on a supported NUC model (i7 with 8GB RAM)

Networking Gear & Setup Details

Ubiquiti Unifi network stack (router, switches, AP’s)

Connected Audio Devices

McIntosh C2700 w/ DA2 DAC connected to Raspberry pi 4B via USB

Number of Tracks in Library

~8,000 tracks in library

Description of Issue

I have an issue playing music with my McIntosh C2700 Preamp. Everything was working fine until a couple of months ago when both ROCK and Ropieee has software updates.

I have my Roon Server running on an Intel NUC (ROCK) streaming to a Ropieee endpoint running on a Raspi 4B via WiFi. The Ropieee is connected to the C2700 via USB. I had this setup running fine with no issues for a couple of months, then things stopped working after some software updates. I applied the ROCK and Ropieee updates around the same time, so not sure which might have triggered it.

I can see the Ropieee in my Roon client and select the McIntosh as the target zone. When I select a track to play, it starts to load and then stops abruptly (no audio, but I can see the track info load on a configured display).

I see the following in the Roon Server logs:

07/20 17:47:26 Info: [roonpi2] [zoneplayer] Starting playback
07/20 17:47:26 Trace: [roonpi2] [zoneplayer/raat] StartStream Sooloos.Broker.Transport.RaatZonePlayer+Endpoint: StreamFormat(channels=2, bitspersample=16, samplerate=44100, isdts=False) => StreamFormat(channels=2, bitspersample=16, samplerate=44100, isdts=False) streamid=1577686041
07/20 17:47:26 Trace: [McIntosh] [raatclient] SENT [12]{"request":"setup","format":{"sample_type":"pcm","sample_rate":44100,"bits_per_sample":16,"channels":2,"sample_subtype":"none"}}
07/20 17:47:26 Info: [zone roonpi2] OnPlayFeedback Playing
07/20 17:47:26 Trace: [roonpi2] [Inactive] [PLAYING @ 0:00] For The Best - Hodera
07/20 17:47:26 Trace: [prebuffer] ready 149940/441000 (34%) @ 0/227 sec
07/20 17:47:26 Trace: [McIntosh] [raatclient] GOT [12] {"status":"UnexpectedError","message":"RAAT__OUTPUT_PLUGIN_STATUS_FORMAT_NOT_SUPPORTED"}
07/20 17:47:26 Warn: [roonpi2] [zoneplayer/raat] failed to setup any endpoints..giving up

@spockfish Has done some investigation from the Ropieee side of things and hasn’t found anything so far.

Things work fine if I connect another DAC to the same Ropieee endpoint. I’ve also setup another Ropieee endpoint with a fresh install and the same thing happens. Has something changed with the “Roon Tested” classification of the McinTosh C2700/DA2?

Hello @phenixblue ,

If you try to temporarily bypass the Ropiee and connect the C2700 directly to your ROCK Core, do you notice the same issue occurs without the Ropieee in the mix? Have you tried to re-flash the Ropieee software yet, and if so, was there any change?

My Roon Core is nowhere near my C2700 unfortunately. I have reflagged the Ropieee, same results. Have also tried to reflash to older Ropieee firmware with no luck.

Hey @phenixblue,

Ben here stepping in for Noris, we’re not able to connect to your core to enable diagnostics and pull logs to review your issue. If possible, please use the directions found here and send over a set of logs to our File Uploader?

That way, our team can take a closer look into what might be going on :+1:

Thanks!

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@benjamin I have uploaded the logs from my Roon Core. Please let me know if you need anything else.

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Thank you @phenixblue, we are reviewing your logs and will follow up with next steps shortly :pray:

@phenixblue after investigating the logs in more depth, we were able to find that:

A) Roon attempted to start playback to the audio device @ 16bits/44.1kHz.
B) The audio device said “I don’t support that”

This is rather odd, because 16bits/44.1kHz is CD quality, it’s a very common audio format. The device also explicitly told us it supported this format in the latest roonserver log.

This means that something is getting into a bad state in-between the RPi and the DAC. You can either:

A) bypass the Ropieee
B) try to use Roon’s DSP engine to resample everything to Max PCM rate (this could further help confirm if it’s some sample rate switch)
C) reach out to McIntosh about this (B could be a good workaround while you get ahold of them)

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