Making sure Roon is using my external DAC

[mjw (Here I am with a brain the size of a planet and they ask me to pick up a piece of paper. Call that job satisfaction? I don't.)]

@Traian_Boldea

it was my impression that system output just uses the audio card selected on the system settings of the os. So same CoreAudio Driver but just is named System Output

This is not the situation. Roon doesn’t have exclusive control of the DAC, and the signal can be altered by the OS mixer. This shouldn’t be used unless, for example, you want to hear system notifications.

Difference between Built-in output and system output?[Answered]

To expand on the answer above a little bit: System Output is going to make Roon’s output function like any other application – audio is sent to the OSX mixer, where it’s mixed with other sources (Youtube, system sounds, etc). In many cases, the audio will be resampled during this process, so this mode is more about convenience than critical listening. For example, if you switch your default output from the Macbook’s speakers to a bluetooth device, Roon’s output will go with it, because it’s si…