Marantz LINK 10n signal path shows Enhanced mode with Sound United DSP (ref#WPOHFR)

[ice_man]

Hi! What’s not quite right with Roon?

· None of the above quite fits

None of the above quite fits

· None of these quite match

Tell us what's going on

· Marantz LINK 10n signal path shows Enhanced — "Sound United DSP / Device Sound Mode: Stereo" (HEOS 3.139.173)

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· ubiquiti ethernet

Same issue as the closed MODEL 40n thread ( Marantz MODEL 40n Signal Path Change to Enhanced (ref#NB65KH) [HEOS firmware update] ), confirming it also affects the LINK 10n — so this now spans the full Hi-Fi network line up to the flagship.

Setup: Roon Server on Nucleus Titan (Ethernet), LINK 10n as Roon Ready endpoint over RAAT. No Roon DSP enabled. Local FLAC and TIDAL etc, all affected.

Symptom: signal path changed from Lossless to Enhanced within the July 22 – Aug 5 HEOS rollout window, with “Sound United DSP / Device Sound Mode: Stereo” appearing between the RAAT stage and Output. Firmware confirmed as 3.139.173 via HEOS System Diagnostics.

Additional data point on the Source Direct question from the 40n thread: I run the LINK 10n’s fixed LINE OUT connectors, where per the manual Source Direct doesn’t apply to the output path at all — and the Enhanced label shows regardless. Consistent with this being status reporting from the HEOS module rather than anything in the audio path.

Like the 40n, the LINK 10n exposes no Sound Mode setting anywhere in HEOS or on the unit, so there is no way to change what’s reported.

Request: either whitelist a bare “Stereo” mode on two-channel units as non-enhancing, or take it up with D&M — as it stands, the label makes the signal path display less informative on these devices, and removes the at-a-glance Lossless confirmation that’s one of Roon’s best features.

Screenshot attached.

[peter_richardson]

Confirming on my Link10n the direct path is not reflected - the Sound United DSP info is I believe misleading.

[benjamin]

Hi @ice_man,

Thanks for the detailed report. We were able to pull and review a fresh set of server logs, which let us trace exactly where the “Enhanced” tag is coming from, and I want to be clear about that up front: it’s originating on the LINK 10n itself, not in Roon.

A bit of background on how the signal path works. Roon doesn’t decide on its own that a stage is “Enhanced”, it displays what a Roon Ready endpoint reports back about its own internal processing over RAAT. Roon is not inserting any DSP here; there’s no Roon-side processing anywhere in your path (no volume, headroom, sample-rate conversion, or EQ). What you’re seeing is Roon faithfully rendering what the device tells us about itself.

And here’s what the LINK 10n is telling us during playback, straight from the logs:

{"sub_type":"sound_mode","type":"sound_united","quality":"enhanced","mode":"stereo"},
{"method":"analog_digital","type":"output","quality":"lossless"}

Since the recent HEOS firmware, the unit is reporting an internal “Sound United, Sound Mode: Stereo” stage and self-tagging it as quality: enhanced. That’s the stage you see in the UI as “Sound United DSP → Device Sound Mode: Stereo.” Once any single stage in the chain is marked non-lossless, Roon’s headline for the whole path drops to “Enhanced” and every stage turns purple, which is why it shows on every source, including bit-perfect FLAC where nothing is actually being converted.

So to answer the underlying question directly: this is the device over-reporting a plain passthrough as an enhancing stage. It’s not something in your Roon configuration, and it’s not a DSP you can toggle off, which also matches your finding that the LINK 10n exposes no Sound Mode control.

The important part: your audio is unaffected. The stream leaves your Nucleus bit-perfect and the unit’s output reports as lossless, this is a labeling issue in the signal path, not a change to the sound.

The proper fix belongs on the firmware side: a bare “Stereo” mode with no processing applied should report as lossless (or not emit the stage at all). We’re raising this with the appropriate team, and we’ll separately look at whether Roon should treat a plain Sound United “Stereo” mode as non-enhancing on our end as an interim measure. I’ll keep this thread posted as we make headway.

[ice_man]

Thanks for quick reply. I appreciate it.
It is only since the firmware update.

It does make it confusing as - due to the firmware - it makes everything appear “enhanced” when it should not.

[Rochenstein]

My Model 40n thread linked here was closed but I reached out to Marantz to ask about what the Model 40n was reporting and here’s what they said. Below you can see my message and their response.

In response to benjamin’s post, I’d like it if Roon treats a plain Sound United “Stereo” mode as non-enhancing.

=====

Reference Number: 260801-000336
Subject: MODEL 40n reporting incorrect Sound Mode to Roon after firmware update (3.88.532 to 3.139.173)

Response By E-mail (Dan) (03/08/2026 03.15 PM)

Thank you for your email.

Our engineering team have confirmed the following after seeing your previous communication:

"Yes this was a fix not reported on our end. No change in processing but just a correction in reporting. Since the Model 40n doesn’t have any of this kind of processing, different for instance the AVR range. It will always only ever report “Stereo”

best regards

Marantz customer care

Customer By Service Web (01/08/2026 02.46 PM)

Product: MODEL 40n
Firmware version: 3.139.173

Since the firmware update that rolled out between July 22 and August 5, 2026 (previous version 3.88.532), my MODEL 40n’s signal path in Roon has changed from showing as Lossless to showing as Enhanced, with “Sound United DSP” and “Device Sound Mode: Stereo” appearing as an active processing stage.

Nothing else has changed in my setup. I have confirmed:

No EQ, Sound Mode, or DSP setting exists in the HEOS app for this model
No equivalent setting exists in the on unit menu (checked the full manual: only Digital Filter, Lock Range, Volume Limit, and Low Pass Filter are available under Audio settings)
Source Direct is enabled, which does not affect this
The issue occurs with both local library FLAC files and Qobuz streaming, so it is not source specific

The officially listed changes for this firmware update do not mention anything related to Sound Mode or DSP reporting, so this appears to be an unlisted side effect.

Could you confirm whether this is intentional (the amp now reports a processing stage that was always present but not previously surfaced), or a genuine bug introduced by this update? Since there is no way to adjust Sound Mode on this model through HEOS or the front panel, I have no way to correct this myself if it is unwanted behaviour.

Happy to provide screenshots or further detail if useful.

[ice_man]

Thanks Will.

Sounds like Marantz will not be changing this in firmware for their stereo products

Hence I agree 100% : we need Roon treating a plain Sound United “Stereo” mode as non-enhancing.

(Otherwise we can’t tell when it’s plain Marantz /MMM DAC or some other DSP.)

[peter_richardson]

As both ROON and Sound United (Denon and Marantz) are owned by Harmann, my hope is this will receive appropriate attention, as indicated by Benjamin. It crosses all their ROON ready range as far as I can see from my limited sample of players. A little frustrating that this communication channel seems to not be in place when firmware upgrades are being rolled out to supported devices.

[vadim]

Hello,

Thanks both, and thank you for going directly to Marantz and posting their reply. That is genuinely useful and it clarifies where this sits.

Their answer confirms what the logs show: the Sound Mode reporting changed, the processing did not. What it also confirms is that the device is now declaring a stage as enhancing when, by Marantz’s own account, no processing is taking place.

We want to be straight with you about why we are reluctant to solve this on our side by treating a Sound United “Stereo” mode as lossless. The Signal Path is useful precisely because Roon does not interpret it. Roon shows what each device declares about itself. If we begin overriding that based on the vendor name and the mode label, then the display stops reflecting reality and starts reflecting our assumptions about a particular product line. Should a future model apply bass management or room correction while still calling itself Stereo, Roon would show Lossless and you would have no way of knowing. That would take away exactly the confidence the feature is meant to give you.

We have reported this to our partners team, and they have taken it up with the vendor directly.

In the meantime, your audio is unaffected. The stream leaves your server bit-perfect and the unit reports its output as lossless. We will keep this thread updated.

[peter_richardson]

Thank you. Very helpful.

Peter

[Markus_Menasci]

My AV10 all of a sudden

[ice_man]

Long time roon customer.thanks for honest feedback and following up

The entire selling point of Roon Ready is that things like this do not happen. Roon tested maybe this is ok, but Roon Ready it is not in my view, it removes the ability to have any confidence in the enhanced label at all - without each time clicking on the signal path to see whether it is enhanced or not

People buy expensive equipment marketed as Roon Ready and assume between the OEM vendor and Roon this kind of error does NOT happen.

Please whitelist the stereo only products eg Link10N etc / this stereo mention. It’s easy to see on Marantz product page they are stereo only products - maybe - with the whitelist as the temporary and a firmware or something else as the permanent fix

The issue - it’s the fact it says enhanced and it’s impossible to tell (without clicking on signal path every time) if that is because a DSP has been added or volume leveling et al - or it’s this incorrrct flag and is in fact direct which as u know is just as important in this space.