MCH from Roon to XMC-1

So problem is solved if I check the send stereo to 5.1.

So if that is true - I have to switch this toggle every time I want stereo?

Thanks

George

Flipping the switch between stereo and 5.1 should not be necessary, I think. I know that with my 7.1 channel Denon AVR, I just have Roon set for 7.1 channels all the time, and stereo or 5.1 MCH streams are handled automatically.

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If the switch you mention is “Send stereo/mono content as 7.1” and the Emotiva works better with it on, then I think you could just leave that setting on all the time. According to the Roon KB (https://kb.roonlabs.com/Multichannel), it just fills the extra channels with silence automatically when playing stereo content and would do nothing when playing MCH files.

Sorry I wan’t clear. I have to check that switch to output to stereo in order to play 2.0 tracks and set it back to multichannel with playing 5.1 files.

I’m still somewhat confused. What are your “Channel Layout” and “Send stereo/mono content as 7.1” settings that work for 5.1 tracks? What are the settings that work for 2.0 tracks?

I have an Anthem (instead of Emotiva), but these settings play both 5.1 and 2.0 files automatically for me with no toggling:

  • Channel Layout = 7.1

  • Send stereo/mono content as 7.1 = No

Even though I have no 7.1 music, that was the 1st setting I tried because of a comment in the MCH KB : “If you are using HDMI, you may need to use 7.1 even if you only have 6 speakers–many AV receivers don’t work properly with 5.1.” It worked for me so I didn’t explore any further. If you haven’t tried that combination yet, it might be worth a try.

Well last night I took a step backwards. I was going to try your suggestion Nate - but for some reason the HDMI audio of the laptop only showed stereo output available in lieu of multichannel. I think I’ve been down this road before but I couldn’t remember how I solved it the last time. What a puzzle. Lol.

I have that problem if I keep the computer on, but I turn off the receiver. For whatever reason, the HDMI connection doesn’t get re-established when the receiver is turned back on. So the computer defaults back to its internal audio (which is stereo only.) When I reboot the PC (with the receiver already on), the HDMI reconnects and MCH works again. Not sure if this describes what happened to your system, but the age old advice about computers could be a simple solution to your problem…when in doubt, reboot :grinning:

FYI, this seems to be a general Windows/HDMI issue and not limited to Roon because a Google search found a lot of similar reports from home theater PC users. It seems the permanent fix would be to get an EDID emulator like a HDMI Detective, Dr. HDMI, etc. that tricks the PC into thinking the receiver is always on.

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Swapped over to the Roon Core machine and I seem to have gotten a stable solution.

Interesting I can play multichannel and stereo Flac files and I can play stereo dsd files but it won’t play multichannel dsd files.

I get “transport failed to initialize audio device”

It seems your “DSD Playback Strategy” is OK since DSD stereo plays fine. That makes me wonder if you are maybe encountering a driver issue since the Windows/Intel driver can have issues on certain HW like this NUC: NUC HD Audio issue

The comments from the Intel forum list some possible work-arounds you could try if in fact it is a driver problem:

Hmmm I am somewhat reluctant though not opposed to messing with drivers. Nate you noted in another thread your success with an atom pc. Will that play both Flac and dsd mch through hdmi right out of the box? For $139 it might end all my suffering.

Are you still happy with it?

The Atom PC worked fine* for both FLAC and DSD MCH before I replaced it a few months ago because I got “upgrade-itis” and wanted to be able to try AudioLinux (and I couldn’t get the mini-PC to work with Linux.)

Before you spend unnecessary money, though, ASIO4ALL isn’t really a driver. It’s just a program that you install and allows you to bypass the problematic driver. It’s a free download and only takes a couple minutes to setup and test. We used it to fix the MCH issue on a friend’s NUC and they have been using it successfully ever since. The only potential downside is that ASIO4ALL maps all content to 7.1 regardless of the setting in Roon. But if that wouldn’t be an issue for you, I’d try that before buying something you might not need.

*Note: I never used the mini-PC with that latest Windows 10 update (1809), though, and I read there were potentially some audio issues with it (google “hd audio windows 1809”). I still have it in a drawer somewhere, though, so if you need me to test just let me know. It will just take some time since the updates can take hours.

Thanks I’ll try it tonight.

So good news about the Atom PC. I found this recent post from Roon Support that recommends a Atom-based compute stick for MCH:

Also, I was able to verify my Atom-based mini-PC still plays my 5.1 DSD64 files just fine after re-connecting it and updating to the latest version of Windows 10 (1809):

If you decide to go that route, this is the exact model I have (4GB RAM, 64GB eMMC):

I installed the asio4all and saw it as an audio device on Roon. Could only set it up for stereo. It looked like it was playing but no sound coming out.

I could not find the configuration screen for it.

ASIO4ALL has a simple config screen. It basically just has a list of devices and lets you change the buffer size. The only way I know to access it is by using the symbol in the Windows task bar when it’s active (for example, enable it in Roon):

image

When I just tested it on my laptop, I noticed only the internal speaker (Realtek) was initially active. Like you, I only had stereo.

I clicked the “power” icon next to each device so the HDMI (Intel Display Audio) was active instead like this:

image

With those new ASIO4ALL settings, I had MCH options in Roon:

I also made sure HDMI was the default device just in case in my Windows sound settings (and checked that my sound wasn’t muted):

image

With those quick changes, I was able to play 5.1 DSD64 as you see here:

Hope that helps.

Succes Thankyou!
Now I’ve got to figure out how to get it to work with HQplayer lol.

Subject for another thread.

Thanks again for sticking with me.

One thing I’m curious about. I’m listening to a stereo source but the xmc-1 shows 7.1.i am using reference stereo as the mode on the xmc1. You mentioned that this was standard in the asio4all (even though it is configured for 5.1] does this mean that I’m missing some content somehow?

All that should be happening is that ASIO4ALL maps the channels into 7.1 and fills any extra channels with silence.

You should be able to confirm by checking your signal path in Roon. If you hover your cursor over the “star” next to ASIO4ALL and it says “Lossless” like below, you are not losing any content at that step:

It sounds good but I’m running Roon on my iPad - this is what I get when I choose that star above the output - should be fine.

Yep, you should be fine. It has a purple star (as shown in this KB article: Signal Path) so it should be lossless.

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