Unfortunately, that didn’t work for me. I’ve tried actually all of the firmware versions. None of them did any difference for my system. So, my best guess is that Apple is doing something wrong with USBs.
Fortunately, now I have the DAC attached to a NUC with Linux and everything is magic 
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I think it is their audio drivers, core audio, and there are complicated midi settings in the newer operating sistems from apple. Ventura is hell compared to older ones.
It used be Microsoft, but nowadays Apple is the one we love to hate 
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I’ve bought my iFi Zen Dac V2 a few weeks ago, and it’s my first DAC.
Before this iFi I was using 2 USB sound cards (Audiotrak Prodigy Cube 24/96 Black Edition and a Terratec Aureon 7.1 USB). Both worked mostly fine with Roon and Audirvana Studio. Except for the Audiotrak which went stuttering while playing anything at 96 kHz or higher. So I had to limit the output to 48 kHz to get it to play properly.
So that’s why I’ve ordered the iFi. As a decently priced replacement. And in general I’m very happy with it. Now I can listen to 96 kHz and 192 kHz Qobuz and Tidal without hiccups. And it supports MQA as well.
I did however run into the same stuttering as you guys described. Both with Roon and with Audirvana Studio. Unplugged the iFi and plugged it back in, and until now it plays stutter free. This was after updating the firmware to I believe 7.4b. I’ve also tried 7.3b but didn’t notice any difference. So back to the most recent release. I didn’t use the original firmware that came with the iFi for that long, but it didn’t stutter back then the few times I tried MQA.
I’ll keep track of it. My iFi is connected to my M1 MacBook Pro running macOS Ventura, and draws its power from the Hyperdrive 9-in-1 USB Hub adapter it is connected with.
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Congrats on your new dac… I was very happy with ZD2 (was my first dac also). Only I had wish a remote and no mqa shuttering. Hope you are on something with the firmwares. If it becomes annoying just pass the mqa job to the Roon Core or get a bridge (pi, Zen Stream, etc)
Enjoy
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Yet, the most surprising thing about this is that either iFi or Roon admit the issue. Not even to put the blame on Apple. Well, I think I said that before, still believe it, maybe that’s why the device is not marked as Roon Tested. And is quite strange why iFI is not after the certification for such a nice DAC. But maybe there’s a reason after all…
Btw, I do recall, when I got the DAC attached to a docking station to the macbook pro, I could workaround the issue for a little while by changing USB ports or disconnecting the whole docking from macbook and power.
I have to say, I’ve never experienced any issue with MQA playback through Tidal macos app.
So the most valuable lesson I learnt is that Apple + Roon + iFi is not a good combo unfortunately.
Did you update to the “c” version? I tried all three of the 7.4 and only the “c” was the one that fixed my MQA stuttering. I have an iMac and the Zen Dac v2 has been working perfect for me since then!
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Yes, I’ve evaluated all of the firmware releases. Wasted lots of time testing the firmwares. At the end, you have to take a step back and think, why do they have to release three different flavors of each firmware release, one of them cutting out the MQA decoding. Why should I even bother debug these to solve an issue that their support claim to not be able to reproduce?
My best guess is that the issue lies in a software+hardware combo. And part of it I believe is Apple.
So, I decided to take that factor out of the equation and now I have a robust Roon Core (used to be a Synology DS720+, now is a NUC), a decent DAC attached on it, and finally peace of mind not having to disable any setting in Roon or living my life hating a file format that makes some people rich 
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looks like that is allover the market now. I have a friend software developer for networking hardware. He told me, everybody does this, release the hardware not with full tested or completed software than give small updates to keep them happy.
I also think that. As long as I stay in the apple ecosystem it is all working. Kind of a way to keep you using only apple hardware.
I bought one 1 week ago. Got RAM and SSD nv2 upgrades but not made by Synology. The idea is the same, I’ll not get support by using not compatible upgrades (at 25% of Synology price)
Looking at my Roon Core installed on a Mac mini (1 year old now) I now think that I should have bought a nuc… Next time 
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The DS720+ is a great machine. Ι’ve got 10GB total RAM and 1GB SSD read/write cache. Had Roon and Plex server running most of the time without issues. Also, tinkered it a bit and put the Roon & Plex DBs on an USB SSD disk to boost a little more the performance. Worked really well.
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Thanks… I’ll have to try plex. For the moment 720+ it is having one pool for time machine & roon backup and another pool for Synology Drive to keep in sync home folders for 5 comps. It is mostly sitting doing nothing but in time I’ll discover things
Seems like we have a similar configuration. I also have my Roon Core in my Synology NAS 920+, and an iMac with a ZenDac v2. Question, does your DAC sometimes disconnect when starting a new song? Mine sometimes goes “failed to initiate device” as the Dac just disappears from the Zone list (I guess it disconnects), and like 5 seconds after it appears again. Not always, but it’s annoying when it does. I was thinking if it’s related that the music is located remotely in my NAS (but my iMac is ethernet connected, so i dont know).
Hey @anton7k,
It’s been about a month since I moved my Roon Core from DS720+ to a NUC. But, I’ve never experienced the issue you describe.
FYI, my DSM installation was based on Crieke’s package (tried also the docker based installation without issues too). Ethernet connections here too. I’ve tested my WiFi too, no issues at all again. My router is an Asus RT AX88U with custom firmware from AsusWRT-Merlin. I do have changed many of my DSM settings but I can’t think of something that would affect a USB device on another PC.
Do you have any other windows or linux based PC to test the DAC? Have you tried to change the macOS energy saving settings? Also, on macOS toggle-off the WiFi. Even on ethernet, even with network connections prioritized for ethernet, macOS for some reason will prefer the WiFi.
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I don’t unfortunately, but it never gave me any issues before Roon. With Audirvana’s exclusive mode, it was very solid and never disconnected, same with TIDAL, but they were reading files either locally/stream.
Yeah, there’s an option in Network settings where you can re-arrange which network has priority, I have it set on Ethernet.
What I’m thinking is that when I stop playing something for longer than just a pause, the DAC immediately gets disconnected from the exclusive mode and is back as OS’ default audio (because if I play something else, it will sound through the DAC right away), so I guess the MacOS is kinda fighting to get priority over the audio outputs (even though I have it set to default internal speakers). Audirvana had the DAC locked all the time until I manually disconnected it, and any other audio would go through the internal speakers. Perhaps Roon can add such option?
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I’ve heard people saying this about Mac. Now it does not happen to me but I only use the Mac mini Ventura headless and only for roon, and I have stripped down the osx whenever I could. A week ago someone had these problems and I did test on my old iMac with Catalina, Roon had the dac on exclusive so while roon was playing I could not select from osx the dac as system output. When roon was paused I could select playing osx thru the dac but I soon as I hit play again in roon the osx stops itself and roon it is taking again the dac. All automated. Now in Ventura, another story. When roon wants back the dac everything freezes, roon and sistem audio and I have to restart the computer.
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Ohhh didn’t know other people had the same issue with Mac! And omg yes… Sometimes I have the same issue when the audio MIDI drive just freezes when switching between audio devices, and the only thing I can do is to force-reboot the computer… What I’ve done to prevent that is to “consciously” close the app that can be specifically using the DAC (Roon, etc…) and launch whatever file (audio/video) I want to play. Otherwise, the audio window from the menu bar have the icon wheel spinning forever. Thank you!!
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Yes that it is annoying to “consciously” close the app that can be specifically using the DAC but it is preventing the restart. Now on my Mac mini Ventura I do not mind the restart but on the old iMac… I can make a coffee for you too while it restarts.
For me it was just as the story went, bought an m1 Mac mini, than waited 2 month for the ram upgrade. In-between I’ve got a new MBP from my job, in-between I switched from tidal on Yamaha to roon. So I did end up with the mini just for roon. But next time it will be a nuc. Also since I do oversample now, and after a dac upgrade probably I’ll get HQ player it annoys me that Mac does not play native DSD just DSD DoP.
You are welcome
Is there a difference between native DSD and DoP if it still unpacks the original DSD signal? I have an iFi Dac that can decode DSD and it has played fine so far. I tried the HQPlayer and the upsampling does do wonders and the sound is much better, it just bothers me that I have to have an extra app opened to listen to music, oh and having to choose among all these filters lol.
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I do not know for myself yet the difference. Some people say it is some people say there is not. But I would like to have the option to try. With Mac you do have only DoP.
Yes an extra app, but there are those who have an extra computer just for HQ player I also have tried HQ player and liked, and my zen stream can be in NAA mode so slowly I move in that direction. Probably after getting a dac to be settled with.
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