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· Nucleus One
I'm having trouble with my Nucleus hardware
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· The Nucleus boots up and I can connect to it in the Roon app without issue, but I have a question about configuration/storage/attached devices
Describe the issue
Nucleus one to matrix element s network bridge to Pontus 15 Dac Athena preamp Denafrips Thallo amp. I had issues with Nucleus one which I sorted but I can't play DSD Native now only dsd over dop. The native option has disappeared .any ideas ? Regards Roger
Hey @Roger_Schofield,
Thanks for the details on your setup, that helps a lot. Good news first: your Matrix element S is working perfectly and hasn’t lost any capability. It’s still reporting full native DSD support (up to DSD256) to your Nucleus, right through to your most recent session. So nothing is broken at the hardware level, this is just a settings issue we can get sorted.
When you were resolving the earlier Nucleus problem, a couple of things on the zone changed, and that’s what’s hiding Native from you. Two things to check:
1. Make sure you’re setting up the right output.
In Roon, go to Settings → Audio and open the device called “Matrix element S” (the Roon Ready one) not “Nucleus One HDMI Output.” The Nucleus’s own onboard output only supports DoP, so if that’s the one you’re looking at, Native will never appear. On the element S itself, open Device Setup and you should see Native in the DSD Playback Strategy list, select it there.
2. Turn off DSP that forces a conversion.
Your zone currently has several DSP features switched on, Crossfeed, Speaker Setup, Convolution, and Sample Rate Conversion. Any of these requires Roon to convert DSD to PCM before playing, which prevents native DSD output entirely (it’s why your DSD files have been playing back as 16/44 PCM). To get true native DSD, switch those off for this zone.
Once you’ve selected Native on the element S and disabled that DSP, play a DSD track and tap the signal-path light, it should read “DSD256” all the way through rather than converting to PCM.
One note: DSD512 files will still be converted, since the element S tops out at native DSD256. That part is expected.
Give that a try and let me know how it goes. 