Nucleus and Multichannel ouput via HDMI issue

Support Nucleus Support
22

Nucleus or Nucleus+? Neither is a powerhouse but I would not recommend the base Nucleus for hi-rez multichannel.

23

Iā€™m using the Nucleus, not +.
Do you think the Nucleus+ will sound better or is the difference negligible?

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24

??? I do not appreciate the nature of the ā€œdistorted/harshā€ sound you have, so I cannot say whether it will make a difference. However, if neither is stressed, they will not be different.

So, can you monitor the system processing speed in Roonā€™s SignalPath pop-up window? If the speed is below 2.0 when you hear the hash and above when you do not, it is an indication that the CPU in the Nucleus is not up to the task.

25

Processing speed when playing DVD-A WAV multichannel music files is 11.8 and I donā€™t think the system is stressed at all.

I have a friend with Nucleus+ who only own a 2.1 sound system, if he play the same file as me out from the HDMI, processing speed on his Nucleus+ is 12.0, no difference if you ask me.

I donā€™t know how many hours I have spent on this, but Iā€™m done playing multichannel music from the Nucleus. The seller never informed me that the Nucleus have sound quality issue when playing multichannel music.

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26

Hi @mitr what Roon Core are you using to play multichannel from Roon over HDMI?

27

I am using MacMini but it is inadequate and will be replaced shortly. I have not yet done it because it will be in the context of other changes in that system which, probably, will result in HDMI no longer being used for Roon. This is not my main system.

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28

I am surprised.

29

Inadequate due to Roon performance issues? Can you share details.

And what model Mac Mini?

Just to help others with maybe what to avoid when looking for a Roon Core outputting MC over HDMI

I did read about your Nucleus+ issues

30

This doesnā€™t answer your question about what not to use.

But re what does work: Iā€™ve been using a NUC8i7 for multi channel WAV/DSD over HDMI (including DSP) and have been very happy with it and have had no problems.

EDIT: The WAV is all 48/24 or 96/24 and the DSD is all DSD64.

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31

Is that with an AV Receiver? Which model?

32

Marantz prepro AV7704.

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33

Is that ROCK running on NUC? Or Win10?

34

I cannot answer those questions since that system is in CT and I am in NYC now. It is quite old, i5-based mini running BootCamp and Win10.

OTOH, I do not believe that any of this has anything to do with HDMI but with the workload of running Roon with hi-rez multichannel.

35

Sorry, I should have indicated that ā€“ itā€™s ROCK.

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36

Think I lost track here, what is the issue? Processing Speed with MC over HDMI with an under powered server?

I use a NUC8I7BEH/ROCK and had to to check my processing speed after reading some of this thread. Havenā€™t noticed that displayed receintly. I just had the NUC HDMI to receiver zone playing FLAC 24/192 6 ch, ethernet to dac zone playing DSD 256 6 CH and one other zone playing 2 ch 24/192. Not getting any processor speed indicator which I believe means the processor speed is over 100x and not displayed. Or it is not working.

Is there really that much difference between the processing power of the NUC8I7BEH and the Nucleus? Or is it the use of DSP that drags them down?

37

Yup. Yup. Yup. (Padding added.)

38

I see now what the DSD conversion to PCD does to the processing speed. Playing DSD 64 6 channel over HDMI, converted to PCM then down sampled shows processing speed of 3.5ā€¦ Playing DSD 256 6 channel converted to PCM then down sampled shows processing speed of 1.1. Didnā€™t take time to listen for issues, just wanted to see the processing speed indicated. That does place a huge load on the processor.

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39

Iā€™m still waiting for an official statement from Roon Labs regarding the multichannel playback issues that Iā€™ve reported here. There is over two months ago since the last response :roll_eyes:

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40

Hello @regeli,

We apologize for the lack of communication on our end. These kinds of issues are often the hardest to pin down as they involve unique files, hardware, and QA testing spanning multiple internal teams at Roon. This isnā€™t to excuse our performance here, but I wanted to let you know that this issue is still under investigation.

We have not received other reports of broken multichannel playback on Nucleus or Roon in the same manner that you describe, so Iā€™m hesitant to point the finger at a hardware limitation that affects all Nucleus units.

Iā€™ve bumped the priority on this ticket and hope to get back to you shortly with some next steps.

-John

41

With a circa 2018 Microsoft Surface tablet (fanless i5 without heroic cooling), I had problems with dropouts, particularly at the beginning of a song, when trying to down sample 5.1 DSD64 to 5.1 176.4/24 PCM. I also had channel mapping issues: even though itā€™s a 5.1 system, the surround channels were getting sent to (nominally) the rear channels of a 7.1 layout. The channel mapping was easy enough to overcome. I had to experiment with multiple mini-DisplayPort to HDMI adapters, and upgrade the Intel HDMI audio driver (Windows) to make things sort of work.

However, when it worked, it sounded just fine. I eventually gave in and acquired an exaSound multichannel DAC that plays DSD just fine, and has been very stable, as it should be for the price.

Good luck!