Nucleus One with simple toslink USB out is not working

Roon Software Discussion Nucleus
1

Hey all,

I’m new to the Nucleus but I’m a sys admin and have been using Roon for awhile. I know it is not ideal to run the audio off the server but in this case my Bose Soundbar 700 drops out after about 2 minutes of music. I hardwired it to the network to try to account for any wifi latency but still have the issue so my thought was to use TOSLINK and a USB on/off switch to be able to still use my TV with HDMI-ARC.

The Nucleus oddly sees two USB Optical outputs in Roon so I enable both of them and don’t hear audio.

The device is a Cubilux USB A to TOSLINK Optical Audio Adapter. I have a Chord Mojo2 off the other USB port and turn that on and use it with headphones and that works well, what am I doing wrong with this other device? Is this Cubilux maybe not actually a DAC so I need a DAC+optical?

2

I have a feeling this may be a driver issue?
The site for this says it’s Windows and MAC compatible but no mention of Linux.
image

It also has some disclaimers:
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And, your answer is that it is not a DAC. Just a USB A to TOSLINK Optical Audio Adapter.

3

Ah appreciate it. Guess back to the drawing board or I’ll get the hacky Raspberry Pi with a DAC hat with toslink and Volumio to push the audio but wanted to do it a bit more native to Roon. I guess I could wipe that and run RAAT on it. Or maybe there is a some sort of DAC to optical that works well for Roon.

4

Oops I got excited because I saw the optical on the Mojo2 but it’s an input.

Also oops on asking if this device were a DAC, obviously it’s digital to digital.

5

Is there a Roon recommended device that would work from the Nucleus One to optical? The part I’m missing is what drivers might be in the software since I don’t have access to the full Linux system to install drivers.

6

Maybe it would be easier to adapt the HDMI-Arc?

7

The way I do it is with a Raspberry Pi4 with a HiFiBerry digi+ pro running RoPieee.
Then I can have my Nuc/Rock (essentially the same as a Nucleus) anywhere in the network.
As long as the RPi is on the same subnet it works.

I have ended up with three RPis around the house, optically, coax, or BNC connected and two connected via USB to DACs.

Here is the “new” version of the digi2 Pro:
https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/boards/hifiberry-digi2-pro/

8

Nucleus don’t support ARC so of no use.

9

I’ve gone partially down this road. I have a HiFi Berry DAC+ I think but was using Volumio and that wasn’t ideal since it is Airplay. I found a Bluesound Node Nano for $100 off that I’m trying out but the soundbar is a bit odd with the TV and the ARC trying to take control of the audio.

I also am trying RoPieee on two headphone streamers I made because I literally just learned about RoPieee. I have two Pis and I just took off my Hifi Berry hat and put on another HiFi DAC Pro Hat from Innomaker because it has a good ESS chip. Was using Volumio because I was trying to also maybe use Audirvana sometimes but now that I know about RoPieee I’m going to reflash these images.