Core Machine: Roon Nucleus, all latest software and firmware.
DAC: Sennheiser HDV 820 connected via USB to Nucleus, latest firmware.
Remote: Mac with latest Roon version.
Native DSD capabilities of this DAC are not recognized in audio preferences in Roon.
I can only select DSD over PCM (DoP) which only goes up to DSD128 while this DAC can natively handle DSD256.
I do have another DAC, a Marantz NA-11S1 which is also not Roon tested and for this one native DSD is recognized and can be selected in Roon’s audio preferences.
Is there any way to force Roon to recognioze Native DSD for the Sennheiser HDV 820?
Nucleus is Linux based Core and Native DSD is not always possible if the native driver has not been ported over to Linux, we don’t do the driver porting ourselves but rather use a publicly existing DSD driver set. DoP works in a different way in that it sends the DSD over PCM as you noted and this driver is not required.
I can see that the Marantz DACs have been added to the DSD driver set but according to the list, Sennheiser HDV is not part of the set yet and there have not been any new additions for the last year as far as I can tell.
At this time, if you’d like to get Native DSD to be outputted to your Sennheiser DAC it would only be possible by using a non-linux based system such as Windows. Hope this helps.
May I ask where I can find info on which DACs are in the Linux driver det so I can check what DACs to look out for or keep up with new DACs when there are updates to Linux in the future?
Also, on your page of Roon tested devices I see there are a few DACs included. (Only intersted in DACs, not in streamers or others.)
When a DAC appears on your website as Roon tested, what exactly does that mean? Is there a difference between Roon tested and included in the DSD driver set for Linux?
You can find the list of supported Native DSD on Linux device here but do note that this is not a comprehensive list and that this is a 3rd party module, meaning that while it is a good start there may be other DACs not documented there that also work.
As for the difference between Roon Tested and regular dacs, as per our Roon Lab Partners Page:
Roon Tested devices from our partners have been profiled and tested by both Roon Labs and the device manufacturer for maximum compatibility.
Roon will recognize these devices and send them audio optimized for their capabilities.
This means that we have tested this device in-house and and Roon will automatically fill in the supported settings that you see listed for a DAC in the Roon Settings -> Audio -> Cogwheel Icon Next to Zone -> Device Setup page. You can also find a longer list of our Roon Tested Devices in the Partner Devices Matrix Listing.