I am unable to successfully play DSF files (DSD64, DSD128, or DSD256) from Room using the USB DAC built-in to my Parasound Halo integrated amp, which is connected to my Sonore microRendu, which Soon accesses using RoonReady. It appears in Roon that the DSF file is playing, but I hear nothing (or very faint white noise) only. However, PCM files play without problems in the same setup. And when I play a DSF file with crossfade set to something other than 0 secs, thus forcing DSD to PCM conversion, the DSD file plays just fine.
When I connect the microRendu to my LHLabs Pulse DAC (with the DAC’s analog output going to the same Parasound amp), I can play and hear the DSF files just fine with crossfade set to 0 secs.
Of note, I have no problem playing DSF files through the microRendu–Parasound DAC/amp combination using DLNA output from JRMC.
Any suggestions? Thank you.
My setup is:
music files located on Synology NAS DS413+, mounted as volumes on a dedicated Mac Mini
Mac Mini running Roon as the server, SSD, core i5 processor
MacMini connected to Ethernet through a Cisco gigabit smartswitch, then to Sonore microRendu via Ethernet through a DLink gigabit switch.
microRendu connected to Parasound Halo integrated amp/DAC through USB
Above problems happen whether I use the MacMini Roon as the control, or use another Mac on the network or my iPhone as the Roon controller.
Your Parasound Halo integrated amp probably support DSD/DoP. The microRendu supports native DSD with the LH Labs Geek Pulse X DAC. As such the setup for each is different. For DoP support follow the configurations from this post:
The Halo’s DAC supports both native DSD and DSD/DoP. When the microRendu RoonReady setting is set to DoP, signal path shows a lossless chain but I hear nothing / white noise. When I change the RoonReady setting to native DSD, I get sound – but signal path shows that DSD is being converted to PCM.
–I did verify all the settings from the post you mentioned
–I did press the maximize volume button
–above did not change anything, still cannot get DSD to play audibly unless I adjust settings in Roon so it is being converted to PCM
–I connected the Parasound via USB directly (no microRendu), and essentially the same problem: native DSD is not listed as an option, convert to PCM plays fine, but DoP appears to be playing in Roon but does not make audible sound.
It would be great to have microRendu support for native DSD with this DAC. But it appears that the problem is with Roon rather than the microRendu as far as getting DSD to play properly (even over DoP).
Base on the information you provided native DSD will not work on your DAC with Linux. This is because your DAC does not support the format required. This means that you will have to use DoP. In these cases DOP is usually limited to DSD64 and DSD128.
In order to get DoP playback with Roon / RoonReady you need a bit prefect stream. It could be a global setting or a specific setting to the microRendu/RoonReady output in Roon. Look for things like crossfade/normalization and turn them off.