I am a new user.Soon downloaded and tried Roon Server and then fall in love with it.Finaly i bought it.
I have a QNAP TS 470 NAS in my system,runing Roon Server.
I connect one of the usb ports of Qnap to dCS U-Clock (which is connected to the Puccini Player/Dac).
In the Audio Settings menu of Roon i see that it recognises as a dCS Debussy Dac
My first question is:
Should i contact dCS support to test that particular device, or Roon labs itself would do it.
Since my Puccini Dac is not Roon ready device,what benefits i loose of.
Puccini is DSD capable and reads 24bit/192khz.
When you playback to this device via Roon does it work? It sounds like Roon is improperly recognizing the ID information that the U-Clock sends over and therefore thinks that itâs a Debussy. In reality there shouldnât be an issue here as thereâs no real difference as far as Roon is concerned.
Set the maximum sample rate to 192k and use DSD over PCM for the DSD playback strategy (donât use the âinitial dCS methodâ). Make sure that you have the S/PDIF output of the U-Clock connected to the correct input on the Puccini and it should just work.
Hi Andrew,
Thank you for your response.I appreciated.
Yes it works nice from the first moment of installation.Roon is recognizing U-Clock + Puccini as Paganini DAC.So that i had manually selected from the list Debussy DAC.
If they say that there is no importance whether ID shows Paganini or Debussy and no sound quality sacrifies ,then no problem.I only wanted to notice that.
In the Roon website i donât see my dCS Puccini under the ââRoon tested DACâsââ.
Should I understand that ââIf DAC worksââ then it means it is allready Roon tested?
I am using the Qnap as all in one Roon Core and RAAT player.Regarding the sound quality do i need to buy a separate player to house and play directly Roon?
.
Thank you in advance for your valuable advice.
Plenty of DACSâs work with Roon that have not been officially tested and classed as Roon tested. It takes time and the manufactures wanting to get Roon tested status I imagine. I would not worry about it. If it works it works.
I discovered absolutely by chance that my dCS Puccini SACD/DAC+U-Clock set being recognized by Roon.
dCS produces very high-end DACâs ,SACD players, master clockâs etc.And vast majority passed Roon Ready or Roon Tested.From my experience i know that dCS use about the same Ring DAC technology
in all their DACâs.
Opened that topic so that anyone who uses the same dCS stack like me to not have difficulty.
Iâve played for two years now using a dCS Puccini SACD player. Initially through various incarnations of RPi + SPDIF interfaces and later using a Scarlatti clock with USB input and an Allo USBridge setup.
The latter is comparable to your setup (the Scarlatti clock replacing the U-Clock).
In this kind of setup there is no real Roon-compatibility or âtestedâ issue. The Clock + DAC just behave like a generic USB dac. If it wouldnât work this would not be related to Roon but rather to the device connecting to the USB port (e.g. a QNAP NAS, RPi or Sparky board).
Hi Andrew,
Thank you so much for supporting this forum.
Iâd like to restart this chain as (a) there was no definitive conclusion; and (b) a lot of us, including me, love our DCS Puccini and purchased the U-Clock specifically for streaming and computer audio functionality.
This is my (albeit limited) understanding of the current situation:
(1) At present Roon still states that the DCS Puccini is not Roon-tested or Roon-ready;
(2) At present Roon recognizes the Puccini incorrectly as Paganini
(3) DCS has recently pushed a software update for Rossini and Vivaldi and other products to increase Roon functionality, but not yet for Puccini
A few questions please:
(1) Can DCS get the Puccini/U-Clock ready and optimized for Roon?
(2) What steps is DCS taking to complete (1) and timeframe please?
(3) In your opinion what is the best way to connect Roon to the Puccini today, e.g., QNAP + USB, per @Tuncer_Yilmaz above, or other?
USB DACs need to be Roon Tested to ensure proper compatibility. Both USB DACs Iâve used with my Roon system have been unusable due to interactions between Roon and the DAC. I had to sell my much-loved Sony TA-ZH1ES because the Nucleus which was directly connected to it would crash when switching between 16/44 CD and DSD files.
My Topping USB DAC is having/causing similar issues when used with my Roon Ready Pro-Ject Stream Box S2 Ultra. Looking to replace the Topping with a Roon Tested Pro-ject DAC. Iâm hoping this should eliminate the issue.
Not a dCS-specific point here, but donât assume any old USB DAC will work without testing it first.
@Woo
Iâve also been playing with many other USB DACs on many different hosts like various RPi, macbooks, NUC and a Sparky board. The key issue is that the host hardware you connect it to (be it a Stream Box, a RPi, Sparky, Macbook, etcâŚ) needs to be able to work with it. Any audio system (can be USB, a HAT, PCI board or even FW) that is recognised by the host is accessible to Roon that runs on that host as well.
You are right, one should not assume any old USB DAC will work, but this is not so much caused by Roon as it is caused by the fact that the host OS+hardware should be compatible.
First of all: not being Roon-tested or Roon-ready doesnât mean you canât use it with Roon. Yes, you will have some inconveniences of a Puccini incorrectly being identified as a Paganini or the fact that you cannot use the Puccini volume control.
I would not expect DCS to invest in a 2 generations old product like Puccini to optimize it for Roon. But who am I to speak on their behalfâŚ
With regard to your question 3:
Any stable hardware that runs Roon and can connect to the uClock USB will be an option.
I would personally not connect the uClock to a QNAP NAS because 1.) it is mechanically noisy (you donât want that in your listening room) and 2.) the USB connections are electrically noisy.
I would much rather recommend to use a Nucleus (although Iâm not sure it is compatible with the uClock) or an Innuos (I only have tested this with the Scarlatti USB). Or, of you are a bit of a DIY person like me, use a Sparky + USBridge. This last option was the best sounding in my system and worked with both the uClock and the Scarlatti Clock.
Iâve upgraded to a Rossini Player in the meanwhile and have full Roon integration in one box now. Still, for the sake of this discussion, Iâve connected the Rossini to my USBridge and it worked perfectly fine as well. But I realise that this scenario is not relevant for you.
@Albert_Jochems
Thank you for the welcome and the detailed reply! : )
Also, I still consider myself in the novice category with respect to pure digital, so pls forgive any basic/ill-informed questions.
By background my very simple system is:
Puccini + U-clock + Jadis DA88S + SF Guarneri Homage
On this statement, and your recommendation of the Nucleus:
since I have the U clock isnât USB my only option (Nucleus, NAS or otherwise)?
The nucleus runs on an SSD but has no storage (unless I am missing something) and so you still need a NAS which can also be fully SSD so arenât we just dealing with a matter of one or two devices:
Please do not forget that dCS U-Clock is at the same time hi grade clock that minimizes jitter and distortion throughout the signal path.No matter wheter the source is a pc or nas.Plus USB input of the U-Clock is Asynchronous ,meaning that data transfer is being syncronised by both sides (source to target).
My Qnap is in noise isolated and ventilated enclosure and connected to U-Clock via an Audioquest diamond pure silver usb cable.
The other option you have is to use a streamer into the USB input, effectively making the U-Clock Roon Ready. For example thereâs the family of Sonore Renduâs (microRendu for example). And this can also be done over wifi, which is a great and simple solution. For wifi streaming youâd have to look at the equivalent solution from SoTM (I think).
This frankly is the cheapest and best (IMO) option as it effectively makes it irrelevant what computer/system youâre running Roon Core on. You could have an ugly but powerful box in a closet with gobs of storage for little money. Consider for example:
You can add a 2.5" drive inside, or an external USB drive. If inside, you should go with SSD, which effectively makes the solution expensive (a 4TB SSD is ~$500).
Unrelated:
Does anyone else find it odd that all of the Roon literature recommends at least an i5 or i7 processor and 8GB of RAM, but the base Nucleus (not Nucleus +) is running i3 and 4GB of RAM. Just sayinââŚ
@richard_keiser
I might not have been entirely correct in my wording.
You are right, you best use the U Clockâs USB input. It is a very high quality interface and the Puccini benefits from the increased quality Word Clock as well.
What I meant was: I would not directly connect the QNAP NAS to it with a USB connection. I would install the NAS in a separate place and let it run Roon Server. And I would use another device as a Roon Endpoint to connect to the USB input on the U Clock.
I can actually refrain from the word âwouldâ because I have actually done exactly this. Except for the fact that I had a Scarlatti Clock (with USB input).
So:
QNAP NAS running Roon server > network > USBridge as Roon Endpoint > USB on Scarlatti > Puccini player.
In place of the USBridge I have experimented with a NUC, a Innuos Zen, a Macbook and a Raspberry Pi.
The Innuos Zen was a very good sounding and stable solution but not better than the USBridge audio wise. And considering the massive price difference, this was the prefered option for me.
The USBridge requires a bit of DIY mentality so I would not recommend this to someone looking for a plug-and-play solution.