RAAT signal path in Roon 1.4[Answered]

Support
1

This has happened with the iOs device, the android device, and a Dragonfly Red plugged directly into the Mac core. The signal goes from lossless at the top and drops to green at “output OS mixer.” What can I do to eliminate that?

Thx for the help!

2

Hi,

Please take a look at the format of the track.
Please post a signal path screenshot here.

Also, you need to try and set the output device in exclusive mode (at least with Dragonfly).

Regards,
Michael

3

I think there are two explanations (which are related).

A) Roon does not consider the volume implementation in iOS/OS X to be high quality
B) once the signal leaves Roon and hits the audio mixer of the operating system, Roon cannot guarantee that the os isn’t doing something funny with sample rate conversion, etc.

A solution may be to reconfigure your audio device (Settings —>Audio—>Device Setup) to use roon’s volume control (called DSP in the volume settings configuration) or perhaps device controls. Exclusive mode may also be required as the previous poster suggested.

4

@JWC is on the right track. I dug into this yesterday, and here’s what I came up with:

5

Thanks guys!

6

So, I made sure the Dragonfly’s firmware was updated and in exclusive mode and then went from here, as copied from above.

"That’s not the way I normally use either of my DragonFly’s, but I plugged my DragonFly Black directly into my iMac, and with exclusive mode enabled, I could get a bit-perfect signal path if, in the General tab of Device Setup, I set the Volume Control Mode to “Use Device Controls”. Somewhat counterintuitively, this control mode will let you control the volume from Roon or a Roon remote while maintaining “bit-perfectness.”

However, after I did this, I’m still getting two “high quality” lights in the signal path, the DSP volume at -9 db and the OS mixer. I understand the volume thing, but isn’t the whole point of Roon is that I’m bypassing Apples OS mixer? How do I remove that from the equation?

Thanks in advance!

7

Perhaps it’s time to flag down @support

8

Totally–how do I go about doing that?

9

Hi Matthew,

Jim already alerted support.

Did you enable Exclusive Mode? Settings > Audio, click on gears icon next to the DAC and select Device Setup. Exclusive Mode should be under the Playback tab.

Can you post a screenshot of the Playback tab and Signal Path?

Cheers, Greg

1 Like
10

Hi @Matthew_Partrick ----- Thank you for the report! I wanted to touch base with you to see if any new observations or progress has been with the advice given by other users in this thread. Let me know.

If further assistance is required, may I kindly ask you to provide the information requested in @Greg’s post above.

-Eric

11

Sorry to slack off on the follow up so bad! I had to pick up a bunch of shifts bc one of the other ER doc’s wife got sick. I will try it tonight and get back to you.

THx
Matthew

12

Pretty sure you need to enable Exclusive Mode, and the Volume Control Mode needs to be “Use Device Controls” (not “DSP Volume”), as posted previously.

As noted in the other thread, please be careful to keep the volume down when you’re testing this configuration, since this setup can add a lot of gain.