I have a Pi4 on order without HAT. The goal is to use it as Roon endpoint in my home office, where it would connect to a Denon AVR1600h. The Denon only supports Roon via Airplay (which is why I wanted to use the Pi4) and it does not have USB audio in, only HDMI. Is there a setting in the Pi4 / Ropieee to output the audio via hdmi to my Denon? Or is it automatically detected? Or does this not work at all and I need a USB DAC as well?
RoPieee does not support HDMI out.
Thanks for confirming. Looking at cheap USB dacs now to compliment the RPI4
I have a HiFiberry (XLR version) on a RPi 4 and am happy with the results. They have a few flavors.
Or you could buy a Hifiberry Digi+ and connect using coax or optical to the AVR.
Yes, but unfortunately I already ordered a ‘regular’ RPI4… Buying a new Hifiberry and writing off the rpi4 would cost the same as buying a cheap hi-res dac like the Topping E30…
The Digi+ is a HAT.
I have one on an Rpi 3 that I use for optical into a Mutec.
It’s about the HAT, not the Pi.
So a Hifiberry Digi+ or Allo Digione will do.
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I just ordered the TOPPING E30 2003- version USB DAC AK4493 32bit/768kHz DSD512 which should do the job, combined with the RPI4. Will let you know.
Because your Denon also has a DAC, then depending on how you hook the Topping up to your receiver, you’ll probably be doing two digital-to-analog conversions.
No harm, I guess, just unnecessary.
I know the Denon has a DAC but it has no USB IN and the ethernet connection only supports Roon via Airplay, which means everything gets truncated to 44/16
I tried other apps (Heos, Lumin, etc), which allowed me to play the hi-res files in native res, but they were just too clunky in regular usage (compared to Roon, which updates automatically and shows me the recent updates based on uploaded date).
The topping will get the full-rez signal from the RPI4 and from the Topping, I will connect to the Denon via analog line input.
In that scenario, the Denon dac should not come into play and I get to use Roon at full rez…
I would have gone with a small Windows computer (smaller than a NUC, runs less than 200 bucks including windows, ram and drive) running RoonBridge and HDMI out to the Denon.
Volumio does that. Already in the free edition.
Just as the OP, I’m also looking to connect my Denon to Roon. Would such a mini-pc also enable multichannel output to the Denon? Or is it too underpowered for that?
The small bridge does nothing but pass the signal on so it can be a slower processor;, remember it is running only the bridge component not the full Room package.
As for multi channel I have not tried it.
I’m happily running Volumio on a Pi to drive my Anthem receiver in 5.1
I’m trying that as well on my Pi. However, also with Volumio I’m stuck with 2 channels, max 192kHz, and 16bit. What I would like to see, if possible, is 5.1, 192kHz and 24 bit.
Can you help me out? How did you get 5.1? What Volumio version are you running?
Guys, this thread is in the RoPieee area.
Fine if you want to discuss other options, but then please move this thread somewhere else.
Thanks.
To bring it back to RoPieee 
I saw that about a week ago a change was made in the raspberry pi kernel source to support multichannel on HDMI. Would you consider adding HDMI support to RoPiee?
No problem, it got me too at first. Go into Roon Setup/Audio and find your device. Go into Device Setup, expand Show Advanced and there, third from the bottom, is the Channel Layout. Change it to 5.1 and you’re off to the races.