I’ve had a Cambridge Audio DAC100 connected to Ropieee by USB for about 3 years now and it’s been great. It covers my 2nd most frequently used zone and is in almost daily use with no issues… until the last fortnight or so, when every now and then a new track suddenly sounds like I’m listening to analogue modem squelch. I’m not sure what the cause is, but I suspect that it’s 24 bit tracks not negotiating properly. If I hit pause and wait a few seconds and hit play again it generally goes back to normal. On a related note, I’ve seen Roon reporting 24bit 96kHz at the same time as the DAC is showing 192kHz which reinforces the negotiation issue with Roon/Ropieee but what’s weird is that I saw this when it was broken, but then when I paused and resumed it fixed itself while still showing this inconsistency. What should I do to investigate?
Key points are:
RoPieee 2026.04.1 (3549) [STABLE]
Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.4
Cambridge Audio DAC100 USB 2 (also have another USB DAC attached, and always have)
mjw
(Father! Father! Resist not! Let us destroy the core! Set us free!)
2
To be clear, is Roon reporting 96 kHz in the Signal Path, or on the album page? The latter is based on metadata whereas the former is the actual sample rate.
Sharing a screenshot of the Signal Path and release page would be helpful. Likewise, please confirm the device settings, including volume settings.
My raspberry pi4 Also died after about 3 years. First the usb input would give me audible high frequency noise . And later it didn’t recognize PCM anymore and played only DSD with noise .
Signal path. The below photo and screenshot were taken while sounding like static, but as I said after pausing and resuming it sounded fine, but still showed the same 192kHz on the DAC.
mjw
(Father! Father! Resist not! Let us destroy the core! Set us free!)
5
Well, first and foremost, the DAC isn’t receiving any signalling from ROON because it is using S/PDIF. Moreover, because this interface maxes out at 192 kHz, this could be the reason you’re hearing noise.
I doubt the DAC or ROON are at fault and would first try a USB connection, and then focus on the coaxial cable or adapted.
FWIW, I have an Allo DigiONE, which I use with a CD transport, and prefer USB with my primary DAC.
Is the name that you are seeing creating the assumption he is using S/PDIF? His DAC clearly shows the USB icon lit, and he reports that as well in his OP…
mjw
(Father! Father! Resist not! Let us destroy the core! Set us free!)
7
I missed that! . But, clearly Roon is sending the signal to a USB to S/PDIF adapter. So, it would seem that the wrong source is selected on the DAC or we are looking at the wrong signal path.
Sigh. Thank you both for calling out key things I’d missed. I’d already mentioned I have another USB DAC attached and as mjw has pointed out, the DAC in use is the SPDIF adapter, a cheap USB DAC that moves the “true" analag conversion to my Denon Amp.
Both DACs are on the same ropieee and output to the same Denon and I clearly forgot which zone went where. When the issue occurs again I will photograph the correct denon sync frequency (not the dacmagic) but now that I realise it’s the cheap usb spdif I’m much more inclined to blame a failing component.
ok, the issues is continuing, and I just had it on a completely separate endpoint with a different DAC (but also USB and also 24bit track). I’m starting to wonder if a recent Ropieee patch has introduced something?
@spockfish is the expert but when I was using RoPieee and a USB DAC , if I recall there was an issue with Linux on some DAC’s . It’s ages ago but the DAC would have been AudioLab M-DAC or a CA CXN (V1)
I ultimately bought Allo Digione to give m an SPIF output which fixed the issue. I’ll see if I can find the thread but it is VERY old
Yup, I’ll send tonight/tomorrow as soon as it next happens. I do 80% of my Ropieee listening on the endpoint with the IQaudio HAT so the USB endpoints are not as heavily used, but this is a new problem with no change to the hardware involved in the last 2 years. Which doesn’t mean it’s ropieee (or Roon for that matter) but it’s definitely a new problem and it’s odd that it’s now happening across more than one endpoint.
Just generated feedback on the bedroom endpoint. 9ea97caf0138545a
I hit shuffle on a playlist, and after 10 seconds or so of a song playing properly I skipped to the next track. 5th track was 96kHz 24bit and broke, I hit feedback while it was still playing “broken”.
Fyi, the bedroom is running the beta (RoPieee 2026.04 (3540) [BETA]) but as mentioned I first noticed this on a different endpoint which is running stable and the issue existed in 2026.04 as well as 2026.04.1.
@spockfish I’ve done some more testing of the problematic tracks and it seems they are playing ok on both the Cambridge Audio DACmagic100 (via USB) and the IQaudio (via HAT). But they are consistently breaking on the USB SPDIF DAC and on the Ugreen CM720 DAC (both on different ropieee endpoints). Neither of these USB DACs are “great quality” but they used to work fine (and the CM720 was specifically chosen for its 24bit hi-frequency support).
Given it’s only occurring on tracks with both higher bitrate and higher frequency, could it be something to do with the driver and/or USB 2? You didn’t see anything in the logs about using the Ugreen CM720 as USB 1 or something like that?
Hey Harry, yes will do. I assume as a bin I’ll need to pull the card and reimage? (Which is fine, but harder on some of my endpoints than others, will just affect which one I test first )
. But, clearly Roon is sending the signal to a USB to S/PDIF adapter. So, it would seem that the wrong source is selected on the DAC or we are looking at the wrong signal path.
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