Roon and the W4S Recovery Behavior

Greetings,
Installed a W4S Recovery today between my Mac Mini and iFi Micro DSD DAC…it replaced an UpTone Regen. IMO it sounds much better than the Regen. However I noticed that now when I am streaming Tidal or non 24 bit files I see a diff color in signal path (green not purplish lossless color) showing the Recovery converting from 16 to 24 bit. I never saw the same change with the Regen. I was under the impression they did the same? I have also noticed this disappearring on some Tidal streams and showing the purplish lossless color as if the Recovery wasnt working? (I wouldnt think I would get sound in that case). Turning the ifi or Recovery on/off brings back the green color! Is this a problem or a software bug or prob c my DAC or the Recovery? See attached screenshot.
Thanks
Doug

If you put the Regen back in the mix does it work correctly again?

It does in the sense that the sound is better than DAC alone but the Recovery still sounds way better? I only get the screenshot i uploaded with the Recovery not with the Regen. Just curious if anyone else sees this with the Regen or Recovery or if it is unique to my set-up?? Since IMO the sound is improved am not sure I care about the color changes but just seems odd/interesting…
Thanks
Doug

Hello Douglas,
I have been a Wyred4Sound customer since 2011. I started with the Regen when it first arrived. And when EJ Sarmento released the W4S Recovery USB Reclocker, after comparing the Recovery to the Regen, the Recovery was preferred greatly over the Regen.
I believe you are not correct when you relate that the Recovery converts 16 to 24 Bits. That is NOT the function of the Recovery. If you visit the Wyred4Sound website and review what the Recovery does accomplish, you will read the following:
"What is the Recovery?
The Recovery is an affordable, compact audio device that intercepts the USB signal between the DAC and computer to do two critical things:

  1. Isolate and provide cleaner power
  2. Supply a much more precisely clocked source for the USB encoded data.
    This “pre-conditioning” of the USB signal provides the DAC a much cleaner, truer signal resulting in noticeably improved audio fidelity.
    Converting the signal’s bit size is not one of the functions. And EJ Sarmento can confirm this. I use the Recovery with my W4S Dac2 DSDse and W4S STP-SE Stage 2 Preamp. The Recovery is a marvelous device inserted between Dac and Source, and unlike the Regen which in my experience (but not everyone’s) made the SQ much brighter and caused listening fatigue. I experienced none of that with the Recovery. And have extensively reviewed the Recovery over at ComputerAudiophile.com when I was active as a member at the Forum. In fact the Recovery was so good I removed the AudioQuest JitterBugs I had employed to try to counteract the Regen’s unsatisfactory influence on the SQ. The AQJB’s actually helped. But with the Recovery, less is more, so I removed them and have never returned them to my 2Channel system. Not everyone experiences the Regen as I described. But I did, hence my remarks consistent with that experience. And I concur with you, regardless of the color you are observing, the SQ is improved with the addition of the Recovery. roon and the Recovery work so well together.
    Enjoy the music,
    Richard

Hi Richard!
Thanks for taking the time to respond. It was your writing on computer audiophile that got me interested in purchasing the recovery in the first place. It really does seem to be significantly better than the Regen. Since you have both ROON and a Recovery does your screenshot of the signal chain look like mine (see my initial post). Or do I need to continue to fiddle with the Recovery to get rid of that green 16 to 24 bit conversion section? I didn’t used to see with the Regen or with the DAC by itself.
Thanks
Doug

Dear Douglas,
In an effort to help out, I opened Tidal (HIFI) and found the selection you played with the results you inquired about to the roon community. Please find the screen capture of took playing the very same piece through roon, TIDAL HIFI.

As you can perceive, I have a different result. Not sure for the reasons. But I am making the screenshot available to you for your view. I am happy to respond to any specific questions that might be helpful, rather, than keep commenting.

Hope this serves you well.

Best,
Richard

Dear Douglas,
It occurred to me you might then ask, what is Richard employing. Just in case I anticipated you correctly, here is the following pathway for my system: Mac Mini 2011 (Thunderbolt edition) to Curious Cable Loom, i.e., 0.8M to Recovery to 200mm Curious Cable to W4S Dac2 DSDse to W4S STP-SE Stage 2 to W4S SX1000 X2 to KEF Reference 107/JL Audio F112 X2. All cables are Nordost Heimdall 2 except Blue Heaven 3M power cable/IC to Subwoofer. roon edition is the latest. TIDAL HIFI. El Capitan the latest build. I employ Promise Pegasus Thunderbolt 2 18TB R6 Raid 5 where my music library is stored. DSD is enabled in roon. No conversions. No up-sampling enabled, i.e. via HQPlayer but when I do employ HQPlayer I do sometimes. That’s pretty much to whole enchilada (smile). Hope this helps.

The music’s the thing; the equipment seduces,
Richard

Thanks to all for your help! I played around with connections tonight and I still see the same screenshot on all Tidal and non-24 bit content. I tried using a usb cable instead of directly plugging the Recovery into iFi Micro using the iFi supplied dongle and it still gives me the same screenshot but I do think it actually sounds better! So now its MacMini to jitterbug to Audioquest Cinnamon USB to Recovery to Oyanide USB to iFi Micro. The iFi must be doing something to cause this? Either way it sounds better than the Regen which got a 2nd life today improving my desktop setup at work! I was surprised to see it improve an iphone to lighting to USB to Jitterbug to Regen to Dragonfly Red to audioquest forrest RCA to Audioengine A5+ on isoacoutics stands…even my non-Audiophile Fellows and residents who came for my A-B blinded demo could tell the diff! Just shows how crappy the stream out the iphone lightning to USB dongle must be!
Anyways I am satisfied at this point and will leave it be since the sound is great!
Thanks
Doug