I’m not sure I can be concise but I’ll try. When using ARC on my DAP, I can see my Muse settings and have selected the IEMs I’m using, but when playing it shows only “High quality” and the playback device shows “44hp”.
When using ARC on my phone (with an ifi go bar), the quality shows “enhanced” and the go bar as what it’s connected to.
What’s the difference here, am I missing a step to get the DAP to play in higher quality or do I just not understand what “High Quality” means on the DAP? Hope this makes sense, I definitely am still learning!
Your DAP has a limited sample rate and, as a consequence, is downsampling from 192kHz to 48hKz. This is what is causing the display of ‘high quality’ rather than ‘enhanced’.
The DAP is employing the Android audio system which imposes the requirement to resampled to 48kHz.
This will also be apparent on Android phones when used for ARC or used as a Roon Endpoint using the normal Roon App (not ARC).
On some phones you may be able to prevent the downsampling by using a USB connected DAC and enabling the use of the USB Driver in ARC settings. This driver is still marked ‘Beta’ because, although it works for many it is known to have issues with some phone/DAC combinations. The USB driver is not yet available in the Android Roon app so this is strictly limited to 48hKz.
Sorry Wade your incorrect. Daps bypass Android SRC that’s the point of them. They all handle hurst PCM and DSD. The issue is ARC it still believes all Android devices resample and so does it all the time. It’s a software decision Roon made. You can install standard apps for all streaming services and all give hires no resampling even PlexAmp supports the native abilities of the DACs on these devices. This has been ongoing since ARC was released.
OK. But the initial point remains. The ‘High Quality’ vs ‘Enhanced’ is down to the downsampling.
Maybe I should have said that ‘ARC on the DAP’ rather than just ‘The DAP’.
Thank you both. Let me recap my understanding. On my A&K DAP, I can play 192k files and DSD (which I do) using my local files. But if I use ARC on the DAP, the max I can get is 48. That’s disappointing. My usage is heavily skewed to playlists I’ve created in Tidal or Qobuz that I can access through Roon and ARC. With this new understanding, I’d rather just play through my iPhone with a DAC.
I believe you really have to be lucky to find a DAP which is properly supported by ARC, not just “running” it. Knowing that most DAPs run Android just like Smartphones do, circumventing the Android standard audio pipe is also hardware dependent i.e. not every audio player is able to do so without additional software changes. And that’s for sure too much effort for roon to implement. It’s a niche within a niche, unfortunately.
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No argument, but this niche within a niche belongs to just the type of customers that spend to use Roon and Roon ARC.
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Might be. But in total likely too few to justify that much additional effort.
They can just let the app pass it to the OS and not resample as other apps do and they just work fine on these Android DAPs. Only dap I know that doesn’t do system wide SRC bypass an are Sony ones as they only seem to make their own app circumvent SRC . I’ve had DAPs by A&K, iBasso, Hiby and FiiO they all have different os tweak to bypass SRC but the apps are stock Android and they they work just fine and playback bitperfect because the OS can. A&K a bit more limited on Apps they support but most Chinese ones are open. PlexAmp until recently also did resampling but now you have the option to bypass it.
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