My friend has a Boss DAC. I see it’s supported / tested. On the Boss DAC there are two analog RCA’s and a USB port. We thought the USB port was just for charging. Is it to make it an audio device on his Mac also?
The USB port is NOT for charging. You need an external power supply to feed the unit. Yes, you can use the USB port for audio but the reason there is a BOSS DAC there is to improve upon the audio SQ of the unit. The USB port on the unit is a Raspberry Pi which itself is inherently noisy. There should be a mini connector on the unit that is used to power it. Also makes the HAT. Check out the instructions on their web site for more information on powering the unit.
Yea… He just told me there are two USB ports. The Pi input power and now it seems audio device for the DAC.
Thanks!
We think there is a jumper you remove to moderate what powers the DAC. I think this means the Pi power will power both and we’ll use the USB port on the DAC for device input. We’ll verify.
Thanks!
You are supposed to use the Ethernet port for the input not USB.
I’m confused. I thought the Boss DAC becomes an audio device via USB and that is presented to Roon as a DAC. This how my USB DAC works on my Hegel Röst. We are currently streaming to the Boss DAC via uPNP from the iOS app mconnect, however, we want to utilize Roon instead. Are you saying the Boss DAC is a network based end point that Roon can access?
You might want to use a different rpi os than what you have…I recommend ropieee.org and suggest you read the setup guide
BOSS DAC = DAC. It’s already a DAC. Suggest you do more research. The Allo web site has lots of great info on their products.
The pi is the endpoint and the DAC is the DAC.
Its my friends… And I haven’t actually seen the entire Pi / BOSS DAC setup. Hindsight after posting initially I found out there are two USB ports. I understand what it is… It’s a DAC. That’s why it’s called a BOSS DAC?! I didn’t explain myself clearly enough initially due to lack of info. What I didn’t initially know is that there are two USB ports with the Pi / BOSS DAC. I’ve never seen the entire setup for it’s not mine. Anyway. After understanding that it has two USB ports I assume the USB on the Pi main board is for power and the USB for the DAC can be used to present to Roon as a USB DAC. That’s how I setup my Roon instance with my Hegel USB DAC. It’s simply an audio device presented to the OS.
So… I assume if we plug the Pi / Boss DAC into a computer running Mac OS the USB DAC drivers are installed to the Mac OS will see it… And then Roon will be good to go…
Now,
IF it’s a supported network end point with Roon then we could simply have Roon detect via its network discovery and see it as a network end point.
Will the USB port on the DAC present itself as a USB DAC to MacOS?
Will one of the available distros / OS’ for the Pi allow for it to be a network end point compatible with Roon? We have used it as a uPNP end point but curious to if it can be a network endpoint for Roon.
It sounds like there is a chance it can be both a USB DAC or a Roon compatible network end point. That would be awesome
@chris_hoerske - the Boss DAC will not be seen as an USB DAC on a Mac (or any other computer for that matter). Don’t connect it’s USB port to the mac. Makes no sense and in the worst case might even damage one of the devices involved.
But when the BOSS / Raspi is connected to the network via ethernet it will be seen as a networked audio device in Roon - if the rigth software is installed on the Raspi where the BOSS DAC sits on.
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I may have said this before. Go to the Allo web site. They make the Boss DAC. There is lots of great info on the product there. Do some research. All of the questions you are asking can be answered there with a bit of reading.
Correct. This should happen with just an ethernet cable between your switch/router and your Boss DAC’s ethernet input (the Pi board).
And this should happen, without the need for a USB cable between Mac and Pi/Boss DAC at all.
The Boss DAC is a networked DAC, not a USB DAC.
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Okay thanks. My friend has been reading about the DAC board and I was mainly focusing on the Roon side. Sounds good… I like it being a Roon network endpoint. That’s a great topology. He’s currently utilizing it via a uPNP target via the mconnect app on the default media player / media server OS, however, using the Roon Core and it as a Roon network endpoint is a much better topology.
Thanks!
Thanks! This is a low cost approach for a Roon network endpoint. Really cool.
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Yep it sure is a nice networked DAC.
Allo have another one which is supposed to be a step up in SQ, the Katana Player. A bit more expensive though.
I saw where one of the main benefits of the better DAC’s was high power for the Pi and low / clean for the DAC. I didn’t notice any of their DACs that would handle complete unfolding of MQA to achieve 24 / 192, however, the Roon decoder to bring it down to 24 / 96 is plenty good in my opinion.
My setup is using the Hegel Röst USB DAC which is far beyond what a Boss DAC can do… But also way more expensive. My friend has very little invested in hisbsetup and his DAC is an actual Roon network endpoint which is slick. Bang for buck this is an impressive solution.
I’m going to recommend the Boss DAC’s to other friends. It seems to be a rock solid and inexpensive solution to use with Roon.
Thanks for your help
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