Roon Multichannel endpoint

Audio Gear Talk
1

My apologies as I know this has been asked many times before. But I am not very sophisticated in these matters and can’t seem to dechiper the responses. So let me try tom ask in the most straightforward way I can.

I love Roon and am a lifetime subscriber. I have an 10 TB hard drove that is connected to my iMac that hisses my Roon core. I play music to different rooms to my house through Roon endpoints with ethernet connections.

My hard drive as a number of DSD 5.0 channel files. (mostly DSD64). I would live to play these files by purchasing a Mullti channel receiver that is Roon ready, connected to my network by an ethernet cable and will decode DSD files (5.0 multichannel) (without PCM conversion) in the same manner that my other Roon ready endpoints (a Mola Mola Tambaqui and a Bluesound Node) will decode and play DSD 2 channel files.

I hope that was clear. Is there any such receiver available? Thanks

3

Not really. There is only the Onkyo receiver that will be Roon Ready sometime soonish, but, I have no clue how it handles DSD, not to mention multichannel.

The cheapest option is to get a small Windows computer and attach it to the A/V receiver via HDMI.

Or, get an Exasound S88 Roon Ready MultiChannel DAC.

4

I think that “receiver” in this sense just means a receiver of network audio, i.e. streamer. Not an actual AVR. Jack will have to clarify.

AJ

5

In that case my suggestion of an Exasound S88 is in line.

6

Thanks this is very helpful. By “receiver” I did intend an AVR that I would connect to Roon via ethernet in a less than “state of the art” home theatre that would also enable me to play some DSD 5.0 files). But I see that no currently available AVR does what I want. I will keep an eye out for future developments, including by Onkyo.

I can see how the Exasound S88 would work well if I bought some amps, but it is expensive and I’m not ready to build a “state of the art” style multichannel channel system right now. Most of my listening is in stereo on a near “state of the art” two channel system with a Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC (which is roon ready and sounds fantastic to me) and Wilson Alexia 2 speakers.

7

I connected my NUC ROCK bridge to Denon X-4800H through HDMI, and it was outputting MCH perfectally.

2 Likes
8

I’m using for multichannel a mini pc with Rock on it (HMDI out), an exaSound e68 together with a mini pc with Windows (analogue out) and an Eversolo DMP-A6 (HDMI out).
If you’re a using an AVR with an active bass management btw. active DSP, it’s worthless to send DSD, because latest the AVR will decode to PCM.
The Eversolo DMP-A6 is the only known Roon ready device, which can send multichannel DSD native through HDMI, but it’s limited to 5.1 and DSD64.
ExaSound is able to handle eight channels and DSD256 (multichannel)/DSD512 (stereo). It’s DAC implementation is IMHO superior to all AVRs, but you’ll need something with an analogue multichannel in, which is not easy to find in new models.

9

Native DSD Mch?

10

Unfortunately, if the OP insists on DSD without any PCM conversion, this will not work because PC HDMI output will not support DSD.

Sure.

11

I thought it did with the appropriate ASIO drivers, but, OK, thanks for the correction

The DMP-A6 is said to send DSD via HDMI, have you tested it?

12

I would also be very interested to know whether the Eversolo DMP-A6 outputs Multichannel DSD through its HDMI output.

13

No but it is certainly possible as evidenced by the ability of disc players to do it.

14

Now that there is the Onkyo TX-RZ70 is Roon Ready, do we know what it will do with a multichannel stream via ethernet/Roon RAAT?

15

I would ask onkyo tech suppprt directly for an authoritive answer.