Roon reporting 2 different DACs at one step under their rated DSD capability

Audio Gear Talk
1

I have an Oppo Sonica … Capable based of specs to DSD512 via USB … Roon only lets it run up to DSD256 (not even listing 512) and yes exclusive mode is on. should it not show 512?

Likewise I am testing a Soekris R2R DAC that is spec’d up to DSD256 but Roon is reporting Green only to 128 and RED for 256 It also will only allow up sample to 128

Anyone else have a Soekris Engineering R2R based DAC? This one is using the Amanero board for usb input. This is a locally designed DAC here in Singapore by a friend of mine - more info here

2

According to @brian, Roon doesn’t yet support DSD 512. See this thread.

Not sure about the issue with your other DAC, beyond my pay grade, I’m a PCM only guy thus far. Cheers!

3

I’m fully aware it won’t upsample to dsd but it still should support a DAC that is capable of native DSD512 as the OPPO Sonica can achieve. At least that’s my understanding.

4

Roon displays the bitrates that the device’s driver reports it is capable of playing – it appears that the Soekris or its driver is underreporting (or that Roon cannot get the correct values). How is it connected – and to which OS?

AFAIK – at the moment Roon does up to DSD256 for playback. Which seems OK for now – where would one go to buy DSD512 tracks?

5

Hi,

OPPO DAC’s support highest DSD only with native mode, IE with ASIO drivers under Windows. Under Linux it is supported only if kernel knows the device, same thing was with HA-1 and HA-2 DAC’s. I believe that native DSD is unsupported under macOS.

Best regards,
Maciek

6

Gee thats a bit of a bummer…I’m using on Mac OS Roon Bridge for now. I will try the Sonica on WIndows 10 Pro Core machine. The Soekris R2R DAC is also on a Mac OS setup - which I will also migrate to the core later.

The ideal is Roon upsample to DSD512 when its ready but perhaps in the interim or finally it could be HQPlayer but I have yet to test that.

7

If you using Windows+Roon, it requires a manufacturer ASIO driver so it can do natively at DSD256 and DSD512. I’ve a Holo Spring R2R DAC, if I use exclusive mode, Roon highlighted DSD256 in red, but if I choose Holo Spring USB ASIO driver, DSD256 is highlighted in green. So I use Holo Spring USB ASIO driver for all my playback in Roon.

If you are using MAC+Roon, you will probably able to do up to DSD128 DoP, anything higher like DSD256 in DoP will depends on the USB input chipset… the XMOS U8 used in Holo Spring can support up to DSD128 in DoP, while newer chipset like XMOS X200U can do DSD256 in DoP. Sending DSD256 in DoP can be problematic as not many DACs out there can support PCM transport stream of 705.6/768k.

8

I was really hoping to keep usb dacs off my core, and on the mini’s where windows is not installed of course. Might have to rethink this then.

Is linux any better in this regard?

9

You can always ask OPPO for a driver for macOS.

As for Linux, I don’t know really. I tried it some time ago with HA-2. I’ll try later today connect HA-2 to DietPI and I’ll let you know. But HA-2 support only DSD256 in native (128 in DoP), not 512.

Best regards,
Maciek

10

Looks like support for native DSD in Linux is quite limited, you can check out the comments made by Brian.

11

I finally have 2 DSD256 setups - running side by side on Windows 10Pro USB ASIO drivers, but while one is also capable of DSD512 I am not sure how to get that recognised somehow.

Maybe JRiver will get me there at least to prove a point for the Sonica at least

The VinShine R2R DAC (DSD256 max) is performing nicely, with upsampling crossing at 1.1X without any hiccups - I can even manage 2 streams upsampling 44.1/16 FLAC simultaneously on the i5-6500 but thats the max…even running a remote desktop or performance monitor will cause dropouts and jumps to the next track…i7-6700K here we come I think, or perhaps HQPLayer will get me there - normally would not be using more than 1 stream at upsampling but if I ever get to 512 might just need it.

12

For now, Roon uses one core per zone for upsampling, so that makes sense.

Depending on which filters and modulators you prefer – yes, you will need one. You may also want to check out @andybob’s new beast…

13
14

For HQPlayer, DSD512 upsampling does huge hits even to top end i7s. That is why many add in an NVIDIA graphics card to offload some of the processing. However, that means a full machine, not a NUC.

15

There is an i7 Brix that comes with an Nvidia card but obviously it is a bigger enclosure though not full sized. It is also expensive.

16

The heat in that still smallish enclosure, but, it is the mobile version of the Nvidia card. My Nvidia card idles at 38c and hits 80c when doing heavy processing.