Greetings Harry,
I’m resurrecting this thread since I have the same gear and issue as the OP. I’m new to Roon and have my Pi 4b feeding a Topping E70 Velvet via USB. Volume control set to hardware/device. Roon db is on a QNAP NAS.
When the DAC comes online after reboot or standby (your auto-suspend is enabled) and playback first begins, device volume is nearly always at 100% output. Roon’s volume slider sometimes shows 100%, but most often something less with output volume much louder (likely 100% though I can’t say for certain).
If the slider is set less than 100% and is left alone for a short time, volume output will abruptly drop to sync with slider setting. If after playback begins at 100%, I instead immediately click and drag the slider, volume output will immediately sync with slider setting.
I’ve tried forcing the startup volume like you described above. That does set the initial volume slider level shown, but does not solve the initial output level.
Feedback ID 1cbec9fe756fc366.
Thanks for any ideas. It’s manageable if I remember it’s coming, but I’m not the only person who uses the stereo!