RopieeeXL NAA doesn't play DSD

Audio Gear Talk RoPieee
1

After successfully testing HQPlayer with direct USB connection from my PC to my DAC (in this case a Chord Mojo2), I wanted to test NAA. So I installed RopieeeXL with NAA and with this setup I cannot play DSD only PCM!

For example:

When the Mojo2 is directly attached to my PC via USB (using ASIO driver), I play a PCM file, output mode is set to SDS(DSM) with upsampling to DSD256 in HQPlayer, it works fine. Both Roon and HQPlayer show that it is playing DSD256 indeed!

I then attach the Mojo2 to the Rpi4 (RopieeeXL in NAA mode), I switch the settings in HQPlayer to use NAA (no other change)… it finds the Mojo2, press play and it goes immediately back to playing PCM using the upsampling settings of PCM (768Khz)… although the output mode setting is still set to SDS(DSD)!

Then I try a DSD64 file, in USB direct mode (ASIO driver), I can either play the file untouched (DSD Direct setting), or upsample it to higher DSD256 (in SDS(DSD) output mode) or PCM 768Khz (in PCM output mode)… all fine. Both Roon and HQplayer show the correct output mode (either DSD256 or PCM 768Khz).

But when I attach the Mojo2 to RopieeeXL/NAA both Roon and HQPlayer show that it is playing PCM 768khz whatever I do with the settings (even with DirectSDM and output mode set to SDS(DSM).

It looks like when using RopieeeXL/NAA everything is going through the PCM upsampler whatever the settings.

Am I missing something?

Note that I am using the last version of RopieeeXL (RoPieeeXL 2022.11.2 (0664)).
HQPlayer is 4.21.0 running on Windows 11 22H2.

2

If your DAC is attached to a device running Linux, that Linux kernel needs to be patched for that specific device or device type in order to do Native DSD. Doesn’t sound like Ropieee has been so patched. You could try other distros (DietPi, etc etc), but, before going through the effort, I would do the research to see if they support native DSD to that specific DAC.

Keep in mind that your Mojo2 doesn’t play native DSD. It can accept it as incoming format, but, will immediately transform it into PCM and then process it to analog sound.

3

Thanks Daniel, you are right, I have another DAC (Topping D90LE), just tried the same and it is working… so the issue is indeed related to the combination of RopieeeXL with the Mojo2. I just picked the wrong DAC to do this test :slight_smile: Not a big deal, I don’t intend to use the Mojo2 for this purpose beyond this test.

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