Lumin U1 Mini, connected directly to Netgear Orbi with RJ45. Then coax into Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista 21 DAC
Number of Tracks in Library
44,700 tracks
Description of Issue
My DAC is capable of playing tracks with a sample rate up to 24bit 192khz. In Roon I have set Muse to use Sample Rate Conversion ‘For compatibility only’. I have set up the Lumin U1 Mini in Device Setup to have a max sample rate of 192Khz and max bits of 24bit.
My problem is that when I try to play a FLAC track encoded at 24bit 192khz, I do not hear any sound. I have tried turning the sample rate conversion on and off, and cannot hear anything with either setting.
If I change the sample rate conversion to a custom setting and downsample 192Khz tracks to 96Khz, then I can hear audio.
Does it sound like my DAC might be faulty, as I am pretty sure I have configured everything correctly.
According to the manual, the Tri-Vista 21 has separate 96 and 192 indicator lights at the front. What is their status when playing 96 and 192 files, respectively?
Roon’s signal path only shows the signal up to the Lumin. However, the Lumin also has internal resampling. Did you check if its resampling is set to off or if it does something to the signal before sending it on to the DAC? In the Lumin manual, I don’t see an option for upsampling 192 kHz, just downsampling, but if in doubt probably ensure that it is set to off for now:
The 96 and 192 indicator lights are lit up according to the 96/192 selector switch on the rear of the DAC, I have it set to 192 and the 192 indicator light is lit on the front of the unit.
However when I try and play a 192Khz track, the ‘Coaxial’ and ‘Optical’ input LEDs flash alternately, and the ‘Locked’ LED flashes which I think means it cannot lock onto a signal. If I play a 96Khz track then both the ‘Coaxial’ and ‘Locked’ LEDs stays lit and I can hear music.
The Lumin internal re-sampling is set to ‘Off’, so it’s not messing with anything.
Weird. Maybe some odd incompatibility between Lumin and MF at 192? Maybe @wklie can shed some light? I don’t think it’s a Roon issue, either, like @WiWavelength below.
It’s disabled, otherwise it’d show up in the signal path.
So the DAC cannot lock to the signal.
Regardless of the way the DAC documentation is written, I believe this year 2004 DAC is not designed to accept 192kHz. It supports up to 96kHz only. The 192kHz indicator probably indicates its internal upsampling output, not the input.
The reason it cannot accept 192kHz is because it uses a CS8420 upsampler chip (before year 2000) which supports 96kHz only, it’s in the signal path and the user cannot bypass it.
Thanks Peter - that makes total sense. I think the MF marketing team have been creative in the way the DAC documentation has been written!
Ok, I’ll resample everything to 96Khz and leave it at that then.
