Signal path button is quite revealing!

Support
1

I picked my most “hi-res” file and then read the signal path which says:

ALAC 192 kHz
Sample rate conversion 192 kHz to 44.1
Truncate 24 bit to 16 bit
Airport express

This is controlled by Roon 1.2 on an iPad going through a MicroRendu to my DAC.

Is this shenanigans about sample rate conversion and truncation a setting on the software? I’m sorry for the potentially stupid question but I am just now learning Roon, having been on iTunes since before the flood, with a short audirvana detour.

Thanks in advance.

2

This looks like the signal path to an airport express and is what you would expect for that at AirPlay does not support hires files.

3

Airport does not support high res.

4

Are you running AirPlay mode on the uRendu for a specific reason? If not it’s the last mode you’d want - it should be running RoonReady. The signal chain will look a lot more to your liking after that!

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5

I am not 100% sure, but I think using “airplay” mode vs using airport express as a wireless network router and using roon-ready as an output are different.

Another supposition: If airplay doesn’t support hi-res, then why would another wireless router do so? Am I misunderstanding that it’s still digital at that point right?

Thx in advance.

6

I spoke with Apple support today and they confirmed Airport Express does not support hi-res. What wifi hardware are people using these days?

Thx
Matthew

7

I’m using an Asus RT-AC68U, works very well.

8

Matthew, I’m really confused. You must surely be connecting to your microRendu via wired Ethernet?

I’m not an airport express user, but isn’t it just an apple branded wifi router? Roon supports highres, and the only real limitation is that of the network (wifi or wired) bandwidth. AirPlay doesn’t support highres period - whatever brand router you use, even wired Ethernet. So using the rendu in AirPlay mode will always be restricted. Perhaps you can expand on your setup, but I would put your microRendu into RoonReady mode and just see what formats can play reliably - the airport in the chain shouldn’t ‘stop’ highres Per-se. It’s just Roon data and the airpor doesn’t know it’s music.

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9

Hi Matthew,

Agree with Steve. Have you tried Roon Ready mode on the mR ?

10

Yes, the microrendu is hardwired into the back of the airport express, and of course hardwired via usb into the back of the DAC. But the airport express here seems to be the rate limiting step. I definitely used the microrendu GUI to use Roon ready, not using airplay.

11

Airport express is a router it isn’t going bitrate limit an udp stream to the microrendu in roon mode.

12

So: using an airport express as a router and not as airplay are two different things, correct?

13

Correct. If the microRendu is in Roon mode it should show up as seperate end point unrelated to any airplay devices.

14

That would suggest that airport express to ethernet to microrendu then usb to DAC is hi-res, and the wireless portion from my Time Capsule to the airport express isn’t “airplay,” but hotspot via wifi to extender all lossless, correct?

Thx

15

Your microRendu should show up in your Roon remote as a roonready device. Sounds like you are trying to do a bridge between your time capsule and airport express but it might not be configured quite right.

16

Yes, the microrendu showed up on the GUI as a roonready device. At this point I think the signal path is TimeCapsule–wireless–>airport express----ethernet—>microrendu—USB—>DAC. I haven’t activated airplay as far as I know.

17

You are missing your Roon Server from your path. Roon streams the music from the Time Capsule to the Roon Server first, the server THEN sends the singal to the end point. So, how is the music getting from the Time Capsule to the Roon Server and then from the Roon Server to the endpoint.

18

The Roon server is the MacBook Air, which used the TimeCapsule as NAS. Sorry I wasn’t clear on that.

19

Is Core Audio on the Mac Book Air configured for hi res output ? Is exclusive mode selected for the relevant zone in Settings/Audio ?

20

I do not know. By “Core Audio” do you mean the Roon app? I haven’t messed around with exclusive mode yet, but will do so when I get home tonight. Is that a setting that you can do for each zone?

In case it’s isn’t abundantly clear, I’ve just begun to scratch the surface with learning Roon. Yesterday was spent mostly consolidating all my music files in the same folder, making sure their metadata was all hunky-dory (still a BIG work in progress) and backing them up x2 with external drives.