Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1
The Core sits in the Mac hard drive. Plug into the sound system with HDMI cable.
Hadn’t had this problem in the past. I go to the Roon Audio preferences, see the System Output, but it doesn’t enable. Tried resetting several times, made sure the VPN is turned off, but it won’t load the System output.
It could be that some other program has exclusive access to System Output preventing Roon from enabling it.
What does that mean? I would reboot the server first, if that is not what you meant by “resetting”. Also, posting a pic of Settings/Audio might help give a visual and let support staff get clues from the other audio endpoints.
Rugby, Thanks for your response. The server (or Core) sits on my hard drive. You can see that there’s a red Enabling… that’s not connecting. If you have any suggestions, I’d appreciate it. I’ve rebooting my computer. I’ve ensured the VPN was turned off. The system plays through all other channels, but the System Output, which I use when I’m working in my office. Thanks, Bill
The device “Bills Computer” is also the same computer. Is there a reason you don’t use it? Try disabling Bill’s Computer and then enabling System Output.
Both, are local outputs, however, CoreAudio is exclusive access which mean single program access allowing higher res quality; System Output means the audio is not exclusive and probably down-mixed down by MacOS to a lower resolution.
Really appreciate your attention. Bill Computer sends the sound to the Mac speakers. I have for years sent the music through to my HD-DAC with a USB. If I use Bill’s Computer it plays through the speakers, but doesn’t recognize I have the HD-DAC setting selected in Sound on the Mac Systems Settings. So I did what you suggested but it still doesn’t find the HD-DAC. Roon use to locate the HD-DAC and I would select it. But Roon no longer sees it as an option. Actually, since they updated to their software, I’ve spent too much time dickering around with settings.
No problem. Please keep in mind I am a fellow user like yourself so I can’t check your logs for additional information. Also, MacOS is not my primary used OS.
It is unusual that if you set the output device for Core Audio to the USB DAC that it doesn’t work. Which leads to some other questions.
What DAC is it? Can you play audio to the DAC from other sources?
The DACs software, MacOS, Roon?
Sometimes resetting RAAT can work things out, copy/pasted from an older support thread with similar issue.
Then a reinstall of RAATServer (program used to keep track of audio devices) needs to be reset. You can generate a new RAATServer instance on your device by following these instructions, but please be aware that this will reset your Roon Settings → Audio Tab to factory settings and I would advise making a backup of any custom DSP settings you have:
- Create a Backup of your current Roon database
- Exit out of Roon
- Navigate to your Roon’s Database Location
- Find the folder that says “RAATServer”
- Rename the “RAATServer” folder to “RAATServer_old”
- Restart the Roon App to generate a new RAATServer folder
Bill,
You don’t by any chance (also) have SoundSource enabled, do you?
When I first started using Roon (although not on Sonoma, of course), I couldn’t get it to work at all using ‘System Output’: SoundSource was found to conflict with Roon (or the other way around, if you like 
).
Since then, I have never tried to use ‘System Output’; no more probs. Hope that may be useful. As @Rugby says, it does seem like some sort of contention.
I believe I found the problem and thank you for all your input. I didn’t have this problem until the latest Roon update. If I unplug my computer from the office to use it in the house, the HD zone of course disables. Then when I return and select a the HD audio zone, it doesn’t reappear. So to enable it again, I need to reboot my computer. Kind of a PIA but that’s the new reality.
Hi @Bill_Underwood,
Instead of a reboot, what happens if you open the Terminal application and enter the following? You can copy/paste it directly:
sudo killall coreaudiod
This should reset the CoreAudio daemon on the Mac, causing it to re-announce to Roon.
The team would like to investigate diagnostics around the timestamp of an event - please let us know the approximate date/time when you next experience this issue.
Thank you!
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