T+A MP200 and DAC 200 interconnected via SYS and Roon

Audio Gear Talk T+A
1

Hi there,

I have a question about the way that the T+A MP 200 identifies itself to Roon as a Roon Ready device when it’s interfaced with the T+A DAC 200 :

The MP 200 tells Roon its highest sample rate is 192kHz PCM with no native DSD capability. However the DAC 200 declares to Roon that it has a 768kHz max sample rate and can handle DSD 512 Native when using the USB interconnect directly into my Roon core. Given the MP200 is just a transport and when used in conjunction with the DAC 200 using the SYS interface it should integrate both devices as one virtual whole, why doesn’t the firmware correct for this use case and declare the full capabilities of the combined system to Roon?

It’s a pain to also have to install the DAC 200 directly to the Roon Core over USB just to get the Native DSD capabilities and higher sample rate PCM, which kind of negates the whole point of having the MP200 in the system in the first place as a networked Roon end-point.

If I was to use, say, an Aries G1.1 or G2.1 from Aurilic, instead of the T+A MP 200 I would absolutely get full T+A DAC 200 Roon functionality - instead of this artificially cut down functionality - so what gives here?

For info my system is :

Roon 2.0 (build 1202 production) running on the Roon ROCK OS on an Intel NUC i5 16GB 512 M2 SSD with additional external USB3 8TB Seagate direct attached storage

Music service = Tidal HiFi

Pre-Amp / DAC : T+A Elektroakustik 200 DAC (Firmware v1.16 / USB v1.10)
Transport / Streamer : T+A Elektroakustik MP200 Multi-Source Player (Client V3.0.3.2 / BL300 /V1.04)

Interconnected with each other using the supplied SYS USB / ETHERNET interconnection interface cables.

2

Hi Mark,
Not a T+A user but from what I know using a transport to connect a dac the settings you are going to get are the smaller ones. So the specs of the dac are limited by the specs of the bridge device or the other way around (the specs of the bridge are limited to the specs of the dac if the dac has smaller numbers or fewer options).

3

Better ask T&A, they’re specifying just that for their MP200 and obviously certified it that way with Roon - clearly their “fault” …

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4

The data given in the specifications is correct. The MP200 currently supports streaming of PCM up to PCM192.

The MP200 is intended as a universal music source, combining many different sources of music in one box: CD transport, FM-radio, DAB radio, Internet Radio, Streaming services (Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer), Roon, Bluetooth etc. So the main goal of the MP200 is easy access to all these sources of music in very good high definition (up to PCM192) quality.

The DAC200 can either be used as a DAC in combination with the MP200 converting all possible formats and bit rates supported by the MP200

or

for even higher resolution formats, it can be used with a direct USB connection to the roon core (or any other audio PC). Instead of a direct USB connection a roon bridge can be used, if the music shall be streamed over ethernet.

With direct USB connection or a suitable ethernet bridge, the DAC200 supports PCM up to PCM768 and DSD up DSD 1024 (DSD512 with Roon, DSD1024 for example with HQ player).

5

Thank you.

I understand the specifications of the MP200 well.

My question was given that the MP200 and the DAC 200 were built to be used together (as evidenced by them having SYS interconnection - the combination of USB control and Ethernet - specifically for this purpose) - why did T+A choose to limit the MP200’s pass-through capability to the DAC200 when used together?

For example, The MP200 can’t process DSD files - yet the DAC200 possess a world class DSD implementation - This seems a strange design omission to me…

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