Swapping DACs proved to be a bit harder than expected. I briefly describe my problem and how I fixed it here just in case this helps someone in the future.
My digital chain is Roon running on an intel NUC taking music off the house NAS and sending it down wireline adaptors to a Pro-ject Streambox S2 ultra. The streamer’s USB output goes via an USB cleaner to a 2Qute DAC.
I treated myself to a Denafrips Terminator DAC. I just disconnect the 2Qute, plugging the USB into the new unit and moving the audio interconnects over. Powering up the Pro-ject box resulted in it playing its start up chime through the system. So all was well I thought. Nope.
First sign I was in over my head was that the Project Box had disappeared from Roon’s list of audio devices. It was not on the list of Roon ready devices either. So I selected the “generic USB audio” device that was the only available choice, remembering that the Terminator dealer had said something about it being a generic device. Press play on Roon Remote, and … nothing. No sound. Roon thought it was playing. The Terminator front panel showed USB in use, 44k, 1x feed. All as it should be. No sound.
I found that I could play music if I stopped roon, and used the Pro-Ject’s own software to play Tidal. Which told me that I had a roon issue.
To get it working I;
Checked that the streambox was set to Roon ready (it was)
Used the StreamBox’s configuration web page to delete the 2Qute off its output, switching to generic DAC. Reset everything to default.
Then the streambox appeared in the list of audio devices in the settings pages. So I switched to that and all was well.
Really well, it sounds great. I will not do any Chord vs Denafrips comments as its only been working 20 mins and I am still too relieved to make sensible comments.
I have a new Gryphon Kalliope DAC that I connect to my Signature Rendu Optical streamer via USB. The Kalliope has all sorts of Class A going on and it runs pretty warm. So I put it in sleep mode. When I do that my Rendu no longer shows up in Roon. Wake up the DAC, welcome back. It was the same way with my PS Audio DAC but I never turned it off.
I think that the known Roon streamer isn’t considered active or available unless it’s USB port is talking to a DAC. This puzzles me but it isn’t really an issue once you are aware of it. Like when you get a new DAC which I can never stop doing. Some day I will likely have a preferred DAC for each song. Bah.
Roon endpoints typically have to see a DAC powered on and connected to be seen in Roon, certainly those using Roon Bridge for connectivity.
Note that Denafrips recommends that you leave the DAC on 24x7 to maintain best playback quality -its to do with having the clocks OCXO at optimum/cponstant temperature all the time.
Yes, I know that Roon will not “see” a streamer unless the downstream DAC is on. I have often frightened myself that way.
I suppose what was new to me this time is that the Project Streambox was seeing the new DAC, and sending it data (the start up chimes played, and the DAC was displaying information about the incoming datastream), yet no music. Roon, to its credit, seemed to know that the DAC was not correctly connected, even though the streamer and the DAC itself thought all was well.
For anyone reading this in the future the take away is watch out for a streambox becoming confused as to what it was talking to.
Perhaps the moral here is when connecting devices power off both devices at the ends of the cable you connecting and power up once connections are completed.
Terminator is a nice DAC…enjoy I have a few friends with them.