The new Audiolab 9000A is Roon tested, has No network connection, but it has an USB input.
I use Mac Mini as core in the other end of the house so I’m looking for a solution to use the USB input for full resolution DSD MQA etc.
AL 9000 has everything build in so it’s just a streamer I need, but will it work?
Hi
You’ll need a bridge or a streamer (the first one is only roon the second can do other things too, Spotify, tidal, etc). In choosing your bridge you have to mach the Audiolab 9000A specs, if the bridge/streamer cannot to DSD 512 for example then your Dac doesn’t matter if can do 512 as it is dependable on the first device.
Hope it helps.
Thanx
I Will use Roon for everything mqa and dsd
Will a bridge do that?
Example of an bridge with good USB ? they say rasberry is not good for sound over USB
As i wrote everything is inside of 9000 so its just the transport of the signal from my core to the USB input i need
I have a zen stream, but it can do only 256, it can pass MQA to the dac
there are some more:
SOtM sMS-200 Neo
SOtM sMS-200 Neo Ultra
I have not tried Pi, but I tend to follow my logic: If usb is buffered in the dac and has no dependency on the bridge clock then it is ok. With spdif it is another story but you do not need spdif. Jitter and noise if the dac is ok there is no problem
I have not tried Pi just because there is a shortage and I lost my patience, also I bit afraid of diy or lazy and like a out of the box device
You do not have to use USB with the RPi you could add a hat and use COAX or optical.
RPi with a Hifiberry Digi+ pro and running RoPieee (a Roon Bridge) is what I use. I also have a 7 in display on it for now playing and limited controls.
I’m using a Pi via USB with satisfactory results.
I have a more expensive streamer as well and the difference is minimal if one exists at all.
Pi’s are nearly impossible to find right now (other than exorbitantly priced from resellers).
I haven’t used one myself but I’ve read good things about this and it’s reasonably priced.
It isn’t currently Roon Ready but will be soon (first the Pro version then later the basic model)
In the meantime you can stream to it from Roon via AirPlay.
S/PDIF digital inputs – two coaxial and two optical – handle hi-res PCM data up to 24-bit/192kHz
USB PCM audio is supported to 32-bit/768kHz, alongside DSD to 22.5MHz (DSD512).
That’s why I want to use usb
Traian_Boldea (PCM384/DSD256) is good
What did you get in the end?
I can’t seem to get a rpi with ropieee to work reliably with the 9000A over usb.
Once it’s locked onto the internal dac of the amp it works great, with excellent sound but when turned of it can’t reconnect without unplugging the usb cable and rebooting the amp, otherwise there’s no signal.
Currently using a wiiim pro over coax. No problems with this connection but I’d like to use the usb connection for dsd.
All WiiM devices, except for the WiiM Mini, support DSD audio file playback. This is achieved using DSD over PCM (DoP). Using an RPi, even using USB, will also utilize DoP. Native DSD support typically requires a driver, and is only available for Windows OS.
Whilst your amp supports native DSD, this isn’t possible when using Linux and macOS. That said, encapsulating DSD in PCM is still DSD – the encoded audio is unchanged – and the only limitation is bandwidth, so, for example a DAC with a maximum sample rate of 768 kHz can play up to up to DSD256 using USB, but only DSD64 over S/PDIF.
Incidentally, I only happened upon your post because I recieved a notification as I was following the discussion two years ago. Rather than attempting to revive a stale thread, it’s better to start a new discussion when you can’t find an answer on the forum.
Wiims do not support DoP using Roon or their own software. It will work if you have software to force the files encoding to DoP which you can do via LMS and some UPnP servers that will perform the encapsulation I believe but it’s only up to DSD64 but that’s all. Wiims will natively transcode any DSD files to PCM as will Roon to it.
Thanks, @CrystalGipsy. This FAQ explain this (when I previously read up on WiiM I took DSD support as playing either native or DoP when in reality they do the conversion – similar pitfall for other DACs.)
However, using it as a streamer should pass through untouched when using DoP since the WiiM will see PCM, but the DAC will recognize the DSD. This should work on coax and USB.
Since I don’t use a WiiM I can’t say if there is a DSD strategy option in Roon.
There isn’t one I am afraid as it’s not supported in their RAAT implementation
I think my issue with the Audiolab might be specific to rpi4 or RoPieee as music over usb works perfectly fine if I connect the server (mac mini M2) directly to the amp.
Also, no issues streaming over coax and optical using a WiiM Pro.
I’ve posted in the Ropieee section to see if anyone else has the same problem