USB sample rate not matching audio tracks

Audio Gear Talk
1

I am new to Roon and would appreciate help:

Playing audio from Roon (Roon server on Win 10 PC) to a Kii Control (Roon Tested, not Roon Ready), I get audio out… but:

→ The sample rate is always whatever I have set as the default in Win 10, NOT what the file actually is.

→ I would like to fix this. I am sure it is possible, and suspect someone here knows how. Any help appreciated!

This means Win 10 is resampling many tracks to the default. I thought Roon would solve this… I guess not (or maybe not with Roon Tested, only Roon Ready which has RAAT?)

Anyway, I cannot be the only one. I am unsure whether this means I need to change to ASIO drivers instead of WASAPI, but there are no Roon instructions on that, though I can find some on Sweetwater’s website (they suggest ASIO4ALL).

FWIW, the same issue holds for Foobar2000 – Foobar sample rate does not match what speakers (Kii Controller) receive; that is always the default set as noted above. I would like the USB to the controller to match whatever the music sample rate is, so there is no resampling.

If it helps, the Kii Control also always says the incoming stream is ‘Bit Perfect: No’

Machine is a Microsoft Surface Book 3 with all updates, Win 10, can put out at over 192 KHz/32 bit if I set that as default. Issue seems to be in how audio (here including Roon) reach through the USB output… somehow sample rate is being controlled elsewhere, not floating to what the track is / Roon is putting out.

Rate default set in Control Panel/Sound Settings/Kii Speakers/Device Properties/Additional Device Properties/Advanced; Exclusive mode checkboxes enabled (Allow applications to use exclusive mode/give exclusive mode priority. I only did this since it was throttling at 48kHz and this is how I could adjust that. But it is always fixed… never floating to the actual audio track rate.

Any help appreciated. Many thanks!

2

Just an ex-user here, but check out the following Roon help center article, since I guess that‘s your problem …

3

What have you enabled as audio device in Roon? If using WASAPI to attached Kai’s then as Marin says above you need to enable exclusive mode or it’s using Windows system audio. If using an ASIO driver you need to set it to ASIO output.

4

There wouldn’t be since those drivers and there setup is outside of Roon. Once the ASIO drivers are set in the OS, then they will appear as an option in Roons Settings/Audio.

However, ASIO drivers are usually specific to the DAC manufacturer. Kii doesn’t make them.

You can try ASIO4All, although that might come with its own issues.

5

Note: Problem solved: The issue was that inRoon Device Settings one has to set Volume Control to ‘Fixed’.
At least in my case, this still allows me to use the digital volume control in the Kii Control (by adjusting the controller; the volume control in Roon obviously becomes fixed), but the reported sample rate now matches the tracks.

PS: Re: Exclusive Mode, I already had that enabled; it is probably required as @Marin_Weigel noted; in my case it was/is already enabled (in both the Win 10 Device Settings, as outlined in my post, but also in Roon Device Setup for the Kii Control, which I forgot to mention and is what Marin’s link discusses – I’m sure one has to set BOTH of those, but as noted, my issue turned out to be the Volume Control need to be set to ‘Fixed’.)

Happily I figured that out before trying to install ASIO drivers, which I’m sure would have been a different headache, and is not really recommended either by @Rugby or Roon, per their link:

Many thanks for the suggests; they were much appreciated!

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