Use a DAC as a source but control digital volume with preamp

Roon Software Discussion
#1

Hello,

I am running a PS Audio Perfectwave DirectStream DAC with a Bridge. I am also running a McIntosh MC2500 Preamp with the DAC connected to my iMac Core. Both are on my Roon Core but I would like to use the PS Audio DAC as my source and control the volume digitally through the McIntosh. Is there a way to do this?

#2

I’m not sure what the physical connections would be that you are trying to do that with. What will be connected to what, with what.

#3

Initially I was connecting my McIntosh via USB to the iMac. I was hoping you could connect two different sources, select one of them (PS Audio DAC connected via Cat5) as an output then use the other one to just control the volume (McIntosh Preamp DAC connected via USB). While I researched some more, Roon cannot use digital volume control on the MC2500 even as a stand alone source.

Now I am using a RS232 to USB cable to connect to the iMac then use this GitHub driver to control the preamp digitally.

Going that route to create a remote driver for the McIntosh. Does Roon allow you to control volume of another device (GitHub Driver) while sending the output to the PS Audio DAC?

#4

No you can only control an output.

#5

I’m using a combination of Eventghost, USB-UIRT, and some python code I wrote to tie those to the ROON API to control volume on my Peachtree Nova. If you have that sort of skill set, you can piggy back off of my code to do something similar. Code is here.