I have two DACs. One from Chord Electronics and one from Weiss Engineering. Both have digital volume control and are designed to be used as pre-amps. In Device Setup both are set to Device Volume. So it looks the same in both cases.
However, when I use the Weiss DAC, Roon shows the signal path as Lossy. When I play the Chord DAC it shows the signal path as Lossless. With the Weiss DAC I can control the volume via the app as well as on the DAC itself. With the Chord DAC I can only change the volume on the device.
What is going on? Obviously, I would like the signal path to be Lossless in both cases but cannot see how to arrange that.
As I expected, in the Weiss case there is DSP on the device after Roon handed over the data to the Weiss. Roon just reports what the Weiss is doing.
Roon applies a lights color and label to every combination in the signal path, but donât put too much emphasis on it. If you want the Weiss to apply DSP volume, then itâs just fine if it does, whatever Roon calls it. Because of the DSP, the path is simply not âLosslessâ. It is still shown as green with âhigh qualityâ.
If you donât want what the Weiss is doing, you would have to turn it off on the Weiss.
Yes. But the Chord also controls the volume by applying a DSP (digital) volume control. The volume control is not analog there either. But Roon does not detect that.
Also, why is the volume control changeable by Roon for the Weiss but not for the Chord (or vice-versa). That would imply that the volume control itself is being applied by Roon, before it reaches the Weiss, if you see what I mean.
Hugo TT is Roon tested Ëonly´ as opposed to the Weiss which is Roon ready.
So, Hugo TT canât talk back to the server, thus Roon is oblivious to whatâs done by the DAC and canât report the Ëmanipulation´.
With the Weiss, itâs the Roon ready integration that lets the server know what going on in the DAC, (edit: thus also allows for controlling itâs internal volume adjustment).
Thanks. Itâs convenient that the volume can be controlled by the Roon App as long as the volume adjustment is still done in the Weiss, which is specifically adjusted to ensure no real-world loss of precision.
Roonâs 64 bit floating point math ensures no loss of Ëreal-world´ precision either, so no sweat ⌠also see our memberâs @DrCWOmeasurements regarding Roon DSP volume control.
