Volume leveling changes output from 16 to 24bit

Support
1

Roon Core Machine

Roon Rock on Intel Nuc i5 with USB SD storage

Networking Gear & Setup Details

WiFi

Connected Audio Devices

to Okto8Stereo DAC with built-in Pi4 streamer with Ropiee/Dietpi Roonbridge configurations

Number of Tracks in Library

68818 tracks, FLAC and DSF

Description of Issue

Playing 44/16 files with volume leveling off, my DAC reports 16bits correctly. With volume leveling set to auto, track or album, my DAC reports 24bits. Is this normal?
No filters, no resampling, no headroom management. Also no DSP volume control. Volume control set to ‘device volume’

3

Yes, it’s normal. Volume leveling basically works the same as DSP volume control. Roon converts the source from 16bit to 64bit float, applies volume and then converts to 24bit before sending the signal to the DAC. That should be apparent in the signal path.

4

Thanks! Funny that I hadn’t noticed this before.