Why Roon does a sample rate conversion?

[Quentin_Van_Steenwin (Quentin Van Steenwinkel)]

Hello,

I m beginner with Roon and I wonder why Roon does a sample rate conversion (see picture) ? I heard a slight loss of quality with Roon vs Minimserver.

I have a NAS synologie, Cambridge audio azur 851N and a musical fidelity M6si500 with AperturA sub woofers. My Roon core run on my MacBook Air (M1).

Is it possible to be true loss less with Roon with my configuration ? No sample rate conversion ?

Thank you very much in advance,

Best regards,

Quentin

[Traian_Boldea]

Hi Quentin
From your signal path looks like the Cambridge does the sample rate conversion. Probably with other players you did not notice or it was not stated

@Quentin_Van_Steenwin

Is it possible to be true loss less with Roon with my configuration ? No sample rate conversion ?

Depends on the settings of CA 851N (should have NOS, non over sampling mode) but I do not know if that is possible. you have to check the manual.
Traian

[Marin_Weigel (Bram Stoker's Cappuccino)]

@Quentin_Van_Steenwin

Is it possible to be true loss less …

Short answer: no!

Has nothing to do with Roon, had been the same with using Minimserver, you just never saw it!

The naked truth is, you should not have bought the Cambridge in the first place if fixated on bit perfect replay, since the Cambridge does upsample by design - and they don’t hide that information, because they’re proud of it…

[bearFNF]

You might try switching filters but like @Marin_Weigel said it looks like th 851N up-samples.
From the product description:

“Offering award-winning digital and streaming performance – the 851N is an outstanding network player. Its features include; 24-bit/384kHz upsampling from all sources…”

I see no way in the manual to turn up-sampling off or even control it. Only three filters to select from.

From the Manual:

"5. Filter
Press to toggle through three alternative digital filter characteristics: Linear Phase, Minimum Phase or Steep.

Alternative digital filters can offer subtly different sound quality characteristics. The currently selected filter is displayed by the indicators just above the button.

Phase
Press and hold the Filter/Phase select button for approximately two seconds to select normal or inverted phase output. When the LED lights up, the phase is inverted by the 851N.

Detailed information on the 851N Filter Settings can be found here."

[Henry_McLeod (Henry)]

@Quentin_Van_Steenwin

Is it possible to be true loss less with Roon with my configuration ?

It is lossless in Roon. It is upsampled by the Cambridge Audio device and that actually happens in most chip based DACs. They just aren’t as truthful about that fact unless you read deep into the technical specifications. If you want the peace of mind of a ‘lossless’ signal path you won’t get that with your hardware. Just listen and enjoy it.

[Quentin_Van_Steenwin (Quentin Van Steenwinkel)]

Thank you all for yours answers, so quick and qualitative !