I’ve owned a Yamaha A-S801 integrated DAC / amp for a couple of years now, and have never been able to get it to play DSD files. When I try to play a DSD file I get the message: “Transport: Roon lost control of the audio device.”
The Yamaha is connected via USB to the PC that runs ROON Core. I’ve played DSD to other DACs that were connected via USB to this PC with no problems. I currently have DSD working fine with my SOTM SMS-200 network endpoint in another room.
I have the Yamaha setup as an audio device with the “Yamaha Steinberg ASIO USB Driver”. I’ve tried two versions of the Yamaha Steinberg drivers, version 1.9.8.0 and version 1.10.2. The behaviour is the same with both drivers.
Does anyone have any suggestions on what else I can do to make this work?
There was another thread on the Yamaha A-S801, and that person posted the attached screenshot of their Roon settings (this is the first image I posted below). I can’t get Roon to show me what audio formats my Yamaha is compatible with (this is the second image posted below). I’m wondering if perhaps Roon removed that function entirely, as it doesn’t work on my SOTM audio zone either.
Sadly, Roon removed that information from the device settings in the big update last year (I’m not a 100% on the actual timing). I and others have posted Feature Requests to get that information accessible again, under Advanced Options for diagnostic purposes.
That’s really frustrating that Roon would remove the device compatibility feature; I used it for troubleshooting in the past with other devices. There should be no doubt that the Yamaha is capable of DSD 56 & 128. I can’t get either to work.
I’m using Windows 10 Pro. The second screenshot that I posted above shows the device settings in my system right now. Here is the advanced settings:
Well, there should be a way to get you going. The reviewer of that Yamaha in The Absolute Sound reviewed the amp connected via USB to his laptop running Roon, so there is confirmation that they work together. Page 2 of the review discussed how he set it up in Roon
I would try first setting the DSD playback strategy to DOP and see if that works. I suspect that DOP is the method of DSD support actually given the clue of it’s top end PCM format.
Thanks. I saw the Absolute Sound article before, but it did not help. The reviewer said he had problems with the WASAPI drivers, but was able to use the ASIO drivers, which is what I’m using.
The first screen shot in my original post is from another person on these forums who shared the settings which worked correctly with their Yamaha A-S801. That screenshot shows the use of the same Yamaha Steinberg ASIO driver that I am using, and it also shows a DSD playback strategy of “native” rather than “DOP”. I’ve tried to replicate every setting that person was using, but of course Roon has made a few changes their device setup screen. None the less I did try DOP, and I get the same error message as with Native.
The fact that Roon is not automatically converting the DSD file to PCM means that Roon is in fact picking up on the driver’s reported DSD capabilities as expected.
It appears that something is failing during the process of Roon requesting that the ASIO driver switch to DSD mode. As far as I know, the Yamaha Steinberg ASIO driver only supports DSD Native signaling. In the Yamaha Steinberg USB driver settings, try setting the sample rate to 176.4kHz and see if that makes a difference. We do not have any Yamaha devices in-house to test with, so I would also recommend reaching out to Yamaha to see if they have any clues as to why this isn’t working for you.
Is there an option for bit depth in the ASIO driver? I have run into at least one ASIO driver that had to be set to 24 bits to work and Roon was not indicating a bit depth conversion occurring. Although that was a long time ago, at this point.
Thanks John, that makes sense, the problem must be outside Roon. I found instructions from Yamaha on how to get DSD working with Foobar. I’ll follow those instructions and see if I can get Foobar to play DSD, then try Roon again.
@electrafixion How did it go? I looked at this amplifier and looked for information how it works with Roon. Came across this topic. Any news on getting it to run with Roon? Thanks!
If this helps at all, the same Yamaha, when connected to the Ultrarendu plays DSD files with no hiccups. Perhaps you should experiment by connecting your SOTM to the Yamaha, and with the server somewhere else on the network. I’ve had no issues at all, although Roon identifies the Yamaha as only Roon ready.
Yes indeed. The Yammy receives the signal from the streamer and reflects what it is rendering in the signal strip at the bottom of the panel, which distinguishes between PCM and DSD. Please refer to the following page: Does roon play native DSD or does it convert it to PCM?
