I’m setting up a Zen Stream to replace my Allo USBridge, which I connect via USB to a Holo May dac. With the USBridge I used the dsp volume setting in Roon, but when I connect through the Zen Stream, Roon only gives me the option of fixed volume or device volume. As the Holo May dac has no volume control and I don’t use a preamp I have always used dsp volume control in Roon.
I tried the various volume settings in the Zen Stream app, but none made any difference as far as Roon was concerned.
That’s a know bug or maybe a deficiency of Zen Stream software.
That worked fine until firmware 2.30.7. Rollback to that version will let you use DSP volume in a normal way. I’m staying at 2.30.7 for that reason.
On the newer firmware (both offcial and beta) you can setup in ifi console Mixer Type to Software and in Roon set endpoint volume control to Device volume. That will work fine until you switch off your DAC
Then ifi Mixer setting resets and you have to configure it again.
Thanks Piotr. Much of the reason behind my decision to try out the zen stream was that I was getting tired of the need to tinker every so often with my USBridge or raspberry pi. Having to roll back to a previous firmware to keep a core, for me, functionality doesn’t fill me with confidence going forward that this device will be problem free.
Good to know the cause of this issue though, and thanks for sharing you solution.
Thanks Ged, I’m not sure if that is what’s going on here, as I thought Roon’s dsp volume control was a Roon function not an OS function, and that Roon claims that there is no degradation in quality while using it.
On the other hand it could be exactly what’s going on here and ifi have intentionally disabled dsp volume control within Roon when connecting to a usb dac. Either way the Zen Stream seems to be incompatible with my use case.
Thanks for sharing the post from ifi, I was unable to find anything like that on their website.
What I find especially frustrating is that I waited to purchase it until I saw that Roon were promoting it in there store and that it had received Roon Ready certification.
I don’t understand the point of Saying it is “Roon Ready,” when it is clearly not.
No biggie, I’ll return it and go back to my previous setup.
If your using a streamer or DAC then volume control is pretty much out unless they allow control of it, most devices that are purely digital don’t offer a volume control. DSP volume relies on the host device being able to run it as its done on the device using the RAAT SDK not via the core if I remember rightly.
I seem to be only able to control Zen volume with roon DSP when the device is in AIO/setup mode 1.
When I switch to Roon Ready mode 2, the volume control defaults to fixed and seems no matter what I do, I cannot find a hardware or roon setting to re-enable roon volume control.
Anyone found a solution to this problem?
Really perplexing/disappointing and seems a bit odd that ifi would intentionally disable the 64bit/lossless volume control built into roon.
