The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

Node does Qobuz audio over USB without Roon perfectly fine.
With Roon in the chain there are dropouts unless you switch over to coax.
Then the dropouts disappear again.

Roon and Bluesound can't get their shit together with USB, which is why I canceled it. Roon gave me another 14 day trial last night so I downloaded it for S&G.

Even though the DSD file is down sampling, I would say it's an improvement on the Qobuz, which is only 16 bit for this particular title.
 
Jbraswell said:
Node does Qobuz audio over USB without Roon perfectly fine.
With Roon in the chain there are dropouts unless you switch over to coax.
Then the dropouts disappear again.

Roon and Bluesound can't get their shit together with USB, which is why I canceled it. Roon gave me another 14 day trial last night so I downloaded it for S&G.

Even though the DSD file is down sampling, I would say it's an improvement on the Qobuz, which is only 16 bit for this particular title.
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Weird. Might be something with the settings? Think if you’re going USB out, you have to go into the Node settings and change a setting to make sure it’s not defaulting to the internal DAC…

I have Roon going to my Aries as the Roon end point but it passes over USB to my DAC to let my DAC handle the processing. Don’t have dropouts but like you said might just be the Node itself.

You could also download one of the other high quality formats from that site to avoid downsampling for now. They should all be included in the DSD256 price
 
MikeH said:
Weird. Might be something with the settings? Think if you’re going USB out, you have to go into the Node settings and change a setting to make sure it’s not defaulting to the internal DAC…

I have Roon going to my Aries as the Roon end point but it passes over USB to my DAC to let my DAC handle the processing. Don’t have dropouts but like you said might just be the Node itself.

You could also download one of the other high quality formats from that site to avoid downsampling for now. They should all be included in the DSD256 price
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Can you screen shot the signal path in Roon?

Click on the green dot.
 
MikeH said:
View attachment 151012

I don’t have a node but this is my path. It’s going out of the Aries via USB and the Denafrips Ares shows 4x DSD
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Yeah auralic are another manufacturer that are all in on DSD.

Bluesound think it’s too niche to add costs their products, I think schiit are similar. They will allow the player to recognise and read the files it but where you use Roon or plug a dongle in and do it onboard it will be downsampled. I think from recollection that 64 gets downsampled to 24/178.1
 
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Joe Mac said:
Yeah auralic are another manufacturer that are all in on DSD.

Bluesound think it’s too niche to add costs their products, I think schiit are similar. They will allow the player to recognise and read the files it but where you use Roon or plug a dongle in and do it onboard it will he downsampled. I think from recollection that 64 gets downsampled to 24/178.1
Click to expand...
My Aries mini is pretty much acting as a roon end point only nowadays but if I wanted a more expensive streamer I’d seriously look into them. Denafrips seems to be in on DSD too and can play up to DSD1024. Not sure when you would ever have access to files that big but nice to know haha. Doesn’t do MQA but that’s fine with me
 
MikeH said:
My Aries mini is pretty much acting as a roon end point only nowadays but if I wanted a more expensive streamer I’d seriously look into them. Denafrips seems to be in on DSD too and can play up to DSD1024. Not sure when you would ever have access to files that big but nice to know haha. Doesn’t do MQA but that’s fine with me
Click to expand...

Honestly for playback you’re not really needing beyond 64, 128 is nice and 256 is great. That’s both due to availability and the limits of most home gear. 256 and above is really much more interesting from a recording and/or archive standpoint than a playback one imo.
 
i think since people were asking the guy at HDTT so much about KoB, they updated their site. Still vague but....

Kind of Blue DSD was "Transferred from a 15ips 2-track tape". Which is interesting considering that was never commercially available it seems. Adds some more mystery to it haha. I emailed the guy but doubt he will respond with specifically which tape they used or what the source was.
 
Does anyone know of a decent software front end I can use to stream files from my NAS to a Chromecast Audio puck? I can use my laptop via VLC, and my NAS has an app, but neither are that user friendly. I’m looking for a decent phone-based option that lets me select and play tunes. Roon could do this, but it feels like overkill?
 
Thackeraye said:
Does anyone know of a decent software front end I can use to stream files from my NAS to a Chromecast Audio puck? I can use my laptop via VLC, and my NAS has an app, but neither are that user friendly. I’m looking for a decent phone-based option that lets me select and play tunes. Roon could do this, but it feels like overkill?
Click to expand...

Does plex work with chromecast?
 
Joe Mac said:
Could be a good call. Can set up the plex server on a PC (or even on the NAS if it supports it) and then just control it from the phone app.
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Just coming to say Plex. The free version should work but won’t look pretty. There usually is a sale on Plex life membership around Black Friday so you can get it for about $80USD and that will then give you access to Plex Amp. Uses the Plex server but just a nicer overlay (like a stripped down Roon)
 
I'd set up an account for Plex ages ago, so getting it back up and running now. It's taking a while to crawl through my library (doing the video first) - then I'll give it a go.
 
Thackeraye said:
I'd set up an account for Plex ages ago, so getting it back up and running now. It's taking a while to crawl through my library (doing the video first) - then I'll give it a go.
Click to expand...
I find PlexAmp works nicely on the phone as a remote control but regular Plex is a bit clunky since it really was designed for video. I find the best way to use Plex or PlexAmp for music is on a tablet.
 
wonder what this is all about....

Get ready.​
Our extraordinary journey starts on 20 September, 2022​
The most exciting update in our history is just around the corner - and it’s going to transform the way you use Roon forever.
Keep an eye on your inbox. The future of Roon is coming.​
 
MikeH said:
wonder what this is all about....

Get ready.​
Our extraordinary journey starts on 20 September, 2022​
The most exciting update in our history is just around the corner - and it’s going to transform the way you use Roon forever.
Keep an eye on your inbox. The future of Roon is coming.​
Click to expand...

Cloud storage? Although that could end up being very expensive…
 
Joe Mac said:
Cloud storage? Although that could end up being very expensive…
Click to expand...
yea-- Roon on the go could be interesting....

realized the image in the email is a someone in a convertible so guessing that:

A) it's cloud storage/being able to listen to your library through Roon on the go and

B) it will be expensive haha

1663348839355.png
 
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