I don’t think so. When I turn on my hdx dac, I get this “charging super caps” message on the display. It seems to me that, should the PS be on all time, such a power on stage would not be necesssary.

I have also heard complaints about the T2 security chip that runs with new apple's USB. Definitely, not a friendly platform

Roon has 3 apps: one that is only the core (roon server), one that is only Raat (roon bridge) and the big one that is controller + core + bridge. If you have the big one installed, it will act as bridge should the core be I another machine. You would not benefit from installing only the bridge...

You could check the Audio midi configuration. As far as I know, OsX has always had problems with DSD, and will resample everything, unless the application uses exclusive (hog) mode. Roon raat (the roon bridge) works in exclusive mode and should output dsd without any trouble, bypassing osX...

For this, the rasp4 + ropiee should be more than enough

You should differentiate 3 situations. First, the content format or sample rate. You will very rarely find content on dsd128 it is non existent on dsd256. So, if you are playing content bit perfect through Roon, the maximum you would get (on the dad's display) is indeed dsd128. Second, you...

You could try swapping the MacBook pro for a raspberrypi4 with ropiee imagine. Works like a charm, and it is cheap enough to experiment. How are you upsampling to dsd256?

I can confirm alma has nagra on their showroom. They have a big showroom. Here is the picture of their main room (YG Sonja, Wilson, Msb, nagra HD preamp, nagra classic amp, dag m400 amp, arc ref160). I always have a great time there. You should given them a call.

I use the ground post to tie the grounds of the preamp + dac + amp. Grounding boxes are too voodoo for my taste

dac HD X user here. No vents above the tubes. Only to their sides.

I think I can help a bit. I just got out of a full Vivaldi stack to a Nagra HD X Dac. Before deciding on the HD X I also auditioned a Tube Dac. What I can tell you: - full Vivaldi x Tube Dac: to my taste, the tube Dac. The music flows more organically, and less clinical (Vivaldi sounds dry and...