[Ciggavelli]

I don't know how optical works on soundcards but with my motherboard I select realtek optical ASIO from the playback options in jriver and that feeds a bitperfect signal that automatic adjusts to the file played 44.1/96/192 etc just like USB async driver does. Another way to see if you are properly bypassing windows audio is to adjust the volume in the player software and it should make no difference between 0-100% as volume control should be done on your dac.

Interesting. I have chord async selected, but the volume does go up and down with the software. Maybe that has something to do with this?

 

[Deftone]

Interesting. I have chord async selected, but the volume does go up and down with the software. Maybe that has something to do with this?

You don't need chord aysnc driver with optical that's for usb connection only.

Is your opitcal connected to a sound card or motherboard?

 

[Ciggavelli]

You don't need chord aysnc driver with optical that's for usb connection only.

Is your opitcal connected to a sound card or motherboard?

I'm going through optical with my mobo. I went back to trying it through USB, with the async driver, and the color doesn't change no matter the file. Also, whether I'm going through optical or asyc, i can still change the volume on the music software

 

[Deftone]

You should update to the latest drivers and see if your device supports a bitperfect optical output. I couldn't get it to work until I updated my realtek drivers for my motherboard.

 

[Deftone]

Is this through tidals player application? It may not support an exclusive mode so you would need to use jriver or roon and then select your audio output.

 

[Ciggavelli]

Is this through tidals player application?

Yes, and then also Foobar. If I put the quality on the a-sync usb at the highest settings, it will play in Tidal, but not in Foobar2000 (I have to change it to 24/96)

Thanks for you help

 

[Amberlamps]

I've just checked, with my soundcard and a spare unused hugo 2.

My pc's soundcard which is an asus xonar it's set at 192khz optical output and tracks upto a max of 192khz will play. Hugo's light changes with different sample rates. Red is 44.1khz, green is 96khz and blue is 192khz.

The same goes for usb, set Chord settings to 44.1khz 16bit cd quality. Orange is 48khz, foobar possibly thinks your watching a movie?

Always have the volume on your pc set to 100% that will get you bit perfect with software that have a software volume control. Only use TT2 for volume changes, but your pc volume should be set for 100%. Just remember to turn tt2 down before you put on your headphones.

You shouldn't really need to touch windows sample rate, as TT2 should show the different track sample rate changes. Maybe foobar needs it's settings tweaked. I found foobar to be a pain in the arse.

Test with a demo of roon or jriver ?

Edit;

I'm not 100% positive, but I think tidal's max sample rate is mqa 96khz. I seem to recall something like that from a whileback.

Qobuz for an extra £5 gets you 192khz

 

[miketlse]

The SPDIF standard maxes out at 192khz optical output, so any mass produced cards will use components specced for that output.
There are only a handful of manufacturers using bespoke configurations of components, to exceed the SPDIF performance. The just announced kit to convert BNC signals to optical, and back again (for MScaler), springs to mind.
The downstream impact is that virtually all apps and control software will be written to work within the SPDIF constraints.

 

[Ciggavelli]

I've just checked, with my soundcard and a spare unused hugo 2.

My pc's soundcard which is an asus xonar it's set at 192khz optical output and tracks upto a max of 192khz will play. Hugo's light changes with different sample rates. Red is 44.1khz, green is 96khz and blue is 192khz.

The same goes for usb, set Chord settings to 44.1khz 16bit cd quality. Orange is 48khz, foobar possibly thinks your watching a movie?

Always have the volume on your pc set to 100% that will get you bit perfect with software that have a software volume control. Only use TT2 for volume changes, but your pc volume should be set for 100%. Just remember to turn tt2 down before you put on your headphones.

You shouldn't really need to touch windows sample rate, as TT2 should show the different track sample rate changes. Maybe foobar needs it's settings tweaked. I found foobar to be a pain in the arse.

Test with a demo of roon or jriver ?

Edit;

I'm not 100% positive, but I think tidal's max sample rate is mqa 96khz. I seem to recall something like that from a whileback.

Qobuz for an extra £5 gets you 192khz

I just tried Roon, and the colors are now changing. I guess that must have been the issue. Thanks for your help

Edit: Side note, Roon is pretty awesome!

 

[Amberlamps]

I just tried Roon, and the colors are now changing. I guess that must have been the issue. Thanks for your help

Edit: Side note, Roon is pretty awesome!

Cool, everything just seems to work great with roon. Once you get your head around endpoints Roon is plain sailing.

Glad you got it worked out. In Roon, when playing music, look for the little star thing, it should be a purple colour if everything is ok, but if it's mp3's or if you added dsp changes to roon it will change colour to show you whats happen. Aslong as it's purple everything is good.

 

[GreenBow]

I just tried Roon, and the colors are now changing. I guess that must have been the issue. Thanks for your help

Edit: Side note, Roon is pretty awesome!

I had this issue. It was because either of two things.

1. I had sound control on my PC set to a particular rate. It's best left at 44.1KHz. (That way 44.1 is played at 44.1, and other sample rate music defaults correctly. Otherwise all files are played at whatever you put it at, e.g 192KHz. Meaning a 44.1KHz file will show up on Chord as blue 192KHz.
2. In JRiver there was setting that was something like 'input sample rate - output sample rate'. Had to set 'no change' for each, or globally.

 

[Ciggavelli]

I plugged in my AudioEngine A5+ active computer speakers into my TT2 and I am absolutely blown away. This is with stock rca cables too. I love this TT2...well worth the money.

 

[musickid]

Put roon or tidal on exclusive mode and forget. Nice to see everyone helping out.

Exclusive mode overides everything. It did for me

 

[Stu79]

@Amberlamps

Have you set up your NUC as the Roon core, or just as an endpoint?

I currently run my core inside a docker container on my Unraid NAS, which is also where the local library is stored. When I signed up to Roon, I was going to build a NUC to act as both core and endpoint, but was dissuaded from doing so because some peeps seem to think it's better to keep server & endpoint as separate devices, and that PC USB ports aren't the way to go for a clean signal.

So, for now, I still use the NAS based core and I bought an Allo USBridge endpoint. It sounds good (and fantastic now I finally have my TT2), but I'm not convinced it's much better than the USB from my laptop.

 

[Amberlamps]

@Amberlamps

Have you set up your NUC as the Roon core, or just as an endpoint?

I currently run my core inside a docker container on my Unraid NAS, which is also where the local library is stored. When I signed up to Roon, I was going to build a NUC to act as both core and endpoint, but was dissuaded from doing so because some peeps seem to think it's better to keep server & endpoint as separate devices, and that PC USB ports aren't the way to go for a clean signal.

So, for now, I still use the NAS based core and I bought an Allo USBridge endpoint. It sounds good (and fantastic now I finally have my TT2), but I'm not convinced it's much better than the USB from my laptop.

Initially I tried to install Roon Rock, it installed in 5 seconds, but it was missing codecs, ffmpeg. I could not gain access to it to manually install the codecs, all due to network problems that I didn't solve until the weekend ( 1 week later ).

I had to abort my roon rock install and I just threw windows 10 on it and installed Roon Server. ( 1 week ago )

Looking back, I think going with windows was the correct decision, as my nuc is super fast and it would be a complete waste of money to let it just run roon rock. An i3 with 8 gig of ram would do that job easy.

I don't think there is anything wrong with USB connects, I was using usb and optical on my big rig, mostly usb and hms & tt2 sounded great, on my nuc it sounds even better.

Roon server has no gui on my nuc, it's completely hidden except for an icon that has one option, exit. I connect to it and change settings using my ipad via the roon ios app.