I’m new to streaming. I’m listening to Michael Jackson album Thriller on Qobuz through Roon to a DSJ. The format on Roon reads FLAC 192kHz 24 bits. On the DSJ display it reads PCM 176.4k 24 bits. It’s that normal? Also I’m going from the router to the DSJ with Ethernet cable. I’m a snow bird and it seems to me the sound quality is inferior in Ohio as opposed to Florida. Can a different router or internet provider make a difference in sound quality? Any help is appreciated. All the accessories are the same. I brought everything with me.
I’d double check what settings you have in Roon. Try having everything set to native. The Bridge can handle 192/24 so that shouldn’t be the problem.
Hi
The DSJ only presents the true bit rate and frequency it’s receiving. As a test, I just brought it up on my system and it says 174.6/24 bit but that’s what is labelled in Roon. Your router and Ethernet cable can affect the sound quality.
That’s interesting. Roon on my computer reads differently. Thanks for the fast replies. Now I can’t wait to get back to Florida to be sure it’s the router or service. I also thought just maybe my 22 year old Anthem MCA 2 is just losing its muster with the trip. ?? But I have some M700’s coming my way. We’ll see if that makes a difference. Thanks again. Your guys are great.
I’m sorry to keep bothering you guys but I can’t find the screen for native setup. I looked it up on Roon and when I go to where it tells me it’s not there? Is this correct…Audio-Device Info-Device setup? When I get there no DSD Playback Strategy is available.
I meant to type… Unavailable.
Make sure DSP is disabled in Roon.
And: can you share a screenshot of your Roon signal path? You get there by clicking / tapping on the glowing dot near the play controls.
Like this one:
Regarding the difference in sound quality: even if the gear is the same, the room for sure isn’t. And that probably makes 50% of the sound. Another (much smaller) effect might be difference in noise on the mains power.
Internet provider and router are the least likely reason for any difference.
In order to pull up the display that Philipp posted, there’s a little star next to the track and title at the bottom of the screen. Clicking on that should bring it up.
No problem.
Click on that glowing light on the left of the “back” control in the lower area:
This opens the “signal path”. Here all steps of the digital signal are shown and we can see if e.g. a component changes the signal, e.g. via upsampling:
If you manage to post a screenshot of your signal path we might find the answer to your original question.
DSP is the internal sound procession function of Roon (e.g. Equalizer, upsampling). You go there by clicking on the volume control on the right bottom:
Then select “DSP”:
And this leads you here:
To go back, click on the left arrow in the upper left corner:
Hope that helps.
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Your systems thinking approach to everything is admirable Philipp. Do you have anything to do with SSI Schaefer 
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Wow, thanks for all of the help Philipp!
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I don’t know if I can use bad language here but if I could I would GD man you are good. I don’t have the time to go through all this right now but wanted to say thanks for all that help. My screen does not look like yours.
I need to leave my house for a while but hopefully that will help you help me. I never would have figured that out. Thank you again.
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You are most welcome.
From what we can see in your signal path (they all look different btw.) there is an unaltered digital signal delivered from Roon to your DSJr. It states “Lossless” and there is no DSP doing anything.
This is good (from a purist audiophile standpoint, but also to rule out any up- or downsampling that causes the phenomenon you wondered about in your original post).
Coming back to your original question: do you see any discrepancies of file formats in Roon and the DSJr. on other albums? Or just on that MJ album? Sometimes (very rarely) files are wrongly “labelled” by Qobuz/Tidal/Roon. It’s a metadata issue and my best guess at the moment is, that this might be the case here.
As stated above, your DAC tells you the truth. If it’s just that album, then there’s nothing to worry about.
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I’m sure I’m written something silly.
Some people has considered that the maximum audio frequency needed is 22.05KHz so the first digital recordings where made with a sampling rate of 44.1KHz Nyquist theorem), double rate is 88.2KHZ, quad rate 176.4KHz.
48KHz is theorically for DAT (I simplify), sound on DVD video, minidisc and was widely used by pofessionnal, 96KHz was for DVD audio.
On Qobuz, most albums are described on the 48KHz scale (hence 192KHz) as it is easier to understand 24/48, 24/96, 24/192.
So the information given was quad 48KHz
Your DAC is a perfectionnist and gives you the right sample rate : quad 44.1 = 176.4
It seems that most streaming / downloading site will use the “48 scale” but the DAC will keep on giving the right sample rate.
So as long as sample rates are 44.1 or 48, 88.2 or 96, 176.4 or 192, don’t bother, there is no problem and the right rate is the one of the DAC.
It’s 3.20am there, got a headache lol
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I haven’t noticed any other metadata differences yet. I have noticed a difference from Tidal vs Qobuz in regards to sampling rate? And bit rate? I don’t know if I’m saying that right. This is very confusing, exciting, frustrating and disappointing. I believe it is the room that is causing my frustration. I never knew room conditions made so large a difference. But I’m having fun learning. I’m going to have to figure out all that DSP thing sometime. Looks interesting. Thanks again.
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Once translated (sorry, it is in French), this short article should help you to understand more
