Skip to main content

Using a dCS Product with Roon

  • Updated

Getting Started

All current dCS ranges have products which are Roon Ready - these are products that have been fully tested as working with Roon and work correctly with no configuration. Other dCS products which do not have an integrated streamer can still be used with Roon if they have a USB input, provided the Roon Core being used in the system also has a USB output. 

To get started with Roon using any of these dCS devices, you will first need to set up a Roon Core. This is a device which carries out all of the processing for Roon, acting as the hub of the system. This topic will not be covered in this guide, as Roon have a very good guide for getting started and setting up a Roon Core which can be found here:
Getting started with Roon

Once you have a Roon Core set up and connected to your network, you are ready to get started playing music to your dCS system. 

Connecting dCS Products with an Integrated Streamer

All dCS products with an integrated network streamer are Roon Ready: 

  • Varèse Music System
  • Vivaldi (in the Vivaldi Upsampler Plus, or in the Vivaldi One)
  • Rossini DAC, Rossini Player
  • Bartók DAC, Bartók Headphone DAC
  • Lina DAC X, Lina DAC
  • Network Bridge

To set up one of these dCS system with Roon:

  • Firstly, ensure your Roon Core and dCS system are powered on, and the Network port on the dCS product is connected to the same network that the Roon Core is connected to. This usually just means that they are both connected to your router via an Ethernet cable.
  • Open the Roon app and select your Roon Core:
    The Roon app is available on Windows, MacOS, iOS, iPadOS and Android. The functionality is the same on all of these platforms so simply download the app on your preferred platform / device. The screenshots in this guide have all been taken from Roon running on Windows, but all of the buttons and settings should be in similar places on all platforms.
  • From the homepage, open the settings menu located in the top left of the screen:
  • Scroll down the list of settings menus and open the Audio settings:
  • Under the Roon Ready section, select Enable on the dCS product you want to use with Roon. In this example, a Lina DAC is being used:

    NOTE: Ensure that you enable the device from the Roon Ready section and not from the Other network devices section. This will only enable Roon to send audio to the dCS product via AirPlay, which will not provide as high sound quality as using the Roon Ready connection.
  • When the device has been enabled, the Audio settings menu will show it like this: 
  • For most systems, this will be all the setup that is needed. Select the Select an audio zone button at the bottom of the screen and select the dCS product from the list of available zones:
  • Any audio played in Roon will now be played to the dCS system. When playing, the bottom area of the screen will show information and controls for playback:
    As any dCS product with a network connection is Roon Ready, it will be preconfigured with the correct settings to play bit-perfect audio unaltered from Roon. For most users, this will be all the configuration that is required.
  • If you want to confirm that Roon is sending bit-perfect audio to the dCS product, tap the star icon next to the playback controls:
  • This opens the Signal Path menu. If Roon is carrying out no processing and bit-perfect audio is being received by the dCS product, the signal path will be shown as Lossless:

Connecting dCS Products Without an Integrated Streamer

dCS products which do not have an integrated streamer but which do have a USB input can still be used with Roon. They will not use Roon Advanced Audio Transport to send audio from Roon over the network - they require connection to a USB output on the Roon Core. In the example shown here, a Lina DAC is connected to a Roon Nucleus using a USB cable.

  • Firstly, ensure your Roon Core and dCS system are powered on, and the USB-B port on the dCS product is connected to the an available USB port on the Roon Core device (this could be a USB port on a Nucleus, a NUC, a laptop etc.). 
  • Open the Roon app and select your Roon Core:
    The Roon app is available on Windows, MacOS, iOS, iPadOS and Android. The functionality is the same on all of these platforms so simply download the app on your preferred platform / device. The screenshots in this guide have all been taken from Roon running on Windows, but all of the buttons and settings should be in similar places on all platforms.
  • From the homepage, open the settings menu located in the top left of the screen:
  • Scroll down the list of settings menus and open the Audio settings. Find the dCS device from the list of available devices and select Enable.
  • When the device has been enabled, the Audio settings menu will show it similarly to this: 
  • For most setups, this will be all of the configuration that is required. Simply select the dCS system using the Select an audio zone button at the bottom of the screen and begin playing audio.

Advanced Setup / Customisation

Roon does offer advanced features that let the user customise aspects of the signal path, offering features like format conversion (converting PCM to DSD or Upsampling), volume levelling and filters for room correction or headphone equalisation. These features are accessed through the Roon MUSE settings page. 

The scope of the settings included in these menus is quite complex and beyond the scope of this guide. However, Roon have plenty of information available on their website on how to access the settings and what each of them does, which you can find here:
MUSE - Precision Audio Control

It should be noted that these options do mean that Roon is no longer bit-perfect, as it will be applying processing to the signal before sending it to the dCS product.

Format conversions, such as sample rate conversions or converting PCM to DSD, are not necessary with dCS products. The internal processing is very high quality, so dCS units do not normally benefit from external processing. 

Related articles