Audio On macOS

Overview

Roon supports two output mechanisms on macOS: CoreAudio and ASIO. 

1. CoreAudio is Apple's native audio framework. 
2. ASIO support on Mac is extremely limited--currently the only devices we are aware of are manufactured by exaSound. If you don't have one of these, you will be using CoreAudio.
   

Both are capable of bit-perfect playback. CoreAudio is a more modern system, with stronger support for convenience features like volume controls and device identification, and ASIO is more bare-bones and minimal.

For an in-depth overview of the Audio Configuration in Roon, check out our Audio Setup Basics page.

This page is for mac-specific notes and issues.

MacOS Monterey

With the release of MacOS Monterey, MacOS has a new feature called Private Relay. Private Relay works in a similar fashion to a VPN and can sometimes cause Audio Outputs to not show up properly in Roon. If you are making use of Private Relay, please be sure to disable it when using Roon.

Help, I'm having Staticky or Unstable playback with Dirac!

Make sure that the following options are enabled:

1. Use Exclusive Mode
   
2. Enable Integer Mode
   
3. Use Power-of-2 Buffer Sizes

Recommended Setup for exaSound devices with ASIO drivers

Make sure that the exaSound dashboard is set to "ASIO" mode. If it leaves ASIO mode, or if the dashboard exits, Roon will have difficulty accessing the device. If you have having problems unexpectedly, this is the first thing to check:

Then, in Roon's audio settings, enable the (2ch) version of the driver, even if you have an 8-channel device

Finally, make your setup screens look like this:

Then play some music.

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