Audacity, Mac Mini and iFi Uno DAC

My lovely new little Uno seems to work fine with everything else, so far, on my Mac Mini. But when trying to listen to tracks in Audacity - I am laboriously digitising my vinyl collection - I get no sound and an error message “Error opening sound device” and the following Problem Details:
{
“timestamp”: 1674729164,
“event_id”: “8c7c6ee663ab458c89ad0895638d5dfd”,
“platform”: “native”,
“release”: “audacity@3.2.3”,
“contexts”: {
“os”: {
“type”: “os”,
“name”: “Macintosh”,
“version”: “10.15.7”
}
},
“exception”: {
“values”: [
{
“type”: “Error”,
“value”: “Error opening sound device.nTry changing the audio host, playback device and the project sample rate.”,
“mechanism”: {
“type”: “runtime_error”,
“handled”: false
}
}
]
}
}
Are you able to offer a very non-tech person any advice please? (Audacity 3.2.3; Mac OS 10.16.7; latest Uno software.)
Thanks,
Ian.

Are you trying to play back through the Uno? Try setting the playback device to the internal speakers.
– Bill

Thanks Bill, I will try that. Ian.

Bill -
I’ve tried your suggestion and the sound does indeed come out of the internal speaker. I’m not clear how doing this might help get the sound out via the Uno though. I have also checked the parameters as suggested by the Audacity error message: Audio Host, Playback Device and Project Sample Rate.
There is only one audio host on the Mac Mini so that was easy; I can get the sound out via the internal speaker and headphones but not the (listed) Uno DAC, although it shows as, “iFi USB Audio SE”, not iFi Uno.
Any further thoughts please? Thanks for your help so far.
Ian.

Bill -
Sorry, to answer your question, yes I am trying to playback through the Uno.
Ian.

The point in asking about getting output from the speakers is to see if the problem is with Audacity or the Uno. The results show that Audacity can output sound through the Mac Mini, so now we can work on getting the Uno to work.

Quit Audacity if it is open.

Go to the Utilities folder (inside the Applications folder) and open Audio MIDI Setup.

The Uno should be listed in the left column - click on it to highlight it. On the right there are buttons for Input and Output. Since the Uno appears to be an output device, the Output button should be selected and the Input button should be greyed-out. Set “Format” to “44,100 Hz”. If it is set to “48,000 Hz” and you can’t change it, just leave it as is. Quit Audio MIDI Setup.

In Audacity, do Audacity (menu) > Preferences > Quality and set “Default Sample Rate” to the same number you used in Audio MIDI Setup. Close the Preferences window.

What you’ve done is set the sample rate of the Uno to match the default sample rate for Audacity.

– Bill