Audio dropouts with Roon Server on MacBook Pro

Support
1

Hi,

I just installed by raspberry PI 3 with dietpi (thanks Rene!!!) and Roon core on my macbook pro i5 2.9 GHZ, 8GB DDR3 ram. I’m waiting for an upcoming NUC when I will transition Roon core to it.

I’m having almost incessant dropouts.
My ethernet cable between the switch and the raspberry pi 3 is a cat 5e, from the switch to the synology NAS I have a high quality audioquest vodka. The switch is a recent cisco switch as well (Cisco SG110-08D)

Should I upgrade the cable to cat 6 minimum? would this help?
or are the limitations coming from the mac?
activity monitor shows a cpu load at about 20% but maybe the problem comes from a memory overload on the mac? it shows 7.5 GB ram used over 8GB total…
I’m not a computer expert, but this obviously seems high, so could this be the issue?

PS: I can’t see a jumbo frame option in my synology so I suppose it’s not activated (I looked at the right place in DSM :wink: )

Thank you!

2

In your Synology NAS, check that MTU is 1500, and make sure that Jumbo Frame is disabled in all devices in the whole network.

In your Cisco switch, see if there is a Flow Control setting. Toggle it to see if it makes any difference.

3

thanks. MTU is set to 2000 and when I change to 1500 it comes back every time to 2000 even though I have duly confirmed… :frowning:
I have a Synology 216+

4

hello, is there anything else I could try? is it that my macbook pro configuration is not robust enough to support Roon core?

5

MTU 2000 does not sound right.

In Synology Control Panel->Network->Network Interface->LAN->Edit->IPv4, make sure you have Jumbo Frame disabled and MTU set to 1500.

6

yes, this is exactly what I have done (I check the box to manually configure MTU, put the value from the drop down to 1500 and validate) but whenever I change it and save the new settings, once I go back to it, it is again at 2000 :confused:
in addition I do not see a jumbo frame option. Do you have a screenshot of your synology settings you could share with me maybe? thank you

7

Update: even though the changes applied do not stay when I refresh, the status of the connection in another panel shows an actual MTU at 1500, so I should be good there…

8

Hi @Miles_B ----- Thank you for the report and my apologies for the troubles here.

Moving forward can you verify for me if you have tried playback some content that is stored locally on the MacBook pro hosting your Roon core? If so, was the experience the same of was it different?

Furthermore, if you play audio back through the internal speakers of the MBP, do you still receive drop outs?

-Eric