Brief drop-outs using Roon over Airplay (ref#IEJQE2)

Support
1

What’s happening?

· Other

How can we help?

· None of the above

Other options

· Other

Describe the issue

Experiencing brief drop-outs when using Roon over Airplay. No issues with Chromecast, Roon Ready/Tested devices etc

Describe your network setup

Eero Pro 6, Core connected to Eero via TP Link Gigabit switch. Airplay devices connected via WiFi.

2

Just to add some more information:-

Roon Core runs on a N100 mini PC, 16GB Ram, 512GB SSD. Library stored on a 1TB SATA SSD mounted internally as a second drive. I also use Tidal for streaming.

The Airplay devices are 2x Yamaha Musiccast 50 speakers and a Samsung Q930B soundbar. All are connected by Wi-fi. All three devices suffer the same dropouts.

The dropouts are seemingly random, affecting both streamed and local content. They last maybe a second at most. Sample/bitrate etc make no difference. Dropouts can happen at any point in a song. Not every song will experience one.

I also use various Chromecast and Roon Ready/Tested devices and these have no issues. They’re mainly connected by Wi-fi too. I have an Ifi Zen DAC 2 connected directly to the Core and it doesn’t experience this issue.

3

Hi @Graeme_Rogers ,

Thanks for reaching out with your message. Are you able to temporarily connect one of the affected Airplay devices via Ethernet to confirm if the issue occurs only on WiFi or if it occurs on Ethernet as well? Additionally, can you please let us know the exact local time + date + track when you experience the next dropout? We can enable diagnostics to see if the logging provides any clues.

4

Having dropouts here too.reset network and no difference.
Ethernet connection here.

5

Thanks,

Haven’t been able to hardwire anything yet but the latest dropout was today at 1629, song was ‘Black Steel’ by Tricky from the album ‘Maxinquaye (Deluxe Edition)’.

6

Hi @Graeme_Rogers,

Thanks for the update! If you haven’t, I’d also test out enabling the AirPlay compatibility toggle within the zone/device settings, and see if you experience the same issues.

Thank you!

7

Morning,

So I’ve been able to hardwire one of the Yamaha speakers but I’m afraid the drop-outs persist even over a wired connection.

If it helps, the latest one was today at 1004. Song was ‘Untouched’ by the Veronicas.

I’ve also tried your suggestion of toggling the Airplay compatibility mode. This resulted in no sound at all so I’ve disabled it again.

9

Hi @Graeme_Rogers,

Thanks for sending those timestamps. I reviewed your logs and saw a brief loss of connection between the server and your AirPlay endpoint. Wi-Fi connections can be prone to interference, which would explain the drop. If any of your AirPlay endpoints can connect via Ethernet, could you try that temporarily and let us know if it stays stable?

10

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for your reply.

Please note however that I’ve tried an ethernet connection to one of the Yamaha speakers (see last post from me) and still experienced drop-outs (1004 today).

11

Hey @Graeme_Rogers,

We’re also seeing stoppages from other zones as well, for example:

Warn: [Fiio M21] [zoneplayer/raat] Too many dropouts (>3s dropped out in the last 30s). Killing stream
Warn: [zone Fiio M21] Track Stopped Due to Slow Media

And before that, we’re seeing a Prebuffer Issue, which means the system attempted to read more audio data for buffering, but received nothing (0 / 8820). This can happen due to a network hiccup or a temporary issue fetching from the TIDAL stream.

Trace: [prebuffer] short read: 0 / 8820 fill=439236
Trace: [prebuffer] ready 149940/441000 (34%) @ 0/350 sec

A good next step here may be to review your router / network settings, and seeing if you’re able to set network bandwidth priority to your machine running Roon Server. Perhaps bypass the switch to get a more simplified network setup, even temporarily, to test.

We’ll be on standby for your reply and results! :+1:

12

Thanks Benjamin,

I’ve enabled ‘SQM’ which looks to be the closest thing Eero have to traffic management/prioritisation.

I actually did previously try moving the Core device downstairs and plugging it into the gateway Eero but still saw dropouts.

I also see you reference the Tidal stream. The issue affects both Tidal streams and locally stored content. Is it worth sticking to local content to generate logs from that too?

It’s late evening here so I’m unlikely to get any time listening on the problem devices until tomorrow. I’ll update as and when.

In the meantime, thanks again for your help!