Well yes, I have all my local files converted to WAV, but TIdal is 16/44 FLAC.
Roon Core is in Windows 10. Endpoints have been tried on both Linux (SOSE) and Windows.
Not sure I understand the exact question, but all streams show purple (lossless) throughout the signal path. The DACās light with the appropriate signal bit depth / frequency. In between the clicks, the sound is very high quality. Sounds like a record with a scratch that only clicks every other revolution or so. Definitely seems like the the frequency and severity of the clicks is proportionate to the data intensity (higher bits > clicks, more musical complexity > clicks).
Iāve had the same result on two different Win 10 machines. Admittedly the most recent experiment is with a SurfacePro, but its a highly specified model (Core i5, 8GB, 256GB SSD drive). With the main HP machine running isolated to local files, task manager shows no critical load on any of the key resources (CPU, memory, disk).
But tidal is streaming so internet is involved (another variable). Iām trying to remove the variable of playing WAV files. I doubt that is the issue, but the more one can limit the variables the better. Can you convert an album or two to flac for testing.
ps. Iām most interested in the AV interference hypothesis at the moment. Seems the most plausible.
Yep. Isolated everything to the HP local.
I have a bunch of files still packed in FLAC. Iāve always thought that FLAC actually created a higher processing load than WAV?
Depends. My squeezebox players work LESS hard to decode FLAC vs WAV. not sure about roon sever or end points. But given your very odd problem, Iād want to test as many identifiable variables as possible.
Can you give me a little more color on what you mean by the āAV Interference hypothesisā? Would like to make sure I isolate the appropriate components next time I set up an experiment.
Your anti-virus software is doing something with each file as you play it.
Thanks for clarifying, when you said āAVā, Iām thinking āAudio-Videoā.
yes. It took me 5 years of messing with digital audio before my brain started thinking anti-virus when I saw AV. AV programs can sometimes be as bad as viruses for digital streaming, so worth testing.
Update: Really hard to run the isolation tests as recommended (family screams whenever the network goes down for 12 seconds). Can report that anti-virus does not appear to be the problem and the DAC does not appear to be the problem. Running roon outside the ethernet infrastructure (local files, direct USB-to-DAC connection) seems to eliminate all drops and clicks.
Best guess: D-link 24 port switch. Could also be the main router. Could be more than one issue.
My money is on the switch. That was the culprit in my caseā¦