I have a Mac mini (Mid 2011) directly connected via switch to my ReadyNAS. I’ve had no issues playing DSD64 or DSD128 files all the way through over the past 2-years. Now that I have nee 6TB of tracks on the NAS I have experienced numerous issues with the DSD tracks dropping when playing from the NAS. 24/192 files all play without dropping, and if I copy the DSD tracks in question over to the local HDD in the Mac mini the DSD files play all the way through without dropping.
After following the troubleshooting for dropping tracks I’m looking for guidance on the approach I should take to eliminate this issue.
My Mac mini does not have an SSD drive. I’m not experiencing a sluggish experience as described, but was curious if not having an SSD drive for roon, and its database can cause the dropping tracks. If so I will try this first.
I don’t have the recommended Synology or QNAP NAS units. Since I have not been experiencing issues previously with DSD playback I’m not sure this is the cause of the dropouts. I have run the diagnostics on the NAS to confirm the RAM and performance have not changed, and nothing was detected. Maybe the ReadyNAS is the cause of the DSD tracks not loading quick enough.
I replaced all Ethernet cables, and tried a different switch without any changes in performance.
If I was going trouble shoot this issue in steps versus a shotgun approach what would you recommend I start with first?
A few questions to help support out. Which ReadyNAS are you using? What switches did you try? If any of them are managed then that might be an issue. How large is your library, # of tracks?
I don’t think that not having an SSD for the Roon Database would affect playback dropouts. As always support will correct me if I"m wrong, lol.
The NAS recommendations are for when you want to run Roon Server ON the NAS.
The original switch I’ve been is a Netgear FS1016. Unmanaged switch.
For testing I tried the gigabit ethernet connection on the rear of an Apple Time Capsule. The Time Capsule was not connected to the WAN.
I currently have 81,985 tracks in the library.
The next thing I was going to try was to configure the ReadyNAS with a static IP address (I believe I did this years ago), and then the Mac mini and connect the two devices together. Based on your initial thoughts that might have some merit.
Still trying to narrow down the issue with dropping DSD files. I’m now having a slightly different issue that was not experienced previously. Today I turned on the system, and was successful in playing a DSD track completely. I randomly picked a DSD track from a different album, and the playback dropped after 30-40 seconds. I tried playing 3rd DSD file from a different album, and it would not play. I tried a 24/96 flac file, and roon still would not play that track. I closed and reopened roon, and it played the 24/96 file all the way through. After trying another DSD track it started to play but stopped after ~30 seconds. I let roon advance to the next track on the DSD album, and it played all the way through.
Thank you Daniel
I use the Grace M920 as a DAC
The ReadyNAS is already set with a static IP address, and will be trying the ReadyNAS connected directly to the Mac mini next.
Yes. USB between the Mac mini and Grace.
Over the weekend I was able to play many DSD tracks without dropping. The strange thing is I did absolutely nothing. After two days the problem started again. I think it has something to do with the same DSD tracks. Since roon was playing without issue I didn’t try bypassing the switch and running an ethernet cable directly from the Mac mini to the ReadyNAS. That will be the next step.
I’ve tried everything besides replacing the Mac mini and the ReadyNAS. DSD files randomly will not play all the way through. Still open to other ideas.
I have enabled diagnostics on your accounts so our techs can try to determine what could be causing this behavior to occur. What this action will do is the next time the application is active on your core device a diagnostics report containing a set of your Roon logs will automatically be generated/uploaded directly to our servers.
When this occurs, I will respond back to you with possible further diagnostic steps we can take to try and resolve this issue.
Thank you John,
I’ve been using roon over the past 20+ days, an I’m still experiencing issues with DSD tracks dropping, but I’ve been able to randomly get the DSD track that dropped to play after the 4-5 time of just replaying the same DSD track.
@john I recently tried to play some DSD files I recently purchased. It appears the problem still exists. I struggled to get the first DSD64 track to play all the way through without the files is loading to slow message. I kept playing the first DSD file of the album over and over until it would play all the way through. Now I’m on the third track of the album after the 1st and 2nd tracks played through completely.
Just curious if there was any insight gained from the diagnostics that were enabled on my account.
In an effort to continue troubleshooting this I shut down roon, and installed Audirvana. Audirvana was able to play the suspected DSD files that would not play through completely without any issue form the NAS. Still scratching my head on this one.
Don
I’m sorry to hear you haven’t been able to get this working. Let’s go walk through some troubleshooting so we can narrow down why you’re seeing this behavior with Roon.
In the “Device Setup” screen for the Grace Design DAC, what do you currently have selected for “DSD Playback Strategy”? On MacOS, the correct setting for this should be the “DoP” option. If you download the file from your NAS to your Mac Mini and play the file locally, do you see the same behavior?
Hi @john
Thank you for the followup.
Prior to receiving your response I restarted the Mac mini.
Playback strategy for the Grace M920 is DSD over PCM v1.0 (DoP).
Today from the NAS:
The first track of the suspected DSD album played for approximately 2 minutes, and then I received the message about the track loading slowly. Then roon jumped to track 2. Track 2 played completely.
Track 3 started playing , and made it about 2 minutes, and the message about the track loading slowly.
Copied the suspected DSD album to the Mac mini. Clicked “Play Now”.
Tracks 1-3 played completely.