Hello @WWLAladdinSane
Thanks for the thorough troubleshooting on this, that MP3Val output is a big help.
We have a theory but want to confirm it with you rather than assume: there’s a known issue where CRC-protected MP3 frames get falsely flagged as corrupt by Roon, and it’s possible that’s what you’re running into here, especially since the file plays fine everywhere else, including ARC streaming from the same file. Could you please share the full/exact error text MP3Val gave you (not just “header mismatches” summarized), so we can confirm whether it specifically mentions a CRC check failure? If you know what software originally encoded or ripped this file, that would help too, since some encoders enable CRC protection by default and others don’t.
If it does turn out to be CRC-protected MP3s, the good news is a fix for exactly that is already in Roon 2.71 (build 1674), currently on our Early Access branch, and should ship in an upcoming production release. You’re welcome to try it now if you’d like to confirm: EarlyAccess: Roon 2.71 Build 1674 and ARC 1.81 Build 422 are Live!
Please share those details and we’ll go from there.