Force Roon to download a music track in a few seconds

Roon Software Discussion Networking
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I have had issues with dropouts in the past when streaming 192/24 files via Qobuz. All other sampling rates worked, so it was not urgent. When another user reported similar problems, I went looking for clues.

The problem on my music server with Windows 11 Pro was obvious. I noticed that the data flow in the input is below the data flow of the output (HQPlayer NAA). At 192,000 Hz x 24 bits x 2 channels, the bandwidth should be at least 9.216 Mbps. The input fluctuates between 4.6 - 9 Mbit/s. Every now and then a jumbo frame comes in so that it works at all. I didn’t understand why it wasn’t streaming at higher bandwidth on my 1GB line.

My Solution: When I set the services for the network and Roon to “real time” with Process Lasso, an amazing effect occurred. Roon streams a 192kHz/24bit file from Qobuz into memory within a few seconds. I no longer have dropouts with 192/24 files. The output (dotted line) to HQPlayer is very linear.

This works very well with all sampling rates. I don’t know if it works in other computer systems.

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Input into Roon itself won’t be the same as out from Qobuz as it’s pulling in flac which is compressed and pushing out PCM which is not so your 9.2mbs is true only for pcm not Flac. Flac will vary dependant on the content on the flac compression level used.

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You’re right, of course. FLAC can save between 30% and 70% storage space. Qobuz provides a 44.1 kHz/16 bit file (1411 KB/s) with a FLAC stream of 900 KB/s. This corresponds to a compression of about 64%. That would be about 5.9 Mbit/s at 192/24. The only thing is that control data and checksum protocols and others also go over the line. Either way, I had problems from time to time.