I recently moved to a new location. My network topography is different than the previous location because of limitations on where the fiber could enter the house.
A few times in the past few days, Roon output through my main stereo has turned to white noise when switching to a new album. Sometimes there is also something resembling music bubbling up through the noise, but it is so distorted I can’t even tell whether it’s the song that’s supposed to be playing.
I suspect that this is something to do with Ropiee, or with the DAC attached to the Ropiee box, because I have not had this problem with other endpoints. But before I get too deep into the weeds trying to A/B test the various components in the signal path, I want to see whether this is a problem with a known cause.
I think it may be happening when sample rates change; the last time it happened was when a new album in the queue started.
It happens pretty sporadically, so I’ll just have to remember next time it happens to see what the sample rates and other conditions are. Up until now, I’ve just been rushing to turn off my stereo before the sound drives me up a tree.
Are you on wifi? I’ve never experienced the noise you’re describing, but I had to turn off 24 bit sampling on one of my endpoints because the wifi link couldn’t cope with it.
The Ropieee box is fed via Ethernet. And the Roon box is on the same router, also hard wired. But that router is on the other end of the house from the router that has the WAN connection. (Most of the music is streamed via Qobuz.) And the two routers are in a mesh WiFi configuration.
It’s definitely not a problem with 24 bit per se. I’m listening to a 24/96 recording right now—in fact, the same recording that was playing when the problem last occurred. And I have listened to quite a few 24/192 recordings as well.
It may be a problem with my DAC; it’s got some other issues that may lead me to replace it. Or it might be a problem with Qobuz. It may take a while to figure out what is going on.