How can I best troubleshoot brief gaps in the playback?

Support
1

Core Machine (Operating system/System info/Roon build number)

i5 sonicTransporter with OS v2.7

Network Details (Including networking gear model/manufacturer and if on WiFi/Ethernet)

Music library is on a Synology NAS which is connected through dual 1 Gbps ethernet connections to a small D-Link gigabit hub. The sonicTransporter is connected to this same hub. That hub is connected to another similar central hub over a gigabit ethernet connection. There are three Wifi routers (Apple Airport Extreme - 802.11ac) with the same SSID and using ethernet as the backbone.

Audio Devices (Specify what device you’re using and its connection type - USB/HDMI/etc.)

While I playback to several zones, I noticed this problem mainly with one zone that I am currently doing most of my listening on (although it may also be there with others).

The zone in question is a 16" MacBook Pro (wifi with a strong signal) with a USB-C to USB-A Apple adapter that is connected to a FiiO Q5s via FiiO’s included USB-A to microUSB cable. I am listing through headphones connected to the 4.4mm balanced port.

Description Of Issue

I have recently made a number of changes (New MacBook Pro, new Q5s, and new headphones which I listen to with a new convolution filter). Also, my main zone is currently offline due to a power supply issue which makes comparisons for troubleshooting difficult.

The problem is that I have noticed two issues when playing music:

  1. There is sometimes a 1sec gap in the playback (which is obviously quite annoying).
  2. I sometimes feel that the music is stuttering very briefly – almost as if it is having trouble keeping up.

I have noticed the above with all music formats (CD & hi-res Flac – I am currently avoiding DSD as the sonicTransporter does not have the power to perform DSP successfully) and sources (my library + Tidal + Qobuz).

Apart from the above issues, I don’t see any other indications that an error has taken place.

I would appreciate help to advise where I can look to try to troubleshoot this issue. I would like to identify where in the chain it is happening so that I can try to solve it.

I have also attached the signal path below in case it helps. Thanks!

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2

I would suggest turning off all processing and see if the situation improves. If it does, I’d add them back.in one at a time to see.

4

Hi @Adeeb,

I agree with Daniel — Try disabling DSP and let us know if that helps.

1 Like
5

@Rugby @dylan thank you both for your suggestion. while I was pretty sure I had already tried that before with the same results, in about 3 hours of cumulative listening since yesterday, I have not experienced any gaps either with the DSP on or off.

I’ll post back here in a few days once I’ve had more time to test and establish patterns.

Thanks again.

1 Like
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