Some days I struggle to stream Tidal high-res. Today it is particularly bad and even CD quality crashes. My setup is Roon server on my MacBook Air (M3 16GB) to my Primare i35 Prisma amplifier. I check my internet speed both when I experience crashes and also at other times. It’s typically 3-400 Mbps. Those nights when everything is streaming perfectly the internet speed is the same. And btw I am able stream 4K video whilst the music is crashing. So I don’t think it it my internet connection. That brings me to Tidal or Roon. Could one of these or the interaction between them be the problem? And why is it only some days? I really hope you can give me some advice to solve the problem. Best regards and thank you in advance. Henrik
Describe your network setup
Roon server on MacBook Air M3 16GB to Primare i35 Prisma. I stream Tidal high-res and CD quality. My internet speed is 3-400 Mbps.
Thanks for writing in and sharing your report! Sorry to hear about your playback issues.
Do you experience the streaming issues no matter the endpoint you play audio to? For example, if you simply play audio from the system output of your Macbook Air, do you run into the same issues?
How is your Macbook connected to your router? Can you set up a temporary hardwire ethernet connection?
Based on a recent diagnostic report from your Roon Server, we’re seeing the playback failures you refer to:
Trace: [.NET ThreadPool Worker] [Primare I35 () @ 192.168.0.42:40238] [raatclient] GOT [15] {"status":"Dropout","samples":43008}
Warn: [Worker (4)] [Primare] [zoneplayer/raat] Too many dropouts (>3s dropped out in the last 30s). Killing stream
Trace: [Worker (4)] [Primare] [zoneplayer/raat] too many dropouts. stopping stream
Warn: [Broker:Transport] [zone Primare] Track Stopped Due to Slow Media
We see the dropouts, but the track itself is buffered at 100% - so the issue seems to be between your Mac and the Primare. How is the Primare connected to your Mac and network?
If you can, simplify your connections, and see if you allocate additional network bandwidth to the Primare from your router settings.
Hi Benjamin, thank you for the swift reply. You are spot on. I just did at test streaming Tidal high-res via Roon using my MacBook as endpoint. No drop-outs. When switching back to streaming to my Primare amplifier - drop-outs again. What might be the problem? Do you think it’s on the Roon side or on the Primare side? I currently stream wireless to both MacBook and Primare, and my internet connection is generally stable. I would prefer to continue doing that. I think it is strange that some days I stream all formats to the Primare without a single drop-out and some days it’s terrible. Best regards, Henrik
Wireless connections are very susceptible to interference. So that is more likely to be the source of the issue than the Primare itself. Is there any way you can temporarily test a wired connection to the Primare?
Hi Daniel and Roon, I have tested wired connection of my amplifier. It does not seem to help. Before I got in touch with Roon about this issue, I had restarted the amplifier, the Roon program on my computer and the internet modem many times. Did not help. But I had not restarted my MacBookAir. I tried that yesterday when I had these streaming problems. It immediately fixed the problem. So far it seems to work - but I will let you know if it fixed the problem for good. I only use my MacBook Air (M3 16GB 1TB) for light tasks like internet browsing, email and Youtube. And I do not keep hundreds of tabs open in browser. Whatever the reason for this, I am very happy that it seems to be fixed. I love streaming via Roon. Fantastic platform. Thank you for excellent support. Greetings from Denmark. Henrik
Unfortunately the problem came back. I restarted everything and can now stream again - for a little while I guess. Not really sustainable. Does anyone else have this problem?
Have you tested both wired for amplifier and MacBook? It seems like there is some kind of interference with getting the stream properly sent from Macbook → Primire. If you wish to continue to troubleshoot the WiFi, I would look into the specific WiFi channels in use, perhaps you are on some that are congested/overlapping with neighbors.
Hey there, I also suggest to try a wired connection between your router and Roon server respectively your MacBook, just to be 100% sure that it’s a Wi-Fi issue.
I had similar problems with playback after upgrading to a new Wi-Fi router a couple of days ago. There’s massive traffic from neighbours’ routers operating in 5GHz band which seems to reduce performance and affect the connection between the Roon server and its endpoints. After switching the Wi-Fi channel (from auto to some specific channel) the problem just disappeared. No more dropouts.
Hi all, I haven’t had any drop-outs since the update to the Roon app came out a couple of days ago (MacBook and iPhone updated). Not sure if it is a coincidence, or if my problem has been fixed. I will update this post in a few days when I know for sure. Thanks for all the recommendations. Wonderful community. Henrik
Hi @henrikbuuslarsen,
I’m glad to hear there’s been some improvement with the update! Hopefully things continue to move in the right direction. Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you notice any changes—we’re here to help!
Hi Roon, the crashing became less frequent but unfortunately it didn’t stop. See pic attached of streaming failure. A few seconds per track and then on to the next one. I’ve tried quite a few things in my little investigation. Seem like clearing the cache in Roon and restarting everything fixes the problem - at least for some time. I’m speculating that the crashes have something to do with the cache. Could that be the case? And are there some settings or something els you’d recommend? Thank you for great support. Henrik. Ps now I’m almost half way through the same hi-res recording that crashed constantly before I did the cache clean and restart. This time without any crashes
