[quote]Hi John – here’s the latest and no change – still random pops or clicks with Roon.
Images below show what the Ayre displays with Roon for a ripped CD and a downloaded hi-res 24/96 file. This is from yesterday.
1 – I tried switching USB cables; still random noise
2 – I tried switching USB ports; the same issue
Tried again today: played 5 files
– a ripped CD file
– an iTunes downloaded file
– a ripped CD file
– the same song downloaded in 192/24 from HDtracks
– a 44/24 file (Beatles track) transferred from a flash drive
Random pops and clicks – and not many at all – but each file had issues.
(The images showed the display on the DAC at 384 regardless of file resolution playing.)
Details:
Roon v1.2
MacBook Pro; OSX 10.10.5; 4GB memory/2.53Hz
Tried same files on two external LaCie hard drives
Have about 6,500 “tracks” on the drives; all AIFF files;
DAC is the new Ayre QX-5
Does not happen when playing thru Amarra on a different laptop (same hard drive)
Does not happen when playing thru an Aurender music server[/quote]
Hi @Tom_Pawlik ----- Thank you for the report and my apologies for the troubles here. Dropouts can be caused by a variety of reasons as we have documented here in our knowledge base. More times than not, dropouts are related to some kind of networking or hardware performance issue. We recently had a case where a failing drive in a NAS had caused all sorts of issues for one of our users.
I see that you have provided some details of your current setup :
Roon v1.2
MacBook Pro; OSX 10.10.5; 4gb memory/2.53Hz
Tried same files on two external LaCie hard drives
Have about 6,500 “tracks” on the drives; all AIFF files;
DAC is the new Ayre QX-5
Thank you for this information. Can you confirm for me if all your media is being pulled from the drives mentioned in this description and furthermore, are you noticing the same behavior when playing content from local storage?
Moving forward, can you please give me a brief but accurate description of your network configurations/topology, as well as some insight into any networking hardware you may be implementing in your setup (routers, repeaters, switches, extenders, etc). The make and model of any of these devices would be good to have as well. I want to understand exactly how everything is communicating and receiving information in your setup. The more descriptive you can be the better
I haven’t tried any files directly from the laptop. All files stored on the the LaCie drives. Using the main LaCie drive that I used with Roon I had the issues and also with a portable LaCie back up drive. When using the same drive on different laptop thru Amarra I had no issues. I used two USB cables in both instances. I also borrowed an Aurender music server and used two different USB cables and did not find the problem. I’m not using a network. Just the “hard wired” connection from the hard drive connected to the laptop, Roon software, and then the QX-5 connected to the laptop. Also using all AIFF files except the iTunes download was an Apple Lossless file. For some reason the QX-5 doesn’t recognize the file resoltions thru Roon. It does thru Amarra and also thru the Aurender. (The USB cables used were a WireWorld cable and the cable that accompanied the QX-5.) Let me know if you need more info.
Hi @Tom_Pawlik ----- Thank you for the follow up and the feedback, both are very appreciated!
Moving forward, I understand how frustrating and tedious these types of issues can be especially when troubleshooting any potential network or hardware issues. This generally comes down to trial and error and identifying where things are failing or succeeding.
Swapping your USB cables / ports is an excellent starting point. You have also been able to identify that this issue is not being experienced when using Amarra on a different laptop as well as playing music thru an Aurender music server So as it stands, based on these observations, the MAC + LaCie Drives + QX-5 is the configuration that is having the problem, so we must begin to change some variables here. I would strongly suggest trying the following:
Confirm that the firmware on the QX-5 device is up to date.
Test with some locally stored content to see if there are any changes in behavior when using the QX-5.
Trying playing back Roon content through the internal speakers on the MBP, are there still dropouts?
Trying to get Roon to find music files on the laptop. What does “Watching files in real time” mean?
When I first installed Roon I used some files from the laptop and then when I hooked up the hard drive I disabled the laptop content to eliminate duplicates. Doesn’t seem to want to “re-enable” files in the music folder
Eric, no luck. There was a firmware update which I did. The Ayre still won’t recognize file resolutions and there were still dropouts from external hard drive files AND from internal laptop files. Not sure where to go from here.
Hi @Tom_Pawlik ------ Thank you for the feedback and taking the time to answer my questions. Did you by chance try playing content directly out of the internal speakers on the MBP? I am curious to see if we bypass the Ayre, if dropouts persist. Log gathering will be our next step here after this test.
Eric, yes, I forgot to mention. There are no dropout issues with internal speakers or with desktop speakers that run through an Audioquest Dragonfly DAC. Only through the Ayre. Thanks for your help on this.
@Tom_Pawlik ----- Thank you for confirming that bit of information for me. This would indicate that the application itself is behaving as it should be but there is certainly some kind of communication issue with the Ayre. As mentioned I would like to gather some logs from you so our developers can have a closer look into this issue and will be contacting you via PM shortly with instructions.
Furthermore, and my apologies for any confusion on my part, have you tried swapping USB cables running to the QX-5? What are your Roon audio settings like? Have you tried using “exclusive mode”?
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