Playback Resolution Issue Streaming Tidal With Chord Mscaler/TT2

[Matthew_Small]

Roon Core Machine

Mac mini M1, 2020; 8GB RAM; macOS Monterey Version 12.6

Networking Gear & Setup Details

Wifi 5G; Netgear CM2000 modem → Netgear RAXE500; NO VPN

Connected Audio Devices

USB → Chord Mscaler → Dual BNC → Chord Hugo TT2

Number of Tracks in Library

7000

Description of Issue

I usually leave Roon open and running on my Mac mini, but sometimes I notice that when I turn on my TT2 and listen to my music, the playback is not full resolution. Songs sound compressed, definitely lack a significant amount of sub bass and authority, and resolution seems significantly lower than it should be. When I restart my Mscaler (unplug and plug back in) and restart Roon, the resolution significantly increases back to where it should be. Music becomes significantly more detailed and easier to listen too and bass / sub-bass increases dramatically to the point where I have to lower the volume. There is definitely some sort of compression issue occurring that requires an Mscaler restart. Songs go from no sub bass to so much that I can feel it in my feet at a lower volume after reset. During times where music is sounding compressed, my Mscaler still shows the proper input sample rate resolution (e.g. 44.1khz) and the TT2 shows the proper upscaled resolution (e.g. 705khz), yet the music definitely sounds compressed to the point where it is uncomfortable to listen to, and resetting the m scaler and tt2 lead to much greater clarity and bass amount. The problem seems to occur after switching off my Audeze Preset Filter that I use for my LCD4 when switching to a different headphone. Thank you for considering my issue.

[connor]

Hi @Matthew_Small,

Thank you for posting publicly on Roon Community, and I’m sorry to hear that you’ve been experiencing some troubling differences in the sonics of your playback.

The team has experienced an uptick of support inquiries in the last several weeks that we’re diligently working through; please allow us a few days to investigate diagnostics from your issue and we’ll respond in this thread.

In the meantime:

1. If you don’t mind, please leave your Core online for at least one hour at some point this week, so the request for logs from our servers has a chance to reach your account. Thank you!

2. Can you please provide a screenshot of your Signal Path? This will be the window opened by clicking on the illuminated dot next to the playback bar.

3. Do you encounter this problem **only **with TIDAL content, or with local files as well?

4. An initial pass at some diagnostics from your account shows that there are timeouts with content streaming from TIDAL. Do you have any firewalls, VPNs, or enterprise-grade security that might be interfering with requests to certain outside servers?

Streaming content to an endpoint will manifest a networking blockage sooner than local playback to your System Output. I recommend removing the Hugo device from your chain and testing TIDAL playback with the speakers on your Core, to reduce the variables at play.