Hi. Awesome forum. I have an Aries that recently (last ~3 weeks) started acting up; Here is the basic setup:
Roon Core, running on fairly current custom built i7 Windows 10 PC. 32 GB Ram, SSD for OS/Applications.
Roon Endpoints:
-Pair of Sonos Play 1
-Local PC running the Core
-Main Streamer: Auralic Aries
Other Hardware:
-WiFi Router: Netgear Nighthawk X4S AC2600 (R7800-100NAS) Wi-Fi
-DAC: Meitner MA-1 connected via a Wireworld USB cable to the Aries.
-External USB Drives for music libraries (FLAC, AAC, WAV, DSD)
-iPad (modern, latest gen) running LightningDS
I have had this setup running since Dec 1st 2018; It was stable (no dropouts) for many weeks until recently. I usually stream from Tidal but also the DSD-64 files from time to time.
Problem Basics:
Summary: frequent disconnects during playback; sometimes within a minute or 2, others after a few songs. It looks like the Aries drops out of the Roon Zone. Obviously not the desired user experience we want or expect.
Roon & Sonos: Never shows this issue, regardless how many streams the Core is processing.
Roon & PC: same as above. Rock stable
Debug Steps (not in order) > Observation
Located Aries within arms length of Wi-Fi router > Still happens
Power cycle Aries > Still happens
Reboot Roon Core > Still happens
Reboot PC > Still happens
Reset cable modem > Still happens
Reboot Wi-Fi > Still happens
Factory reset Aries > still happens
LightningDS (take Roon out) > still happened but much lower frequency
USB Drive into USB Port on Aries > Never happened --> update: after playing with direct connected USB drive, after 2 or 3 songs playback will stop and restart from very beginning or just stop altogether.
Wired connection to Router > Still happens; actually was SUPER bad this way. Ended up totally messing up my router in a real nasty way that required me to hardware reset the router. MAC’s were being cloned when viewed by the ISP (had them on the phone). I setup the wired connection with LightningDS, followed all the steps and then all manner of router hell began a few minutes after Aries was playing songs from Roon.
Misc Puts:
Like many typical home networks, I’ve got about 5-20 wifi attached devices at any time coming and going. The router has been a rock star; we stream Amazon Prime, Netflix, etc during times of Peak evening activity and these other end user experiences RARELY have any QoS issues.
When the Roon/Aries/Meitner path is working, the audio results are all I could hope for (and afford); Please share your insights and/or ask me for other tests to run.
Cheers and Happy Trails.
Dave