Problem playing HighRes via ROON Bridge on Raspberry Pi 3

Support
1

Hi !

Yesterday I installed Roon Bridge on my Raspberry Pi 3 on top of Ubuntu mate 15.10.

The unit is connected via USB to my Hegel HD30 Dac.

Everything works well BUT, I get sparkle and pop’s while playing HighRes-music from my NAS, otherwise it works fine on CD-quality and from Tidal.

2

How is your RPI3 connected to the network? If via ethernet, that might be your problem. The RPI3 uses the SMSC LAN9514 chip for USB and Ethernet over a single channel to the SOC. So I imagine that would go wrong at hires (and sound … otherwise).

3

What resolutions are you using @Erik_Hansson ? If it’s DSD then the single channel issue is most likely the problem. Other users have been able to stream 192 kHz without a problem. If that is where you are having issues then it could be a networking problem. Can you describe your networking setup ?

Options to avoid the single channel problem include:

  • Possibly, using the inbuilt Wi-Fi input into the Pi 3 instead of Ethernet. I haven’t checked this so don’t know if it cures the issue. A Wi-Fi USB dongle would not;

  • Using a HAT on top of the Pi, which connects by l2s through the GPIO header. The Hifiberry Digi+ is an example, with Toslink and Coax S/PDIF outs. Haven’t seen one with a USB out (but haven’t exhaustively searched);

  • Using a similar ARM device that doesn’t put Ethernet and USB on the same channel. I use a CuBox-i as an HQ Player NAA, have also used a BeagleBone Black. Others have used a WandBoard.

4

Not sure what load Mate puts on your Pi, but I can imagine running the full graphical desktop AND processing high-res is a bit much. A more bare-bones install may suit you better.

1 Like
5

Hi !

The single channel for networking should not be the case because I can play the same files FLAC 192/24 with an RuneAudio-image by my DS-Audio software from Synology with DLNA with the same cables and physical-port on the switch without any crack’s and pop’s. I will have to go back to an light Raspbian Image instead to se if that help.

Thank You !.

6

Hi !

Yesterday evening I’ve tried an Raspian LITE-image on the SD-card and installed Roon-bridge.

And also there is no problem to play Highres what so ever through my Ifi Micro iDSD, this was the situation with Ubuntu MATE to. Will the fact that I first boot the system with my Ifi Micro iDSD connected and then transfer it to Hegel HD30, be a problem ?