I’m running Roon on an HP laptop computer with Windows 7. My music files are stored on a QNAP NAS connected through a router via Cat 5 wiring. My Roon computer is connected to my PS Audio DirectStream DAC via an Audience USB cable.
When I play music on Roon, I sometimes experience drop-outs (aka skipping, or momentary loss of signal). Are there adjustments to settings I might make that would eliminate this problem? Can you think of anything else I could change that would eliminate the problem?
@vforrest is the HP PC running the Roon server wired or wireless, if wireless try wired, also routers do not make the best hubs, do you have a NWswitch you could try instead? A friend who has a PS Audio Directstream was streaming music from a wired lan pc via USB and he had no dropouts.
Can you let us know how your NAS is setup in Roon? Is it mounted in Windows (with a drive letter), or are you entering your NAS information directly into Roon?
Thanks for your response. The network connections are wired. Actually, the network cabling is plugged into a switch–I was in error. There is a router in the system, but the audio playback info does not go through it.The router is plugged into the switch so the network can have Internet access.
@mike
Aside from a couple of questions asking about my setup, I have had no help with the problem I identified. I’m wondering if the files being read over the network from my QNAP NAS need to be buffered. That seems to work fine in J. River; I never have drop-outs with it. I’ve got 16 GB RAM and could easily spare a couple of GB as a buffer.
[quote=“vforrest, post:6, topic:2131”]
Aside from a couple of questions asking about my setup, I have had no help with the problem I identified. I’m wondering if the files being read over the network from my QNAP NAS need to be buffered.[/quote]
FYI: I am running wired from a QNAP NAS but I am running Win 2012. I do not use a drive mapping to my NAS, I use the SMB://NAS/music type access.
Also my Roon Core and Roon Remote are wired into my Verizon Router. Tried a Powered Hub too, no difference.
In Roon, you have no music you just imported, & no track analysis occurring - set to FAST?
When the drop outs happen you may want to watch task mgr to possibly see what might be causing the drop-outs. Something may be running in background by Windows. Is JR loaded?
Hi @vforrest – sorry for the delay here. We have talked to a few users who have been experiencing dropouts, and we’ve been gathering info and trying to reproduce the issue in house.
Our QA worked over the weekend and they were able to come up with some solid reproduction steps which are now with our developers. This doesn’t always mean a solution is imminent, but it’s always the first step towards a fix, so this is significant progress even if it’s taken slightly longer than we would like.
One thing I’ll mention is that nearly everyone having dropouts is using brands and models of NAS drives outside of those that have received extensive testing by our team – namely Synology and QNAP. A solid percentage of our team is using QNAP at home without issue, so I’m guessing your issue is slightly different than the users we’ve been troubleshooting with.
Can you let me know a little more about your network? In particular, I’d be interested to know which model of QNAP you’re using, as well as the brand and model of the router and switch you’re using.
There may be a few configuration changes I can suggest here to help, but I’d like to get a better sense of your network first. Thanks, and sorry again for the delay here Vade. Looking forward to getting this worked out soon!
[quote=“vforrest, post:8, topic:2131, full:true”]
Thanks for your reply.
“Also my Roon Core and Roon Remote are wired into my Verizon Router.”
I don’t know what this means[/quote]
Roon is a Client/Server product. Most are running Roon in a single machine setup, so the Core and Remote is the same machine. For me, I have a PC that has my Roon Core (Library or music file tracking/database) and my Roon Remote is another PC hooked up to my DAC (endpoint).
[quote]
“In Roon, you have no music you just imported, & no track analysis occurring - set to FAST?”
I’m not sure I follow you here, but analysis is set to Fast. Should I set it to a lower setting? Why would newly imported music affect drop-outs?[/quote]
After importing music files, Roon does a track analysis in the background. If set to FAST it can REALLY eat up CPU cycles. Set to Normal makes things run a little better. You can see analysis progress in the SETUP page (if running)
I see @mike is here to. These guys will get you figured out, it may just take some time and effort trying out things.
For Mike
My QNAP NAS is a TS-251. The switch is a Trendnet TE100-550g. The router is an AT&T U-verse modem model ARRIS NVG589 with both a WiFi and a wired router. The NAS is wired to the switch and so is the cable to the computer running Roon, The router is also connected to the switch so that the computer will have Internet access.
Hope this info is helpful. I appreciate your help.
Hi Vade – we actually had an issue resolved earlier this week when someone updated the firmware on their U-verse box. It surprised us too, but it was the 2nd person who had dropout issues resolved with a firmware update on their router, so I’d love to make sure you’re running the latest firmware on that box before proceeding.
Do you feel comfortable looking into that? I’m happy to do a little research for you if you need a steer, or you might just check in with AT&T. Let’s make sure the issue isn’t something like that, and if needed we can dig in further and collect some information about your install once we’ve ruled out the firmware.
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions @vforrest – talk to you soon!
I checked with At&T, who informed me that everything in their router is current. It took a considerable effort to get them to stop there and not fix the problem by changing my hifi system .
I don’t play audio files on my computer, only from the NAS. There’s not enough room for my music files on my computer’s hard drive. I never use the computer’s speakers-what a turn-off that would be.
I tried a couple of suggestions from other users, like changing the track analysis to Normal instead of Fast, and changing the address of my NAS from a mapped drive to the actual network address. I think those things helped, but I still get an occasional drop-out. Those seem to be with the fastest sampling rates, like DSD128. I was playing a DSD128 Schubert symphony a couple of days ago, and had a drop-out of several seconds.It’s hard to be sure, since the problem occurs intermittently. I don’t have the problem when I’m using J. River.
Specific instructions for what? I don’t understand the question. If you’re talking about setup instructions, please feel free to suggest anything that you think of.
I recently tried a different DAC, the Chord Electronics 2Qute. I’ve played several hi-rez albums (DSD128 and DXD) and haven’t had any problems with playback skipping. I can’t say this solved the problem but I’m hopeful. Of course, it doesn’t solve the problem for my PS Audio DirectStream DAC, which was the one experiencing the problem.
First, How is the 2Qute. I’ve been thinking about that one vs the Hugo. Any personal reviews would be helpful.
Try changing the Trendnet switch which has both computer and NAS plugged into it, test it by plugging both into the ATT? (not sure if that router also has a switch part).
Copy 1 DSD128 file to your computer and just play that on repeat to see if the drop out occurs (assuming you have space on your computer for that 1 work).
The drive is 1.5 TB, and there’s a moderate amount of space available. I don’t want to fill it up with music files, though; that’s why I got the NAS. I review equipment for TAS and some of the servers I review require a NAS, so I want to use my NAS for all servers. It’s too tedious copying large numbers of files to different servers. I think I’ll try playing a hi-rez file from the internal drive per Rugby’s suggestion to see if that makes a difference.
The 2Qute is extremely nice. Haven’t heard the Hugo, though, although I think they use the same FPGA for DAC purposes. The Hugo has a battery PSU and a headphone amp; the 2Qute does not. For further details, see my forthcoming review in TAS.
I substituted another switch I had. Will try that one.
OK, I have plenty of space on the computer, just not enough for all my 1600+ albums. Will give that a try.
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