Core Machine (Operating system/System info/Roon build number)
MacMini 2012
MacOS 10.15.4
16 GB RAM
512 GB SSD (small music library, plenty of reserved disk space because I mainly stream Qobuz)
Network switch Cisco WS-C2960G-8TC-L Catalyst 2960 8-Port 10/100/1000 Ethernet Switch
Everything is wired, no wifi
The network provider is Xfinity (Comcast), CA USA
The network speed is > 400 mbps
No other processes are run by me except the RoonServer, of course there are some generic MacOS processes
Spotlight is disabled
Memory used the RoonServer is relatively small, a fraction of the total physical 16 GB
I have occasional “stuttering” issue with Qobuz streaming at hires 192/42, everything else below 192/24 is fine.
When that happens, restarting the RoonServer fixes it, looking at the MacOS Console logs does not show anything suspicious.
Both the Linn Klimax DSM/3 and the MacMini hook to the same Cisco switch.
PS: Please note that I do not have any issue whatsoever if I run the RoonServer on a Windows 10 PC or a Qnap NAS. The main reason I am using the macmini because it is intended to be a dedicated Roon machine.
Does the same behavior occur if you try to stream local 192kHz content? If you don’t have any you can download a few sample tracks from the 2L Test Bench (right click the file size -> save as).
FWIW, I have the same internet provider (Xfiniti) in the same state, and the same endpoint (Linn Klimax DSM/3), but a NUC with Ubuntu Server 20.04 as Core. I can stream Qobuz 192/24, no stuttering. I hate to hint at bad news, but I’m wondering if the SSD on the MacMini might be starting to fail and causing the MacMini to work hard to correct errors. Have you taken a look at the macOS logs?
Sorry, very long WFH day, finally relaxing with music and single malt, missed your mention of the logs. Puzzling, for sure. I’ve had the configuration I described since last summer (with earlier Ubuntu), zero stuttering at every sample rate to 192. However, I’ve had very occasional track skips on Qobuz, which may be due to Xfiniti flakiness – I have a dual ISP setup (Xfiniti + Sonic/AT&T) with an Ubiquiti EdgeRouter router that fails over to the other if one of the ISPs fails, but there can be a bit of a glitch when that happens.
An intermittent disk failure can cause a high-priority kernel disk error recovery task to preempt other tasks, even if those tasks do not use the disk. ’
That a restart fixes the problem makes me wonder if there’s a memory leak in the RoonServer task makes it start paging so much that it stutters. Have you checked the virtual size of the RoonServer task right after the stutter happens? My Core stays up for weeks, but then it’s on Linux, not macOS. The NUC has 8GB main memory, RoonServer is currently 4GB virtual, 1.8GB real.
Usually what happens is that when I switch from any album (of lower than 192/24) to 192/24 album, the stuttering would occur just after a few notes, and this only happens with the Qobuz streaming on this mac mini.
@noris, I only have 1 zone, which is the Linn Klimax DSM/3, which does 192/24. My other zone is the Slim Device Transporter, only supports upto 96/24, so it is irrelevant here.
I would let you know more details when it happens next.
Thanks for logging the timestamp. Can I please ask that you use these instructions to access your RoonServer logs and upload a set? Note if you have both Roon and RoonServer on the same PC, please access the RoonServer Core logs.
Thanks for sending the logs over, but unfortunately, these appear to be from your Roon app, not the RoonServer Core. Can you please zip up your RoonServer logs instead? You should be able to access RoonServer logs by using these instructions:
OS X Core
You can find your or RoonServer folder by following these steps:
Open Finder and click Go in the top bar
Hold down the Option key (or Alt)(⌥) to unhide the Library folder
I had the QA team take a look at the logs, we’re seeing a few general errors but we’re unable to determine if they are directly related to the behavior you are seeing.
Could you attempt to reproduce this behavior again and taking note of the following information:
A. The name of the currently playing track.
B. The local time that the issue occurred.
C. The date the issue occurred.
D. A description of what the audio sounds like when the issue occurred.
E. Did you see any errors appear in Roon when the issue occurred?
