Qobuz Skipping All Tracks on SB Touch

Core is iMac 2.9Ghz i5 running Mojave 10.4 8GB DDR3

Roon Core is latest version

Core and SB Touch wired ethernet via TPLink AC 1750, Virgin Media 100mbps broadband

I’m using a SB Touch as endpoint for main hifi, USB out to Marantz hd-dac1, and various Chromecast Audio or iPads as other endpoints around the house via WiFi.

I can play all types of local file types (44.1 flac all the way to DSD) to all endpoints with no issues, and can stream all radio stations inc. flac JB Radio, however ALL Qobuz tracks just skip or won’t play on the SB Touch. Qobuz works fine on all other endpoints.

I’ve logged out and back in to Qobuz (Studio sub). I’ve rebooted the core and the Touch. I’ve turned off DSP. Tried everything, still no joy.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Simon

FYI, local library also stored on the same Mac…

And Qobuz desktop and iPad apps work fine.

Hi @Simon_Ward,

I just want to confirm here, you are saying that local content works as expected for the SB Touch zone, but it is just Qobuz that is affected by this issue for that endpoint? Are you presented with any error messages in Roon when this issue occurs?

Can you please let me know the exact local time in your country (e.g. 5:21PM) that you next experience this issue? After receiving this info I’d like to enable diagnostics mode to see if there is perhaps an internal error message being displayed.

Thanks,
Noris

Hi Noris

Yes, local content all fine, streaming radio stations all fine, Qobuz not fine.

I have left all my Qobuz albums playing on shuffle this evening (focus on Qobuz only), and in the last two hours, 30 tracks have skipped entirely, 5 tracks have played 100%, 1 track 80%, 2 tracks 45% and 2 tracks 40%.

Last skipped track was at 22:39 BST (Radio Stars from 3D by Kraftwerk).

Regards

Simon

Hello @Simon_Ward,

Thanks for letting me know that timestamp. I have gone ahead and enabled diagnostics mode for your account and what this action should do is automatically upload a set of logs to our servers for analysis. I have been keeping an eye out for the mentioned report, but I did not see anything come in yet. Can I please ask you to do two things here?

  1. Reboot your Core (in case it is having trouble communicating with the diagnostics servers)

  2. Manually upload a log package using these instructions and send it to me as a shared Dropbox, Google Drive or Firefox Send link.

Thanks,
Noris

Hi Noris

Core rebooted, and logs are here:

Thanks for your help.

Regards

Simon

Hello @Simon_Ward,

Thanks for submitting those logs. I am taking a look over them and noticed that at the timestamp you reported the buffers are not being filled up:

03/31 22:39:11 Trace: [Hifi] [Enhanced 71.6x, 16/44 QOBUZ FLAC => 24/176] [4% buf] [PLAYING @ 1:46/4:08] What Happened to Us? - Shura
03/31 22:39:13 Warn: [streamingmediafile] in immediate read: System.Net.WebException: The request timed out
03/31 22:39:13 Trace: [Hifi] [Enhanced 71.5x, 16/44 QOBUZ FLAC => 24/176] [4% buf] [LOADING @ 0:00] Radio Stars / Uranium / Transistor / Ohm Sweet Ohm [3-D] - Kraftwerk

I am also seeing similar traces for your other zones:

03/31 13:30:27 Trace: [iFi (by AMR) HD USB Audio Output] [raatclient] GOT [22] {"status":"Dropout","samples":23386952}
03/31 13:30:27 Warn: [iFi] [zoneplayer/raat] Too many dropouts (>3s dropped out in the last 30s). Killing stream
03/31 13:30:27 Trace: [iFi] [zoneplayer/raat] too many dropouts. stopping stream
03/31 13:30:27 Warn: Track Stopped Due to Slow Media

&

04/02 02:37:16 Trace: [80’s Boombox] [Enhanced, 24/48 QOBUZ FLAC => 24/96] [46% buf] [STOPPED @ 0:00] 
04/02 02:37:16 Trace: [80’s Boombox] [Enhanced, 24/48 QOBUZ FLAC => 24/96] [46% buf] [PAUSED @ 0:11/5:13] Heads Gonna Roll - Jenny Lewis

This almost certainly points to an issue with your network connection somewhere along the line. I have the same router as you do and Roon works as expected for me, so I think this might end up being a hardware issue. Let’s try a few more troubleshooting steps before finalizing on that conclusion though:

  1. I am also noticing some NameResolutionFailures. Can you please try changing your Router’s DNS servers from the ISP provided one to Google DNS or Cloudflare DNS? You can use this guide to perform the DNS change.

  2. If the same issue still occurs after the DNS change, can you try enabling IGMP proxying? This setting can be found in Network -> LAN -> IGMP Proxy -> On. Although I didn’t have to enable this setting, it might be required for specific endpoints and would rule out another source of possible configuration issues.

Please let me know if either of my suggestions help with the issue.

Thanks,
Noris

Hi Noris

I already have my DNS set to Cloudflare (1.1.1.1 primary, 1.0.0.1 secondary) and IGMP proxy is already on.

I’m far from a network expert, but I don’t understand how I can stream 4K HDR content from Netflix via Wifi to my TV, but can’t stream properly from Qobuz in Roon via ethernet to my endpoints (Qobuz direct
via Mac or iPad works fine by the way). Bear in mind also that internet radio via Roon works perfectly (even FLAC from JB Radio) on all endpoints.

Any other ideas?

Regards

Simon

Hello @Simon_Ward,

Thanks for confirming the DNS server you are using here and the router config.

Streaming Hi-res Audio vs streaming Video are two separate technologies, just because you are able to stream the 4K content does not mean that hi-res audio will stream as expected.

When this issue next occurs, can you please run a speed test using speedtest.net or fast.com and post a Screenshot of what the speedtest result shows?

Thanks,
Noris

Hi Noris

I managed to listen to a whole album plus a couple of Roon Radio tracks last night without any skips…then back to lots of skips with the odd track actually playing. I’ve just tried again now (13:54 BST) and it just skipped 3 tracks again before playing a track.

Broadband speed test here:

Thanks.

Simon

Hello @Simon_Ward,

I wanted to check in here with you to see if you are still experiencing this issue or if there has been any change in behavior. I will be discussing your case again with the team, but this looks like some ISP instability that occurs at various parts of the day.

Have you tried running Roon on another Core yet? This would also be a useful troubleshooting step here and can give us some insight if this behavior is perhaps core-specific. You can easily switch between cores by un-authorizing the previous one and will provide a good data point.

Thanks,
Noris

Hi Noris

Slightly more success recently, in that about 75% of Qobuz tracks are playing, but there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason as to whether the track skips or not; nothing to do with bit depth, I am currently playing a 24 bit 96khz file with no issues…straight in to a 24/44.1, all fine…and now it has skipped a 24/96, but it straight into another 24/44.1. It’s a lottery whether the next track will skip. I have changed no settings and have not rebooted anything since the main problem a week or so ago. May be an ISP issue, but I never have any issues streaming radio stations, local content or 4K TV, so not sure…

I’ll try installing another core on my PC to see if that makes any difference - I’ll let you know.

Hopefully the next update will bring a Qobuz refresh. I can see from the forum that many people are having similar issues (but I also assume that far more have no problems at all!).

Happy to try other fixes if you have any…

Regards

Simon

Hi @Simon_Ward,

Thanks for letting me know about the status. I spoke to the team today about your case and we have a few other suggestions:

  1. Can you please try using the Google DNS (8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4) instead of Cloudflare? Although unlikely, there might be a change in behavior here, so giving this a try won’t hurt.

  2. We need to determine where exactly the streaming stops. When you are experiencing this issue, what is the exact error message that Roon displays? Does the error message ever change or does it display the same one each time?

  3. What is the exact failure state here? Meaning, when this issue occurs, do you hear audio for any length of time before it skips to the next one? Or does the tracks simply not even start at all? How far into a track do you usually get before it skips if it’s the first case?

  4. Can you try running a speed test to a server that’s not hosted by your ISP? I noticed that you have both Virgin Media and that the speedtest server you tested with is also supplied by them. If you can test with a NY/East Coast Server instead that would give us a better data point as to how the network throughput is actually like.

Thanks,
Noris

Hi Noris

Sorry for delay, I have been busy. I haven’t tried a core on the PC because it is below min spec, but to be fair, the Qobuz streams seem to be working much better at the moment. I have changed DNS to Google, so it may be that. I’d say about 1 in 20 skips now, no rhyme or reason as to which and why - it tries to play, stays on 0:00s for a few seconds, doesn’t play any of the track (never an error message), then skips to the next one.

So not fixed exactly, but better…

Simon

Noris

FYI, I left Roon playing overnight last night, shuffle on all Qobuz albums: 153 tracks played, 33 skipped. No pattern, most just one track skipped, one or two instances of two or three skipped at a time. Most it played with no skips was 20, generally it skipped after about 4 or 5.

Do you still have diagnostics ‘on’ for my account?

Regards

Simon

Hi @Simon_Ward,

Thanks for letting me know that the behavior is better since changing the DNS. I can’t say for sure where the issue lies, but testing to see if other Cores experience this behavior would be a good first step.

Yes, diagnostics mode is still active but I have not seen any new reports come in so I have re-enabled this feature for your account, you may need to manually send logs as before.

Please do let me know the results from trying Roon on a different Core when possible, I believe this would be our best way forward since the logs will likely just show similar behavior to before where the buffers are not being filled up in time.

– Noris

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