Roon core stops playing TIDAL songs after few seconds

[Sonja_Steffens]

Core Machine (Operating system/System info/Roon build number)

MacBook Pro 2013 with 2,6 GHz Intel Core i7
Mac OS Mojave 10.14.6

Network Details (Including networking gear model/manufacturer and if on WiFi/Ethernet)

The macbook is connected via LAN (not WLAN) to NAIM ND5 XS2
In the LAN connection Devolo Micro Links DLAN 500 are used.

Audio Devices (Specify what device you’re using and its connection type - USB/HDMI/etc.)
NAIM ND5 XS2 is connected via audio cable to Westend amplifier.

Description Of Issue

When I start a song from TIDAL via the Roon core app very often only the first few seconds of the song are played and then it stops.
Sometimes the playing stops directly after few seconds, sometimes the sound is stopped but it seems as if the song is played for some further seconds until it stops.

The behaviour is really curious.
Sometimes the same song can be played on another day, sometimes not.
Some songs are always stopped - every day
E.g. the song „you need to calm down“ (Taylor Swift) can not be played via Roon, not even if I try it again and again and again, today, yesterday, …
Other songs can be played every time without any problems.

If I play the TIDAL songs via the NAIM app (without using Roon core) all the songs are played fine, no kind of problems.

Very noticeable is that I have this problem with Roon core since I bought the lifetime license for Roon core.
During the 14 days trial phase before everything was fine, no kind of problems in playing TIDAL songs
(I would not have bought the Roon core license if this problem would have appeared in the trial phase)

The problem appears very often in playing TIDAL songs, restart of the MacBook does not help.
Playing songs from my local iTunes library is working fine, without any problems.

The Roon software does not log any kind of error message, it stops playing without any reference.

It would be great if you could help me in solving this issue.

Best regards
Sonja

[ged_hickman1]

Roon often doesn’t like the power line adapters. If at all possible, just temporarily, move stuff so it’s all connected into your router and see if it works then.
Try playing to the Mac directly and see if it works then.
The symptoms you describe are usually something wrong with the internal network.

[Sonja_Steffens]

Hi ged_hickman1,
many thanks for your hint.
I connected the Macbook directly with the router and for this I used another LAN cable and it worked fine.
Then I used this other LAN cable for connecting the macbook to the power line adapter and - surprise surprise - it also worked fine.
So it seems as if the LAN cable between Macbook and power line adapter was the cause for the problem. Curious because the effect of this “bad” LAN cable wasn’t a systematic error, some songs could be played even with this bad cable.
So I never thought that the cable could be the reason for stopping playing of Taylor Swift ha ha
However - many thanks again.
Wish you nice weekend
Greetings from Germany
Sonja

[ged_hickman1]

Great you found it, that could have been a real pain for ages and ages.