Roon MQA songs -decoder ON>CCA optical>DAC 24/96 (no MQA) = brief cuts while streaming

Support
1

I´m having a problem:

Playing Tidal MQA songs in ROON>Chromecast audio optical out>DAC 24/96 Topping D30 (no MQA) = cuts in streaming (DAC loose sync briefly -1/2 second- sometimes)

When playing standar 16/44.1 no problem at all.

If I disable MQA decoder in Roon /CCA output completly, playback is ok.

The Wifi AC connection with the CCA is very strong, so looks like that is not the problem.

The optical wire is brand new. The DAC is also new.

Any advice please. Thanks in advance @support

3

Hello @kursaal,

Can you try playing non-MQA high resolution files to the CCA and seeing what the behavior is? A good way to test this is to enable Sample Rate Conversion in Roon’s DSP Engine. You can try the “Max PCM Rate” option in the Sample Rate Conversion options to simulate a high resolution stream to the device.

-John

4

Thanks John,

I just tried it, DSP Max PCM Rate (96kHz/24) in a 44.1/16 song, and the result is a bit different but also fail, in fact even more fail. In this case the playback is ok for 10, 15 seconds and then begin stutter. After that stops.

Chromecast audio firmware is: 1.32.124602

5

Hello @kursaal,

As a second test, I would plug a pair of headphones or anything else with an analog 3.5mm AUX input into the CCA to see if you’re able to get dropout free MQA/Max PCM Rate playback working in that scenario. High resolution over Toslink optical is difficult for many devices to handle correctly. Both the optical cable itself and the Toslink transmitter/receiver must be up to the task. The first thing I would look at would be the optical cable, shorter lengths work much better than longer ones. There’s also the factor of optical fibre quality, glass is often recommended however there are many high-quality plastic optical fibre options on the market as well.

-John

6

Thanks again John, I take a note of all the info you give me for the future, very usefull. Anyway, I just decided to return the DAC to vendor.

Roon is amazing. Thanks for that too.

7

Closed due to inactivity. If you are still seeing this issue, please open a new support thread.