I have a 2017 iMac using Ventura 13.7.2 , a NAD T187 processor, an NAD C658 streamer, and Nucleus (rev.A) and a new Xfinity Hi speed modem. I also have two Netgear switches.
I have the Nucleus running through one of the switches.
I use Tidal with playlists I created and when Roon starts to play, it works for an hour or two then will just stop.
Then when I go to play again, it ping pongs back and forth for 30 seconds or more until if finally locks in and starts to play.
Also once Roon is playing these playlists on Tidal, if I try to skip a track, it will again ping pong back and forth for 30 seconds or more pretty much every time I try to skip tracks.
I have every component connected to Cat 6 and Cat 8 ethernet cables and have very fast Wifi. I have tested the cables, rebooted all the components including the Nucleus, reinstalled Roon on my iMac and iPhone and played Roon just through the iMac with the C658 streamer turned off…
… and Roon continues to ping pong when skipping tracks, however it seems more stable when just using the iMac.
I also tried connecting the Nucleus directly to the Modem which also did not fix the problem.I do not have a VPN connected. Also today I had to reboot the Nucleus to get Roon to work.
Brent
Describe your network setup
Netgear 8 port gigabit switch model TL-SG10008D Netgear 5 port gigabit switch model TL-SG10005D Xfinity Modem CM MAC: C4509CDF9E9C
Have you tried not using CAT 8 cables? None of your equipment are designed to use them — they are very specialized — and they can cause problems when used with such equipment.
Thanks for writing in! Sorry to hear about your issues, we appreciate your thoroughness and screenshot of your network diagram.
We were able to review a fresh diagnostic report from your Nucleus, and observed a handful of different network errors, and audio dropouts that ultimately led to the stoppage of playback.
As a next step, to help rule out any potential network issues, can you setup a direct ethernet connection from your primary router to your Nucleus, as well as to your iMac, and test out playing audio only to the system output of your mac remote?
See how stable playback is, and let us know the results, thank you!
Hi Benjamin
I replaced all Cat 8 cables with Cat 6 and reconfigured the ethernet cables from the router to the iMac and Nucleus. Playing from the Mac is stable and works well. The iPhone works for maybe 10 minutes and then starts to ping pong again on skip. I have to reboot my iPhone to get it to start working again with Roon. I also did a software update on the NAD C658 streamer which seemed to really help.
Thanks, Brent
You have my apologies @Brent_McGowan - we reviewed a recent diagnostic report and realized we hadn’t requested you to also test out hardwiring the NAD device directly to your primary router as well.
Is this something you’d be able to try?
A few other options with this:
Prioritize the NAD C658 traffic on your network router via Quality of Service (QoS) settings.
If you’re only able to use Wifi, see if you can set the NAD to function on the 5 GHz band (for Wi-Fi) and close to the access point
Some additional questions:
Do different file formats change the behavior? If possible, try playing a lower-resolution track (e.g., 16/44.1) to see if the issue persists.
Would you be able to snap a screenshot of the signal path when this is occurring?
I’m getting the “ping pong” when playing tracks in Roon as well (Tidal is the service). I noticed this happening a few days ago. If I wait an unspecified amount of time, the track will eventually play most of the times. Sometimes I have to close and reopen Roon. I’m using Grimm Audio’s MU1 and Orbi’s mesh Ethernet connection. I have 1GB spectrum internet and I’m getting proper speeds. I’m thinking of getting a Qobuz subscription and see if the issue still remains because I’m suspecting Tidal is the issue of its not Roon.
I haven’t tried Qobuz yet but I’ve ruled out a few things. I’ve been using Roon ARC on my IPhone and Android phone at work today and zero play back issues. I was in my work WiFi and my cellular connection. When I got home Roon arc still working on my WiFi network and and cellular network, zero issues. When I switched to WiFi and used the “Roon” app, the play back issues immediately started happening on my android phone and IPhone. I got an update to my Orbi app today as well. Right now, I’m leaning towards there being and issue with the Roon app and it needs an update. I’ve been reading other topics and there are other users with some forms of various connectivity issues. Instances where everything was fine and recently playback issues. One other thing, once a songs actually plays, it will keep playing tracks without any issues as long as I don’t manually select a track or manually skip to another track.
The signal path could not be displayed during the ping ponging but this is the signal path during normal play back. I also connected the Ethernet cable from the NAD to the router with no result. I am not sure Xfinity modems have this setting you are describing.
I finally figured out what was causing my playback issues. Tidal is still using MQA, which was supposed to be discontinued in 2024. Previously, I had MQA disabled for my MU1 in the settings and “prefer anything else over MQA”. I enabled MQA as a decoder and renderer for my MU1 and left everything else the same. I closed and reopened Roon and now everything plays as normal, no delays and I can skip and play tracks with ease. Whatever the Roon Dec update was, it didn’t agree with my MQA setting anymore. I’m not sure this will correct your issues but hopefully it does, good luck!
My setup:
Grimm Audio MU1- Chord Dave- McIntosh Ma 352
I borrowed a friends NAD C658 streamer identical to mine and there was no change in the ping pong during skip so I guess I can eliminate the problem is the streamer.
Today I took the Nucleus to my neighbor’s home and tried it on his system which is similar to mine and once again after 5 or so skips it stared to ping pong. Then we unplugged the Nucleus for a minute and tried again and it work for an hour with no ping pong. I then reinstalled it into my system and after 10 minutes it started to ping pong. Are you able to run another diagnostic check again to see if there is a problem with this Nucleus since it seems to be it might have a problem. Also is it possible that the processor chip in it is now so old that it simply can’t handle the network traffic anymore and this causing the problem.
This is possible we are seeing traces of network errors in your Nucleus’ logs. Since you’ve tried it on different networks it seems likely. You can submit an RMA at this link Nucleus Troubleshooting
Thanks for the update - we were able to review a fresh Nucleus diagnostic report, and didn’t see any signs at hardware-related failure, so an RMA may not be helpful at this time.
Is this still the case? You only see this happen from your iPhone remote?
To confirm, have you tested out disabling all DSP and see if you run into the same issue?
If the issue is only occurring from Tidal, it may be worth testing out a different DNS server on your Nucleus.
We have seen users have a better experience in the past if they change their Router’s DNS servers from the ISP provided ones to Cloudflare DNS, Quad9 or Google DNS. Can you please give this a try and let me know if it helps?
Here’s a step-by-step on how to change the DNS settings on your Nucleus:
Open a web browser on a device connected to the same network as your Nucleus.
Enter the IP address of your Nucleus in the address bar.
If you don’t know the IP address:
Open the Roon app.
Go to Settings > Setup > Find Nucleus.
Note the IP address shown for the Nucleus.
Alternatively, use http://nucleus.local/ (on macOS or Windows with Bonjour installed).
Log into the Web Interface:
Once the web page loads, you’ll see the Nucleus web administration interface.
Change the DNS Settings:
Scroll down to the Networking section.
If the Nucleus is using DHCP:
Note that you cannot directly edit DNS settings under DHCP. You will need to switch to a static IP to specify custom DNS servers.
Switch to a Static IP:
Click on the Configure or Edit option under networking.
Enter the current network settings for your Nucleus (IP address, subnet mask, gateway) manually. These can often be found in your router’s settings or your current DHCP lease information.
Specify Custom DNS Servers:
Add DNS servers in the relevant fields. Common choices:
Google DNS: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
Cloudflare DNS: 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1
OpenDNS: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220
Save and Apply Changes:
Click Save or Apply to confirm your new settings.
Restart the Nucleus (make sure Roon Server is stopped) and let me know if you continue to experience stoppages when streaming.
