My connection is wired with 1gbit internet. That cannot be the reason why I’m hearing small breaks when playing songs from Tidal. It does not occur when playing local files. Still, I wonder if it could be based on the processing Tidal requires and my old computer where I run Roon server.
Attached is the screenshot of the processing done by the Roon server. Any thoughts?
@Bernardo_F, I am not a Tidal subscriber, but based on your screenshot your Roon Server computer has plenty of power. The processing speed of 70 means your CPU is not working hard to perform the PEQ and conversion you have configured.
How is your Roon Server computer connected to your home network, WiFi or via Ethernet cable?
Bernardo_F, when you say pauses, is it between tracks playing and if so, is it between tracks from different albums or the same album? How long are the pauses?
Good to know it’s not a power issue. The server is also connected via ethernet.
They occur during track playback and last maybe one second.
Does it happen when you use the system output (built in speakers) of your computer instead of the DAC?
Have tested and don’t hear any drop-outs via other outputs
So that might put the blame somewhere in the direction of the DAC. Can you borrow another DAC to try with?
Or the connection method, I’m guessing USB between the computer and the DAC. Another option of testing would be to try a different USB cable or try to connect the DAC using a Roon Endpoint, whether that is a streamer box or just a different computer running RoonBridge.
Certainly, I did mean the general direction 
But yes, easier to first switch the cable rather than the DAC for testing
You have 1 gig internet but not 1 gig to Tidal.
Also, what’s your local network? Is your core hardwired?
Does the Tidal app on your Mac work without issue?
This is a good suggestion. I’ll change the cable to the DAC and do some more testing, thanks.
As said, the core is hardwired. I know I don’t have 1gbit to a Tidal server, but what’s the point? I’m just trying to show that my internet setup is not the culprit.
Will try the Tidal app only too, thanks.
All audio goes to the Server (core) first so its usually easy to blame the double hop from Tidal -network-> Server -network-> endpoint for any hiccup between local and streaming. However…
You’ve got a directly connected DAC so there is not second hop back onto the network. The only difference between local and Roon is getting the Tidal stream to Roon. If local works then the only variable is, indeed, the path Tidal takes to get into your Mac.
Can you show a signal path of a local file playback just to make sure there isn’t anything in my assumption between the two?
In Roon Settings for your mac do you have it set exclusive? We should do that anyway.
Do you have MQA renderer on?
Changing the USB cable absolutely worked! I cannot explain why, but it did. And many insists that cables don’t make a difference at all, just buy the cheapest bla bla. But apparently if a cable does make a difference, it’s quite clear sometimes
Bizarre. Unless local files are on a drive directly connected to the server, in which case my bet would be that swapping the usb cable also reseated the ethernet cable, and it was a flaky network connection all along…
(Don’t confuse ‘makes a difference’ with ‘faulty’)
I regret to come back to the issue. The dropouts returned after one hour of listening to MQA music in Tidal. I need to do further tests to see if the issue really lies with Tidal, and if so, is it MQA and my DAC (who is configured correctly as no MQA-converter).
Have the same with my RME Adi-2 FS Pro, but only when between the songs the file resolution changes, e.g., from 44kHz to 192kHz
Rgds, Stefan
Setup a non-MQA playlist, preferably of local only music to remove streaming completely, of several hours and see if there are any dropouts would be my suggestion. Also, when a drop out occurs, you might look at your signal path and note the X processor value, if that drops to 1.44x or lower then you have a processing bottleneck.
Interestingly, this is happening for me today also.
Maybe once every 15 minutes or so. One-second dropout.
Doesn’t matter if Tidal, Qobuz or local files.
Strange.
