Tidal Flac/MQA Streaming Failure in Roon

[Jake_Watson]

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

iMac, 2017; 4.2 GHz Intel Core i7; 64 GB 2400 MHz DDR4

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

Netgear Orbi, 450 MB/sec down; at least 60 MB on iMac

Audio Devices (Specify what device you’re using and its connection type - USB/HDMI/etc.)

B&W Formation products (Wedges, Flexes)

Description Of Issue

Streaming Flac MQA files (e.g. Richard Thompson’s Mirror Blue) via Tidal Desktop app works just fine, but playback from within Roon consistently fails with an error message that Tidal is slow.

[Jim_F (Minimalist)]

I think it’s Roon that is slow, not Tidal.

[Jake_Watson]

Yeah, that is what I was trying to imply/say. Sucks because we’ve invested in roon-certified high-rez speakers and service (TIDAL), but Roon doesn’t seem to be able to handle the streaming consistently. Yes, the masters in TIDAL are very large, but we have the requisite hardware and network speed, and Tidal Desktop plays same files fine.

[dylan (Dylan Caudill)]

Hi @Jake_Watson,

How are your endpoints connected to the network?

Is local content playing okay?

is it only MQA content that is failing or all TIDAL content?

If you play to System Output of the Core machine is there any change?

[Jake_Watson]

Thanks for your quick reply! Answers below …

@dylan

How are your endpoints connected to the network?
– B&W’s Formation products use the same Orbi network but 2.4 GHz (vs 5 ghz)

Is local content playing okay?
– Yep

is it only MQA content that is failing or all TIDAL content?
– Seems so

If you play to System Output of the Core machine is there any change?
– This seems to be working. But I also just played back over the B&Ws, and at least the first song appears to be working. Sometimes it takes a little while before things degrade to the point where roon skips to the next song

Here are the paths of both System Output (“High Quality”) and over the network to some B&Ws (“Lossless”)

[dylan (Dylan Caudill)]

Hi @Jake_Watson,

@Jake_Watson

B&W’s Formation products use the same Orbi network but 2.4 GHz (vs 5 ghz)

As noted in our Networking Guide, we recommend that you use an Ethernet connection whenever possible. As a test, can you try connecting your Core and one of your audio devices to the network via Ethernet? Is there any improvement when doing so?