I’m having an issue I hope someone here can help with or point me in the right direction (not a Roon issue, Roon is working fine, hence why I posted this here).
Equipment involved:
PC running Windows 11 Home: I use this to rip music discs, edit metadata, and transfer music files to the Salkstream.
Salkstream III streamer: It has a single internal HDD drive that houses Roonserver and my local music files. OS is Archlinux (I keep it updated). There are two external USB HDDs connected directly to the Salkstream for music file and Roon database backups.
Everything is connected via ethernet cables.
Recently music file/data transfers to the two USB HDDs connected to my streamer, a Salkstream III, have become very slow, often pausing. Transferring to the Salkstream’s external USB drives, whether from my PC or from the Salkstream’s internal drive, transfer speed is very slow, often pausing. This behavior only started recently. In the past, transfer speeds to the Salkstream’s external USB drives were always fast and stable/consistent.
I tried the following:
Different USB connections on the Salkstream: transfers still very slow/pausing
Connected the external USB drives directly to my PC (using same cables): Transfer speed normal (fast and stable/consistent). I also ran chkdsk on the drives; no issues reported.
Rebooted Salkstream: transfers still slow/pausing
Transfers over the network from my PC to the internal HDD drive in the Salkstream remain fast and stable/consistent.
This seems to point to some issue with the Salkstream’s USB ports, though I have no idea what. As I mentioned above, this behavior is new and recent.
Any ideas? A web search didn’t turn up anything useful (could be my search skills aren’t great, lol).
Thank you!
PS - I’m a bit of a computer novice, but can follow clear instructions.
I’m not sure how you meant your post to come across, but it seems to be to discredit Salksound. It certainly is of no help to my current issue, so I’m not sure why you even posted it.
When the Salksound III was introduced (I bought mine in 2016), It was listed on the Roon Partners list as Roon Ready (or some similar terminology Roon used back then). Some years later, Roon discontinued the program which the Salkstream III and other similar devices fell under, so they no longer appeared on Roon’s Partner page. I contacted Roon at that time and was assured the Salkstream III was still being supported by Roon.
A couple years ago or so, after 20+ years of being in business, the owner, Jim Salk, retired and the business closed. However, he generously continued to offer support for his products.
Mr. Salk and his company, Salksound, was the most honest and helpful I’ve ever dealt with. Mr. Salk’s customer service was second to none. Anytime one contacted Salksound, you dealt directly with Mr. Salk, not some low level employee who couldn’t do anything (like many businesses ). He always went above and beyond for his customers (or anyone who contacted him).
I’m sure if I contacted Mr. Salk now, he would try to help. But at this point, my streamer is well over 9 years old and Mr. Salk has been retired for 2+ years. He owes me absolutely nothing. Frankly, at this point, I do not wish to take advantage of Mr. Salk’s good graces.
I would certainly think about testing the HDD to make sure it’s not starting to fail. Usual tell tell signs are of slowness, or any clicking sounds. This may not be the case, but worth a check just in case.
While it would be odd for both external USB drives to fail at the same time, it’s certainly possible. To test this, I connected them directly to my PC (Windows 11 Home) using the same USB cables (to rule out a cable issue) and the both worked fine with no transfer speed/stability issues. Also, chkdsk didn’t report any issues on both drives.
I do not hear any clicking sounds or odd noises from the drives.
Is it safe to assume the drives are ok if they work fine when connected directly to my PC?
My router (ASUS RT-AX68U, my only router) has a USB 3.0 port. I connected one of the USB drives to it and the same issue presents itself. So maybe it’s the router? I’m confused because if I transfer files over the network from my PC to the internal drive on the Salkstream III, both connected to the same router via ethernet, transfer speed is normal (fast and stable).
I also tested transferring from the Salkstream internal drive to one of the directly connected external USB drives, same problem. When doing a transfer like this, is the router/network even involved? Hmmm, internet says no.
This issue has me particularly concerned that it may affect Roon’s ability to successfully complete automatically scheduled database backups to the external USB drives. So far, it hasn’t been an issue, albeit the slower transfer speeds/pausing seem to slow the process down some (best I can tell; I usually don’t watch the backup process).
Is that the USB drive is slow on the router and the Salkstream but ok on your PC. The internal drive on the Salkstream is ok but the Salkstream external USB is slow.
So the network USB data transfers for the drive on the network is slow no matter where you have it connected.
USB Drives are cheap. Maybe try a totally different drive and cable. This would definitely rule out the USB drive or identify it as the problem.
Correct. However, it’s also slow transferring from the Salkstream internal drive to the USB drive connected directly to the Salkstream. As I understand it, the network isn’t involved in this case. Does this information change your recommendation?
It seems very odd that both drives, that previously worked fine, would start having the same issue at the same time. When you say “totally different drive”, do you mean just another drive, or do you mean a drive from a different manufacturer? I have 3 USB drives, all 2TB drives from Seagate (bought at different times). Two are connected to the Salkstream, and one connected to my PC.
I can test the drive currently connected to my PC on the Salkstream and see what happens. I suspect it will experience the same symptoms connected to the Salkstream.
All three drives work fine when connected directly to my PC (each still using the cables that came with the drives). I’m thinking this means the drives are ok. Am I missing something in my thought process (very well could be )?
Could this be an Archlinux issue? There are a few posts around mentioning issues with file transfers and possible updates. What has been the update timeline for your OS? Is it possible an upgrade has broken something?
I would try a totally different drive and cable no matter what brand. Maybe @Sean_O has a point. I do not know much about Archlinux so much. Don’t know.
That’s entirely possible. Although, having the same issue when connected directly to my router’s USB port puts that into question. But then again, perhaps my router is using a Linux OS that’s affected in the same way?
Last night I updated the Salkstream Archlinux OS hoping it would help (it did not ). I also checked my router’s firmware to be sure it was current (it is).
I don’t know exactly when the slow data transfer issue actually started since it’s not often I add music files. Mostly it’s just Roon running an automatic database backup each week (3am) to one of the drives and me manually running a periodic Roon database backup (at least once a month or whenever I make changes to my local collection) to the other directly connected drive. Other than the issue I mentioned in my support thread, I’ve not noticed any issues with database backups, though I don’t normally watch the process as it’s happening.
I want to say maybe it started in the past month or so? I usually update Archlinux OS around the beginning of each month. The router reports its last update was Oct 12, 2025.
What really brought this problem to my attention now is I recently purchased four audio BDs which I ripped and added to my local music collection on the Salkstream’s internal HDD drive. This went as normal, but when I ran rsync to back up the new music files from the Salkstream’s internal drive to the directly connected external USB drives, the process was much slower than normal and often paused (rsync is normally very fast). This then prompted me to also try just dragging and dropping files (using my PC to access the Salkstream/drives) instead of using rsync, which revealed the same very slow speeds and pausing issue.
So far I’ve tried the two drives in question (both Seagate 2TB USB HDD drives). Both work fine (using the same cables) when connected to my PC. I have a third USB HDD (also Seagate HDD) normally connected to my PC I could try, though I suspect the same result. Otherwise, why would all three be fine connected to the PC? Me being a computer novice isn’t helping, lol.
I’ll give the third drive a try and report back what happens.
So far, I’m leaning towards something Linux related. That seems to be the common denominator here.
From my PC to the USB drives connected to the Salkstream, I’m seeing 0-20 MB/s, with frequent drops to 0, often pausing a bit at 0. It will jump up briefly to about 20 MB/s, then quickly drop to the single digits before returning to 0 again. Before I use to see speeds very close to the internal drive (see below).
From my PC to the Salkstream internal drive, I’m seeing about 100 MB/s steady with no pauses (once in a while, it might momently drop to 60-70, but will quickly jump back up to about 100).
Since yesterday, I’ve rebooted multiple times (router, PC, Salkstream) with no change in behavior.
I tried the third USB HDD and it exhibited the same slow behavior when connected to the Salkstream. After trying 3 different USB drives, purchased at different times, with the same results, is it safe to say it’s not likely the drives?
Unless I’m missing something your Roon server is working on a HDD. Roon do not recommend HDD but specify SSD. I assume then that your model is the StreamPlayer Gen III rather than the SE version.
Your transfer is using the Roon Server as you add more content to the database the HDD SSD difference will become progressively more obvious. Out of interest how many tracks do you have in Roon
Yes, I realize my Salkstream III (not the SE version) doesn’t meet the current Roon recommendations. However, I’m not having any Roon performance issues, so I don’t think using HDDs are the issue in my particular setup. Even if I drag and drop a file from the internal drive to a directly connected USB drive, the transfer is slow/pauses often. Roon isn’t involved in this scenario. Also, this behavior is new. Last time (a month or two ago?) I remember adding music files and running rsync to back up my music files, transfer speeds/rsync performance was normal (fast/stable).
Currently, I have 26985 tracks. The internal HDD and the two external USB HDDs are 2TB drives, each only about 35% full.
Some observations so far:
Only external USB drives are affected.
Internal drive in the Salkstream is not affected by this issue.
All USB drives work normally connected directly to my Windows 11 PC (fast, no pauses)
Transfer speed is also slow/unstable if I connect a USB drive directly to my Asus router.
The common denominator seems to be Linux (I’m fairly sure the Asus router uses a Linux OS). Do you think I’m on the right track here?
Thank you. That’s what I thought.
I suspect the issue isn’t with the Salkstream per se, but more specifically with Linux. I say this because if I connect one of the USB drives directly to my router (I’m fairly sure it also uses a Linux OS), it has the same issue.
Thoughts?
Thanks. Each drive was tested with its own cable it came with. So yes, different cable for each drive.
). He always went above and beyond for his customers (or anyone who contacted him).
)?
). I also checked my router’s firmware to be sure it was current (it is).