When playing MQA content in Roon (Antipodes DS-GT) - “TIDAL media is loading slowly..."

Hi Eric, not sure if I should chime in here or not. I have been having the same issue (Tidal media loading slowly), and registered this on the forum here some time back. My system has a very specific pattern. Firstly, I only ever get it when playing MQA material via Tidal. If I restart roon core and my router, the problem goes away for a day or two, then comes back, and persists until I restart again. The problem is repeatable without fail. I had the problem before Roon 1.5, and still have it today. I have tried various resolutions including a new router, and changing DNS settings, but neither made any difference.
So today I sit here playing an MQA album, with the system running at 4-5x (using the DSP speed metric). Tomorrow when I play the same album, it will run at 0.7, and start to skip with the usual message.
I am hoping that my experience because it is repeatable with a very specific scenario might be helpful in diagnosing the issue.
Kind regards
Colin

Thank you for touching base with me @Colin_Elven and providing the requested update. Both are very appreciated!

I have split your post off to it’s own thread so I can address this behavior with you directly :microscope: Moving forward, may I kindly ask you for the following information:

  • Please provide a brief but accurate description of your current setup using this link as a guide.

  • Please describe your network configuration/topology being sure to provide insight into any networking hardware you are currently implementing. I want to have a clear understanding as to how your devices are communicating and all the tools involved with making those connection possible.

  • Just to make sure we are on the same page this is only happening when playing MQA content via TIDAL, correct?

  • Do you always have the DSP engine enable when the error occurs? If so have you verified what the experience is like if temporarily disable this function in Roon?

  • My assumption that the answer to this question will be “yes”, but please confirm that there are no issues with TIDAL playback outside of Roon.

-Eric

My setup and network is very simple:

Roon core and roon remote run on the one Antipodes DS-GT server.
The Antipodes has 2TB of local SSD storage, I have 800 albums on local SSD.
The Antipodes is connected by USB to an T&A DAC 8 DSD dac.
The DAC 8 is both DAC and preamp.
The DAC 8 is connected by analog cables to a Plinius power amp and Dynaudio speakers.

My network:
The Antipodes is directly connected via ethernet cable to a Netgear 6000 router. The antipodes and router are within a metre of each other.
The router is connected via a 50 fibre link to my ISP.
I use googles dns 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.

YES, this only happens when playing MQA content via Tidal. I have never had a problem playing non-MQA content via Tidal or from local storage.

The DSP is used most of the time, however I get the error in both situations, when running with the DSP and with it turned off. It does not seem to make any difference.

I dont experience any issues play MQA content directly from Tidal.

Regards
Colin

Hi @Colin_Elven ----- Thank you for the follow up and taking the time to answer my questions, both are very appreciated!

Moving forward, can you please verify for me that the firmware on the mentioned router is up to date and secondly I would like to propose the following test to isolate some variables here. Kindly see below.

  • Before anything, please make a backup if your current Roon DB.

  • Please temporarily bring the Antipodes DS-GT server offline.

  • Please load your Roon core onto another laptop (or desktop computer) and verify what the experience is like when streaming MQA content via Roon + TIDAL.

-Eric

Hi Eric
Yes, the firmware on the router is the latest for that model. I updated the router last week.

I am now running roon core on a i5 dell laptop, and using the same network configuration.
I’ll report back tomorrow on the roon-tidal-MQA performance test using the laptop.

regards
colin

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I have been testing with the roon core on the dell i5 laptop now for more than 24 hours, and have not seen any sign of the earlier problems. Tidal MQA content is playing at 20-30x, and memory use on the laptop seems to be stable.

At the very least I assume this indicates that my local network and internet connections are not the problem.

Colin

Hi @Colin_Elven ----- Thank you for touching base with me and sharing the observations you have made since performing the proposed troubleshooting exercise. The continued insight is greatly appreciated!

I agree that the network does not seem to be the issue here based on these results. Just to make sure we are on the same page, the issue you were experiencing with TIDAL when your core was on the DS-GT would have occurred already within 24 hours, correct?

I just want to be certain that the test run was long enough :microscope:

-Eric

Yes, thats correct, I can recreate the problem within 24 hours.

Hi Coli,

for what I understand, Antipodes DS-GT server is based on Vortexbox and therefore on fedora 24 or 25. Am I right?
My DIY Roon server is based on Fedora 27 and I had this problem at the beginning with MQA playback with Roon 1.5.
It could be a problem of Ethernet card config in fedora.
First of all can you tell me if your Antipodes Server is using DHCP or Static IP?
I you’re using a static IP, can you try with DHCP?

Regards,

Dom

Hi Dom, The DS-GT is a later version, and has a pure linux operating system. It is not the Vortex box version,
I did have the the DS on a fixed IP address but have recently removed that, so it is now using DHCP. Using DHCP, the problem still persists.

I can recreate the problem at will, after a reboot of DS and router, the problem comes back within 24 hours…always.

Last night I discovered that if i just reboot the DS, the problem re-surfaces immediately on starting MQA playback. If I reboot both the DS and router, I can play MQA content for a while, but within 24 hours the problem returns…very strange.

So this points to something in the communication chain between router and DS. As you say it could be the network adaptor on the DS?

Regards
Colin

Hi Colin,
hmm it seems a little bit difficult to know as I don’t know what Linux distribution Antipodes are using now.
Is it possible to initiate an ssh session with PuTTY, for example, on this Music server or it is completely closed?

Your problem is effectively very strange as it come back within 24 hours.
On my side the problem was almost constant in particular with static IP address. I’ve just added some parameters in the Network adapter config file and now it’s OK.
Your problem might be more difficult to resolve.

Regards,
Dom.