Hi all - I am wondering if anyone on the forum may have thoughts or insight on an ongoing sporadic playback issue I experience (details below), which has thus far been resolved with an interesting and favourable result… perhaps @MarkCole or @antipodes may have insights?
MY SETUP & the RELATED ISSUE: I have a CX / EX combo and solely use the HQPlayer with Roon Server (Auto) preset in the Solution Dashboard. (HQPlayer is purchased, not demo.) My EX is connected to an Ayre QB-9 Twenty USB dac. USB & Ethernet interconnects throughout my system are all Nordost Heimdall 2 (or above). In general my setup works without issue, aside from every few weeks experiencing momentary audio dropouts on streamed Qobuz material of various bitrates, and internet radio through Roon…
PRIOR RESOLUTION STEPS for the momentary audio drops: In prior instances, (they’d eventually start to happen a few times a day every few weeks); I’d do a power cycle of my ISP modem / router… accompanied by restarting Roon and HQPlayer on the CX (via Server Dashboard), and HQPlayer on the EX (via Player Dashboard). This tended to resolve the issue for another few weeks and I’d rinse & repeat when the dropouts started to re-occur…
MOST RECENT EXPERIENCE OF THE ISSUE, ADDED RESOLUTION STEPS & THE UNEXPECTED RESULT: About a week ago, the dropouts got very bad and I was having a new behaviour with repeated warnings from Roon that “Roon lost control of audio device” and playback would stop altogether… My aforementioned remedy was not working to resolve the issue, so my dealer shared the below instructions. After following these steps I completed one more power cycle of my ISP Modem / Router… I have since experienced zero audio dropouts (albeit they usually appear after a few weeks and it’s only been one week thus far), nor have I seen the warning: “Roon lost control of audio device”. What’s all the more noteworthy is I have noticed a definite uptick in sound quality with any streamed content, be it Qobuz or online radio through Roon…
Resolution steps:
Disconnect the USB cable and do a power cycle on both Antipodes EX and Ayre QB9 (for 30 seconds or so)
Power both units fully on without USB connection made
Under Player Settings: EX > Output, select the drop down arrow and choose “None” (this is forcing the EX to remove the Ayre connection from temporary memory)
Connect USB cable
Go back to Player Settings: EX > Output > Output and select USB Audio - Ayre
Yes I’ve sporadically had the same issue.
Also had to turn everything off including router , switches, antipodes and roon end point. My end point is a Kef ls2 which is the only end point I’ve had issues with so far.
I’ve always assumed it was a network issue but would be good if this could be confirmed and if anything can be done to resolve this.
For me happens every few months.
Glad to hear I’m not the only person noticing this.
At first I thought it was my ISP modem / router… but after having completed a USB re-handshake between the EX and my QB-9 USB dac, I’m now thinking there is more to it… Especially given the noticeable difference in sound quality…
I am also curious if this could be confirmed and if anything can be done to resolve it
Roon losing control of audio device occurs seems to occur when Roon has to wait longer than expected for data to flow. This can be the data flowing in over the network or the data flowing out over USB. Cabling is often the culprit, but switches and routers can play a part in it as well.
I wonder if the steps listed above resolves the issue because it clears anything that buffers the signal flow.
Yeah it’s a tough item to pinpoint as it could almost be anything between the streaming servers (Qobuz, internet radio) and all the steps in between which make their way to the DAC.
It do expect the steps my dealer suggested would have cleared anything buffered, as you note.
The audible lift was unexpected though… which has me wondering if it’s something between the EX and QB-9 USB dac. (I’d have expected the resolution steps to do nothing more than stop the dropouts…)
Will continue to monitor for now, but I still am curious if this could be confirmed on the Antipodes side or if anything can be done to permanently resolve it
Having issues with streamed content only, would indicate the issue is ethernet, router, network, DNS or ISP related.
So when the issue happens, then rebooting everything this doesnt narrow down the issue.
Start with rebooting the router only, to see if that cures it, if not then systematically start rebooting devices in the network chain back to the CX then EX, checking all cable connections and cables along the way.
This way it may give an indication of where the problem may be.
However, your fix as indicated by your dealer would indicate that the USB connection is becoming lost thus creating the issue.
Using HQPlayer further complicates the connection as well as the EX finding the DAC so does HQPlayer.
Are you using IP or local host for HQPlayer connection inside of Roon?
When you loose connection, does HQPlayer or the Solution Dashboard have a DAC recognised ?
Does rebooting the DAC fix the problem on its own?
Need to systematically step thru the issue from the DAC backwards.
Hi @MarkCole & thanks for chiming in and for the recommendation to help narrow things down! Apologies for my delay, I’ve been away a few days and was unable to reply. I’ve added some further comments here.
Prior to my initial post in this thread, I had been in the practice of only rebooting the Modem / Router from my internet service provider. Rebooting that item (a couple times) didn’t resolve the issue in this most recent instance of the audio dropouts, so I then rebooted my Melco S100 Switch which also did not resolve the issue. I then tried a reboot of everything as described initially which did not resolve the audio drop… ***The dropouts didn’t resolve until I followed the steps provided by my dealer pertaining specifically to the EX & Ayre QB-9 USB DAC… Of note though, that still did require one last reboot of the Modem / Router from my internet service provider for the audio drops to resolve…
I also haven’t yet taken note of the issue happening with stored local content, however I (by a wide margin) listen primarily to Qobuz and online radio
The issue has not yet resurfaced since I was able to get it resolved. I will monitor going forward and if / when it reoccurs, I’ve taken note of your guidance to: start with rebooting the router only, to see if that cures it… and if not then I’ll systematically start rebooting devices in the network chain back to the CX then EX, checking all cable connections and cables along the way.
I’ve also commented (see italics below) on your questions:
Are you using IP or local host for HQPlayer connection inside of Roon? In Roon > Settings > Setup, HQ Player does not appear to be listed and it looks like it needs to be Added (?)… per 1st pic below. I haven’t changed any of the settings from when we’d last had a remote session and you got me underway with HQ Player… However when I click “Add HQ Player” see below 2nd pic, should I be adding “localhost”, since HQPlayer (Server) is on my CX, and the HQPlayer (Player) is on my EX…? [EDIT] - it appears to already be set up using IP… if I try to add HQPlayer in Roon using the CX’s IP address I get a warning that indicates: The Host name or IP address is already configured.
When you loose connection, does HQPlayer or the Solution Dashboard have a DAC recognised ? I will have to try to take note of this the next time the dropout occurs… However it may be difficult as the audio drop is intermittent - it either skips a bit of a song and resumes playback, or eventually drops the song entirely and in those instances the warning appears in Roon indicating “Roon lost control of audio device”
Does rebooting the DAC fix the problem on its own? I will try that first if / when the issue reappears…
Circling back on this. Playback had been flawless since my initial post 19 days ago with Streamed Qobuz and Online Radio, up until yesterday eve… @MarkCole you had enquired as quoted below. Please see my responses below to these questions, as well as the additional details I’ve included in regard to the troubleshooting process that was provided…
Are you using IP or local host for HQPlayer connection inside of Roon?
It appears to already be set up using IP from what I can tell… This detail does not automatically display in Roon, but when I click “Add HQPlayer” in Roon and then use the CX’s IP address I get a warning that indicates: The Host name or IP address is already configured.
When you lose connection, does HQPlayer or the Solution Dashboard have a DAC recognised ?
Yes, both show my DAC as the output device… Please see the first three pics below. I had to wait from my initial post 19 days ago until today for the issue to start again (intermittent skip in playback, which eventually drops playback entirely with the Roon warning indicating “Roon lost control of audio device”). NOTE: the photos provided below are of an online radio station that streams quite reliably, however I was able to validate this same behaviour today with Qobuz streamed content after the photos included here were taken…
Does rebooting the DAC fix the problem on its own?
I tried this but it did not resolve the repeatable “Roon lost control of audio device” error with the Qobuz content that I was focused on today… Additional steps taken from here to resolve: To further work backwards from the DAC as you’d suggested I then started with the dealer steps that were provided in my initial post, BUT after this playback would not commence whatsoever (this did not occur the last time I used these steps)… I then continued to work backwards from the DAC by restarting HQPLayer on the EX (via Player Dashboard) but still had no playback at all, so I restarted Roon Server on my CX (via Server Dashboard) as well as HQPLayer on my CX (via Server Dashboard). Playback finally commenced at that point…
***However, the dropout was still in place with the Qobuz song I was seeing the issue repeat with, and this was not fully resolved until I did a final power cycle of my ISP modem / Router. It has been working fine since then… which seems to indicate the ISP Modem / Router is the culprit?
Is there a reason you enabled IPv6 in the HQPlayer settings? I’m inclined to suggest that you disable this until you’ve found a solution to this particular issue.
Good suggestion @kennyb123
DNS also needs to be checked to Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 or Google 8.8.8.8
You can also try removing the MELCO and see if you get the same issues
Hi @MarkCole! My Internet Service Provider sets / provides my DNS servers (both IPv4 & IPv6) so I don’t have the option to choose a Primary and Secondary DNS of my own preference…
I’ll try with IPv6 disabled in HQPlayer to see if the issue reappears, then can test with the Melco disconnected (albeit I can’t help but be skeptical of that being the cause).
I have both quick pause and short buffer unchecked. The description of each follows. Try disabling these too. That Roon error you see is timing-related. These both seem to affect that. Short buffer’s increased risk of drop-outs is exactly something that could cause Roon to lose control of the output device.
Quick pause uses simple silence pattern for faster pause response, but increased likelihood of audible glitches when pause is toggled.
Short buffer uses half shorter FIFO buffer for audio for faster control responses, but increased risk of drop-outs
The DNS wasn’t an option to change with my model of router…
One thing that I did again notice when I repeated the dealer’s steps yesterday, was that same aforementioned lift in sound quality… it’s subtle but appreciable. Not sure what contributes to this… something in power cycling the EX/DAC it seems (or modem)…
