Roon keeps stopping mid track - PerfectWave DS DAC (with Bridge II)

Network Audio
1

So I have been trying out Roon with my new PS Audio DAC with bridge II… I’m trying to do a burn on on the DAC and as such, I’m trying to continuously stream music thru it. That said, it keeps stopping. The DAC remains connected to Roon as shown by the icon, but the song just stops. I hit play again, and it starts and plays… sometimes it plays thru several songs before it stops, other times it just stops more than once per song.

My Connection is very solid and at least 200mbs ethernet. Using Roon from a Mac OS X laptop.

Any ideas?

2

Have you tried “MConnect Control” and/or “MConnect Control HD”?

3

Is the laptop the Roon Core? Switched off all other apps and unnecessary services like WiFi?

Frankly, my first attempt with Roon was a failure and got a dedicated Roon server, since when problems have been almost non-existent.

4

It sounds like the problem is in Roon since the Bridge remains connected. When you hit play, you are communicating only with Roon. The Bridge doesn’t know “play” as it is only a rendering device. Check with Roon on this one.

5

Is the firmware on the bridge II up to date? Should be 3.6.86

1 Like
6

This occasionally happens to my DS using MConnect and Tidal. Except it often jumps to the next song instead of just stopping. I wouldn’t think the DAC could do that on its own, since it’s just playing what’s sent to it.

7

I found that something as simple as signing out and back into Tidal from Roon sometimes solves the problem.

8

Thanks Paul, I am trying MConnect now to see if it stops. Frankly after playing with Roon, this feels very poorly designed and lacking.

But, I agree, this is likely a Roon compatibility issue, as when I stream Roon via my iPad or laptop speakers,. it goes on forever. I don’t know if your software engineers talk to their software engineers, but I suspect they should be … Doing a search on the Roon help forums, I seems I’m not the only one experiencing this issue.

9

I reckon the whole system could use a restart. I’ve run into drops like this on occasion, but it’s maybe once or twice a month.

10

Done it several times James… Did every conceivable computer re-boot, software relaunch, and hardware power off combination you can think of…

The telling part of this is that Roon works flawlessly on my MacBook Pro or iPad speakers, it’s when I ask it to also stream over Bridge II, that it stops sporadically (just on the Bridge II steam), but continues to play on my iPad / MacBook Pro… Moreover,. the MConnect app so far has not stopped randomly with the Bridge II either… so there is a software issue between the two products that needs to be resolved, since all other combinations seem to work.

11

How do I import my playlists from Tidal and Qobuz into MConnect… seems very limited, and will only see the iTunes playlist on my iPad, but won’t even let me steam most of it, gives an error, something about “unable to stream this title on the selected device”…?

12

I have become more disenchanted with my beloved Bridge II over the last several months. Many issues left unaddressed, with little hope they will be. Given that, I use the Bridge II exclusively for all my music playing along with JRiver and JRemote and have not experienced music stop playing mid track. Not once. Just adding the observation of a single user: me.

13

Is JRiver better than MConnect? Because the latter seems very anemic with features… Thanks for the feed back.

14

I don’t know if this will work, but try setting the power saver mode on your MacBook to never go to sleep.

15

How can it be beloved and disenchanted at the same time? Sounds like you and your Bridge are heading for a divorce. I considered the Bridge a pretty inferior and overpriced bit of kit 6 or so years ago and chose to use a decent external streamer over usb into a PS Audio DAC. I’ve upgraded the streamer twice since.

16

thanks James, but not the issue, as I had roon streaming thru both the MBP internal speakers and the DAC to test whether this was related to the MBP acting as a server… the MBP kept playing but the DAC stopped…

I am also testing this now via MConnect and it seems to play continuously … (so far), but it’s doing a far worse job of keeping up with the album cover art (Roon didn’t nail it 100% of the time either).

I just spoke to Kevin your sales manager, and I shared with him that my theory is that this is an issue with Roon, but to be fair, you guys need to be talking to Roon as well and figuring out what is happening (maybe they’re stumped with some PS Audio specific issue)… so we can have a “Seamless” streaming experience with this rather pricy Bridge II card… Work with their engineers to get it right?

17

Is your bridge II cabled directly to your router? Is your MBP the roon server or that was just a test? Can you ping your bridge II card from your Roon server for ~20 minutes at a reasonable (<10ms) latency without losing any pings?

18

I have the latest XFinity 1 Gigabit router and WiFi… that’s then talking to an xFi Pod to extend the wifi over to my audio room, where the Bridge II is connected via ethernet (200mbs) to the xFi Pod…

How do I ping the card? I didn’t see such a feature in Roon, and having just discontinued my free trial, I have no access…

Anyway, Mconnect still streaming uninterrupted now for 3 hours.

PS… when I do test the speed to my iPad / iPhone … it’s over 150mbs to those devices… and early 1100 mbs to my MBP.

19

Yin and yang. I’ve read everyone’s comments on the Bridge II. I’ll upgrade eventually.

20

I think JRiver is clearly better than mconnect. However, many here hate JRiver including Paul. It does take some effort. I think the payoff is worth it.

Edit: I don’t think the perfect software platform exists. For example, I wish JRiver would incorporate Qobuz, but they will never do so (I follow their development and thoughts on the JRiver board regularly).