Tidal MQA Stuttering

Network Audio
1

I continue to struggle to diagnose a stuttering issue with “some” 24 bit / 96 kHz Tidal MQA tracks on my Bridge II equipped DSD running Windom, controlled with Mconnect HD.

This does not effect all MQA tracks, in fact it’s less than 10% of the tracks I listen to, but the ones the stutter always stutter, and start to stutter in the same place. When I say stutter it’s as if its buffering, but with a 400 Mbs pipe to the house we are not network traffic limited. There is no time of day impact, day night afternoon, always the same. I find the stutter always starts when the disc image is loading on the screen of the DSD as if loading the image is disrupting the music flow… if I pause and wait for a few seconds and restart play it’s most often just fine, as if content buffering is the issue, but I can’t understand why this only impacts a few tracks especially with such good network capacity to the home; I have verified good clean network activity on the DSD line ( no rejected packets) in the line / cable test. I have confirmed the latest firmware for the bridge, reflashed the SD card with Windom but nothing changed.

Jason Ondara “Saying Goodbye (boulevard demo)” on Tales of America (the second coming) MQA always has this defect for me, it plays just fine for 20 sec and then just starts stuttering… The same track from tidal when streamed through my DragonFly Red with the MQA update is just fine. Furthermore, this track on Qobuz HIres is no issue. I have found no trend or similarity between tracks that’s stutter other than MQA & Tidal, but again not all MQA tracks stutter

What am I missing?

Thx

2

I just played the track on DSD Sr. over Bridge II with no problems.

I recommend that you power off your DSD using the switch in the back for about a minute or two. Then power it on and try again.

3

Thanks for testing… I have tried power cycling and even setting static IP addresses rather than DHCP, I am going to try removing the SD card and see if that helps, it’s strange that the stutter coincides with the image loading: no idea why those two would be connected but an repetive observation across the tracks that have problems.

4

Good idea removing the SD card. Perhaps it is getting weak and needs to be replaced.

5

Removing the SD fixed the problem… not a single stutter, no album art but perfect playback… I hope someone from PS Audio can illuminate me as to the reason behind this perplexing fix… but for now I’ll enjoy the fix no matter how strange…

6

Try purchasing a new SD card and put it in. I suspect your SD card is going bad.

7

My guess it is your internet connection. Is the ethernet direct wired to router? If you have a WiFi connection then wired to your DAC bridge it can cause issues based on other traffic in your home or your internet provider is dealing with other traffic if it is cable provider. My wifi streams to Roon endpoints often have stutters and skips when more people are home. Try same songs late at night past 2 AM.