What is the most common cause of dropouts when streaming Tidal?

I don’t know but I can report what I have found.

Tidal app running on MAC Mini 1.7Ghz i7 dual core 8Gb RAM - dropouts rare but crashes daily even when not playing. Possibly not Tidal issue as iTunes used to crash too. (I suspect memory leak perhaps in the way these programs use the display and cache artwork)

RoonServer running on MAC Mini 1.7 GHz i7 dual core 8Gb RAM - stable without any problem whatsoever for three weeks so far.

Got rid of Tidal and iTunes and now decided to run RoonServer permanently and my Mac has NEVER been this stable in years of ownership.

With Roon the interface is fantastic with background info on almost everything I own and links - the iPad or IPhone display is superb so I no longer use my HD TV as a display and can select music from any mobile device.

I don’t have a huge collection - about 5000 albums.

Roon is perhaps expensive ($500 for lifetime) but I feel this is the best bargain I have EVER found in my life long pursuit of audio. It has the closest feel to being able to browse albums in a record store. It is setup to play any file from my collection or Tidal and pass that natively (bit perfect) to my DAC. I like my DAC to do all conversion as it has a very solid upsampling approach in the GHz frequencies. The nice thing is Roon will do all manner of conversion and some filtering choices for me if I had an inferior DAC or wanted to play with the original files before passing them to a DAC. I hope they eventually add album inner gatefold sleeve artwork or the booklets that come with box collections as that is the only thing I miss now....

Hi randyhat,

Been there but with my Aurender (not WiFI). This may help with troubleshooting:

1) Run a speed test on your particular provider’s internet service when the problem occurs using a spare Ethernet output from your router/modem. IME, you need 20Mbps consistently to avoid occasional drop outs with Tidal, especially MQA files.
2) If your Bluesound generates a playlist on your iPad/whatever, check how long it is when the problem occurs. Excessively long playlists cause this issue with my Aurender (might be caused by limited memory of my iPad? but I cannot understand why that would matter). Just clear the playlist occasionally and see if this helps.
3) My experience with Aurender is that they will blame everything else but the unit if you are using aftermarket cables, and in my case, another manufacturer’s DAC. Even my TOTL latest Motorola dual band router/modem was blamed at one point (I am using Ethernet connection also! lol). My experience is that the issues resided within the Aurender App/iPad interface. Just for grins, try swapping in the cables provided with the unit (Aurender provides none) if you are using aftermarket cables. At least that will clear their minds about such nonsense and maybe you will actually get some real help with solving the issue..
4) Tidal "help" is worse than useless.
5) Keep thinking through possible causes and experiment on your own as it seems that nobody knows why - these devices are just computers after all. Can you say "Reboot"?

Hope at least some of this is helpful.

Dave

My guess is that it’s your ISP. I have a Bluesound Node 2 and Comcast internet.  Their download speed is 100mbps. I stream Tidal HiFi and MQA over WiFi and rarely experience a dropout. They do happen, though.

I also experienced signal drop outs when streaming and it was driving crazy.  After checking everything, I determined my Linksys router could not handle the large number of packets required for high quality streaming.  I lowered the packet size but still experienced the same problem.  

I replaced my Linksys router with an Apple Airport Extreme router and the signal drop outs went away.   I am steaming at 100mbps using an Ethernet wired line and have no problems streaming.

I suspect the problem is not your Bluesound Node 2 or Tidal service.  I recommend you review your internal network including your router.  If you find nothing, I suggest you replace your existing router with a different router to see what happens.  Your router should be able to handle high speed traffic.   Other traffic on your network could cause signal drop outs but my guess is this is not the case.   I suggest a different brand router than what you already have.  Please keep us posted.  

  

Randy,

I use AT&T via Sonic and have the exact same thing happen, but it's not just Tidal, it's everything. For days everything is good, then I'm getting bumped off everything every 15 minutes.

I can tell because my music is wired, and it stops, and when it does, I loose access to all internet services, but like you, access to internal servers/NAS continues.


Best,


E

@randyhat,

As @tomcy6 and @hgeifman suggested, I would look into increasing speed with your ISP.  I used to experience frequent dropouts with 45mbps speed. Now I am at 75mbps and very seldom experience dropouts. Whenever I do, a simple reset of my AT&T modem fixes the problem.

Ask you ISP to run a diagnostic check, in this will also help you determine what is the minimum speed you need based on number of devices connected to your modem. 

My Xfinity ISP tests at 120 Mbps via Ethernet and this still happens sometimes as described above, albeit much less frequently since moving my router/modem to my listening room with 1m Ethernet cable between my router/modem (Motorola MG7550) and Aurender. No other devices (fed through WiFi) from same router/modem ever have a problem, even while my computer audio front end acts up  streaming Tidal. 

????

Dave

https://www.cnet.com/internet-speed-test/

Bill