Intermittent audio dropouts when streaming Qobuz Hi Res files on Lumin streamer


Hey all,

Has anyone experienced intermittent audio dropouts when streaming Qobuz Hi Res files (especially 192/24 & 96/24) on Lumin U1 Mini streamer using Lumin app?

I have assembled a system in my living room about 2 yrs ago and have been subscribed to both Qobuz and Tidal Hifi Plus. I stream both Qobuz and Tidal on my Lumin U1 Mini streamer using Lumin app. Everything has gone smoothly and flawlessly until about less than 2 months ago. Lately I have been experiencing intermittent audio dropouts only when streaming Qobuz Hi Res materials (particularly 192/24 & 96/24) but Qobuz CD quality files (44.1/16) are fine. But recently the audio dropouts has become much more frequent and more intense. Again the issue pertains only to Qobuz Hi Res materials (192/24 & 96/24), not the CD quality (44.1/16).

My Lumin streamer is hard wired using a good quality TWL (Triode Wire Labs) CAT6 ethernet cable. I have a fast internet connection and live alone so I don’t share internet with anyone in the house. I also have UpTone Audio EtherREGEN audiophile quality ethernet switch between my router and the Lumin streamer. The issue has only been occurring in the last two months, and it was fine before. So it’s quite recent. I logged out of Qobuz and disabled Qobuz app of the Lumin app and enabled it back up again and logged back in but the issue still persists. I rebooted the Lumin streamer and restarted it up again and didn’t make a difference either.
I have the latest firmware. Again the audio dropouts is intermittent and doesn’t always happen all the time but recently it’s becoming more intense and more frequent. Frankly it’s annoying.

I’m also subscribed to Tidal Hifi Plus and have been streaming Tidal Hi Res FLAC files (Tidal MAX) up to 192/24 on the same Lumin U1 Mini streamer using same Lumin app. Fyi, Last year (2023) Tidal has launched Tidal MAX for those Hifi Plus subscribers which allows us to stream Hi Res FLAC materials up to 192/24. But I have never experienced intermittent audio dropouts when streaming Tidal Hi Res materials up to 192/24 (Tidal MAX). So, it’s pretty obvious that the issue is with Qobuz, not my Lumin streamer or the Lumin app.

Has anyone experienced the same issue when streaming Qobuz Hi Res materials on their Lumin streamers using Lumin app or on any streamers using any apps?

I have contacted both Lumin and Qobuz but Qobuz’s customer support isn’t great. They were slow in responding to your complaints and issues. Lumin customer support isn’t the best either. They are suspecting whether the issue is regional in my area or universal across the globe. I live in Seattle, WA. They asked me to experiment with something and use my cellular phone as hotspot to my home internet/wifi network but I have no clue how to do that.

This living room setup is the only setup in the house where I stream Tidal and Qobuz and this isn’t my main primary system. I have two other dedicated main listening rooms in the house (primary main systems) but I don’t stream Tidal or Qobuz in these main systems in my dedicated listening rooms.

Any help, advise, thoughts and opinions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

caphill

Start simple, with the cables, and go one at a time. Buy two cheap Ethernet cables and replace the expensive ones and see if it persists. 

I've never bought the upgraded Ethernet cables, but I've definitely had cables go bad.

I have had the same issue using my iPhone Bluetoothed to a sound bar, since my system is boxed up right now. With that said, I think it is a Qobuz issue. 

FWIW I have similar experience with 192/24 files on Qobuz streaming through my PC. I have 100 meg fiber and I'm hardwired to my router. I have tried a different cable with no effect. It only happens on 192 files and I have assumed that it is on Qobuz' end. I'm in central Washington state.

One of the reasons I think it is a Qobuz problem is that I can stream hi res video files on the same equipment without a hitch.

I also have problems with Qobuz on a Playback Designs MPS-X with JPLAY, with songs cutting off in the middle and then advancing to the next song in the queue.  The problem might be my internet service which has a lot of dropped packets.  There are some sites you can use to test your ISP, but I was not able to include the links to them here.

I run a cary and have a few problems with qobuz. It gets interupted once in a great while. My main problem is from app to dac, but I am pretty happy. Sometimes there's some problem solves to go through. I once read not to log out because logging in can be a problem. Had to contact quboz. They said the site got attacked once, but I wouldn't have problems the next day. They were right and they have always been pretty good to me.