1. Home
  2. digital
  3. 196113-178608

Diagnosing a streaming failure

 

I have an VERY intermittent streaming failure, let’s say once a month, if that, with daily playing. I have a LAN connected Aurender N150 connected via Cardas Clear USB to my Qutest DAC playing Qobuz. 

The failure occurs only at the start, no sound, conductor shows streaming. A couple times rebooting N150 & Qutest works… 2 times (including this afternoon), rebooting doesn’t work and swapping USB cables gets it working again. 

So bad USB cable… not necessarily as putting the Cardas back, still works. 

When failure occurs, my CD player always works (connected via coax BNC) to my Qutest. So that eliminates everything in my mind but the N150 and the USB portion of my Qutest. 

My N150 only has USB out, so can’t check other outputs. I used to think it was an Qutest issue, but now not sure as a couple of times recently the Aurender skipped songs.

Thoughts?Any diagnostic recommendations would be very much appreciated! Thanks!

 

signaforce
signaforce's avatar
signaforce OP
549 posts
 

 

 

@soix Thanks! chatGPT had a very similar response…  That’s twice!

Based upon the six DAC comparison, mitch2 came to different conclusions. 

Final recommendation (short)

  • If you want a different, more musical personality and $4,500 fits your view of value — go for the Mystique X SE (but audition it in your room if possible).
  • If you’re chasing technical neutrality or improvements to speed/resolution, keep the Qutest.
  • Given the price and your highly optimized chain, this purchase is justified only as a tonal/character choice, not as fixing a problem.

@audphile1 Thanks, unless I completely change my rack, and move my vinyl (the plan if/when I go to coda), the PS audio would not fit. 

@mpoll1 Thanks!

erik_squires
17,550 posts
 

Well for me it’s definitely that my Internet provider is flakey.  I use it for work and have a kind of elaborate Internet back up system, so I monitor it more closely than most, and know what part of my network is down or unavailable.  

So, if this happens 2x a month, and your network internally is hard wired I’m going to bet it’s outside of your house. 

As always, if using Wifi, I recommend the use of a free Wifi analyzer you can get for any phone or laptop.  Make sure you have both a solid signal and an uncontested channel.  Hard to do in densely populated areas. 

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
7,947 posts
 

@signaforce got it. Let us know if you try the mojo and how it sounds. 

fthompson251's avatar
fthompson251
750 posts
 

I had to replace my router when I had this problem. 

signaforce's avatar
signaforce OP
549 posts
 

@erik_squires Thanks! You may be correct, as my internet has been wonky lately (AT&T 1Gb fiber). Rebooting the AT&T portion seems to have resolved that, as I am getting 500mbps WiFi speeds throughout the house. 

I have my upstairs Aurender Ethernet connected via my old Ethernet backhaul to my downstairs main router. My Asus mesh system (3 total routers) is now using a wireless backhaul. 

I did that to eliminate one of the routers from my chain to my streamer, and allowed me to move that second router far from my audio system. Thoughts?

@fthompson251 My main router is new, but who knows… thanks!

More to discover