Innuos Zenith MK3

On 7/15 I posted that my skipping issue was caused by my old modem and router. It turned out not to be the case. The skipping started again. Turns out the cause  for the skipping is the DAC. I have an Ayre QB9 Twenty. The earlier Twenty upgrades had an overheating issue. Ayre has an upgrade that fixes the problem and, although out of warranty, they are doing it for no cost to me including shipping both ways. Good company! I took awhile to finally figure this out because, since my controller communication is with the device (the streamer) that is before DAC, I couldn’t understand why I was getting a message “can’t find server”. I still don’t but, the streamer never falters with my spare DAC.

@OP,
Great that you have narrowed it down.
I also own the QB 9 Twenty, and had an issue with it that Ayre corrected for free (though I didn't get free shipping to them-☹).
Did Ayre say the overheating issue was the possible cause of the skipping.

Bob

No they didn’t. It had read it in another forum somewhere and that’s when I suspected mine was the same. When I called Ayre I described the problem to them and when I suggested it could be overheating they seemed to be well aware and that many of the earlier upgrades had the same issue. I will certainly be glad to have it back because it sounds so much better than the border patrol back-up that I’m using.

I’m interested in this as I have 2.0.6 on a Zenith and since 2.0.5 I’ve had the track skip issue on Qobuz. Can’t comment re: Tidal as idiot use it enough. I don’t have an Ayre DAC (Chord Hugo TT2) so is it really just a DAC issue?

It may be the DAC. I would try to get my hands on a different DAC and see if it still skips. Do you have a local buddy who has one to lend you?