Changes in DAC Presentation - Need Advice

Yes, the opticalrendu is wonderful network upgrade, recently upgraded from TPLink FMC to opticalrendu, plays on much higher plane.

As for Macmini. I've used three different macminis over the years, never had a single glitch with Roon. These things are network related if mini optimized as server, therefore, shutting down all those non-critical processes. You do have one major upgrade left to you with mini. Get Uptone MMK with Uptone JS-2, then use Thunderbolt out as ethernet bridge out, you'll have top flight server. Just doing the ethernet out from thunderbolt alone will be of great benefit.

@sns do you mean you upgraded to the opticalModule from the TPlink? I’m definitely doing that once they are back in stock.

That’s good to know about the Mac Mini. Perhaps I should investigate my network first. My main issue now is Roon/HQPlayer has audio drop outs every now and then where audio will stop and come back 3-4 seconds later. I was thinking it was the Mac, but maybe its network related. The mac only sits around 30% CPU usage when playing. Right now I’m set up modem>Google Wifi>unmanaged TPlink switch>TPLink Powerline adapter>FMC>rendu. Would a MANAGED switch make a difference? Can you give bandwidth preference to certain devices?

What do you mean by using thunderbolt ethernet out? Ethernet in and thunderbolt out? Or just use thunderbolt instead of the standard ethernet port?

No, I was previously running two TPLink FMC, both with lps going to SOTM SMS200 streamer/roon endpoint. The opticalrendu replaced both last Tplink and sotm, powering with Uptone JS2.

Your issue is wifi, you have to do hard wiring for any HQPlayer, really even for any decent streaming.

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/30376-a-novel-way-to-massively-improve-the-sq-of-computer-audio-streaming/#comment-613370 This link explains how to use thunderbolt port as second ethernet port for direct ethernet out. I don't know if you're using router with switch or router alone, but you can bypass switch or router post server by doing the direct out thunderbolt port.

Your new routing would be: modem>router>mini>FMC>rendu. You'll have no need of switch ,at least post server with thunderbolt ethernet out. This is quite large sound quality improvement.

First and foremost you have to get hard wired,even long ethernet or coax cable is superior to wifi.

@sns Gotcha, thanks! I'll look into that. Also the Uptone mod.