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What is going on here? Streamer or DAC?

I’ve got an old (2016) streamer DAC that is beginning to show some instability. I do not believe it is my signal strength—240+ mps, no problems streaming video, occurs wired or WiFi. Opinions? Here are the symptoms:

1. Maybe one track in four, starts with a skip or stutter.  If I restart the track, it starts fine. 
2. Maybe one every few weeks/months, gets stuck repeating one note sort of like a damaged record. When this happens, no control via remote or the unit itself. Have to unplug to get it to stop. Sometimes it self corrects when plugging back in, sometimes have to hard reset.

3. Maybe once every few weeks, will locate tracks on Qobuz but will not load and play them.  Works fine from NAS or internet radio. When this happens, sometimes can correct by re-acquiring WiFi, sometimes needs a hard reset. This might be associated with momentary power outages. 
 

4. maybe once in three-six months, just shuts down and restarts while playing. 
 

Comments?

 

tomaswv
erik_squires
16,371 posts
 

Use a free phone/laptop app, usually called Wifi analyzer or something like that to check that your Wifi broadcast is on an isolated channel and has strong reception. Often times routers bunch up on the first channel, which later gets congested with more neighbors.  This can definitely lead to drop-outs, but haven't heard of this causing entire streamers to hang up.

Based on what you are describing it sounds like you have some sort of power supply issue. If you have a wall wart, replace it. If your house is in heavy heat mode it may be so dry you are having static issues and increasing the humidity may help, especially if the issues happen after you touch it.  While a good conditioner like a Furman with LiFT and SMP can protect you from surges, it's possible this issue is an aging power supply.

erik_squires
16,371 posts
 

I should have been more clear. It sounds like a power supply or static electricity problem could be the root causes. Not exactly the same thing. A power supply issue means the parts responsible for maintaining the DC voltages constant are not. A static electricity issue can happen from any of the delicate silicon parts like the CPU which runs it, becoming too sensitive, or having been shocked too often.

tomaswv OP
237 posts
 

Good info. Separate streamer and DAC is exactly where I’m thinking of going. Looking for info on what is happening to help me decide which to replace first.  

soix
9,768 posts
 

Note the OP mentioned he’s experiencing this with both Wi-Fi and wired configurations. 

yage
401 posts
 

It could also be some other streamer component going bad like a RAM module, the storage for the OS, or the CPU itself.

 

It can be hard to narrow down the culprit unless you can log into the operating system remotely, e.g. using something like ssh or PuTTY or swap out the power brick / wall wart.

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