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[cporada]

Dear all,
I am new to this forum and am hoping someone may be able to help me with a recent problem I've encountered with JRiver MC 23.0.103. 

I am running a 2011 MacBook Pro with El Capitan from an internal SSD.  I am using JRiver to play all of my hi-res music files (a mix of flac and wav) from an external USB 3 WD hard drive, outputting sound from JRiver via a Moon Audio Black Drgaon USB cable to a Bel Canto REFLink, which then feeds a Rega DAC via an Audience S/PDIF cable. 

Until about a week ago, JRiver worked flawlessly, playing anything I could throw at it.  Then, in the middle of a listening session, it suddenly lost the ability to play anything above 96kHz, with frequent stuttering every few seconds of playback.  I searched the forum and have tried adjusting the buffering, etc., but to no avail. 

No other software is installed on the MacBook, as it is used only for music, so I don't think it's a resource issue.  In desperation, I even tried downloading the newest build of MC 24 for Mac and installed that.  The problem persists (luckily JRiver offers a trial period, or I'd be out $59 and still have the same problem); anything at 176.4kHz or 192kHz stutters, interestingly, the stuttering is worse at 192kHz than at 176.4kHz...

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can try?  Many of my files are at 192kHz, so I'd really like to regain the ability to listen to those.

Thanks so much,
Chris 

[JimH]

I don't know what the problem is, but if it happened suddenly, it's not a problem with MC23.

Did you try power cycling all the equipment?

[cporada]

Hi Jim,

Thanks so much; that's a good point. 

I have all my gear plugged into an ExactPower™ 2000 AC Line Purifier, which should ensure that everything only "sees" a perfect 60Hz sine wave 115VAC, i.e., no dips, over-voltages, or surges, but I will try powering everything down and report back on whether that resolves the issue.

Thanks again,
Chris 

[cporada]

Hi Jim,
Powering everything down (the Mac and all audio gear including the power conditioner) and rebooting does not seem to have made any difference.  Everything that is 96kHz and below plays flawlessly and anything above 96kHz still stutters something fierce (like each 3-5 seconds of playback).  Do you have any other thoughts/suggestions?  This is really frustrating because everything was working flawlessly before, and I've not changed anything.
Thanks so much,
Chris

[DJLegba]

Copy a file from the external HD to your internal SSD and try to play it from there. If that works, your external HD may be failing (or the cable may need to be reseated or replaced). If it doesn't work, you may have a failing link in the chain from your USB port to your DAC. Try a different USB port on the computer. Replace the Moon cable with a standard USB cable. (Test playback after each change.) If still no joy, try to borrow a different playback device (either a USB DAC or a DLNA device). I assume your current DAC doesn't have a USB input, so see if you can borrow a DAC with the same type of input (that way you can test if it's the DAC or the USB converter).

[cporada]

Thanks DJ,
Somewhat surprisingly, it appears the problem lies with the Bel Canto.  If I leave everything exactly as-is, but output the USB directly to my Chord 2Qute that I use for headphone listening, playback is flawless at any sampling rate, up through DSD, so the MacBook, USB interface, and external hard drive all seem to be good.  Since the Bel Canto is the most expensive piece of equipment in the signal path, this is not good news :-(
I've contacted Bel Canto to see if they can offer suggestions.
Thanks again, DJ and Jim for helping me see that JRiver is not the culprit, which is unfortunate, as the fix would be much cheaper...
Best,
Chris

[cporada]

So, after some back-and-forth with Bel Canto (very helpful people, BTW), I isolated the problem; it seems my Audience Ohno digital cable has "died".  I'm not sure how or why this would happen, but switching to a standard 75ohm cable I had sitting around eliminated the problem and all is now good in audio land :-)
Now I just need to get a decent S/PDIF cable to replace the generic one that now in the system...
Thanks again to all for their help,
Chris