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Audio Dropouts with New (2018) Mac Mini [Solved -- Time Machine]
Dennis in FL:
I have had dropouts with both Toslink and USB DAC (no hub).
Also....it doesn't seem to be Hi Res related. I had dropouts on an AIF CD Audio file
I have dropouts with output encoding and no output encoding
I have dropouts with various buffer settings.
I have a 2014 MAC (fusion drive)- which is unaffected by the MAC hardware glich. ( http://cdm.link/2019/02/apple-2018-glitch/ )
I also have a 2018 laptop MacBook pro (SSD drive) which is affected by the hardware glich. I have not tested JRiver on the laptop long enough to opine. A short test gave some dropouts. I'll give it a longer test shortly with the USB DAC.
I have never heard a dropout with other software (iTunes, Amazon, etc)
The dropouts range from a quick "blip" to a 2-3 second moment of silence.
blgentry:
Dennis,
Your iMac is a monster. It should have no trouble at all with MC unless you are doing something really taxing at the same time like editing and rendering video or something. Running Parallels might be considered pretty taxing depending upon what you are doing. Take a look at Activity Monitor (it's in Applications/Utilities) while you are running MC. I'm guessing you will see that your CPU is fairly idle. If you see any kind of high CPU use, this might point to some sort of issue, or program that is consuming CPU power.
Regarding your MC buffer settings: I suggest setting your HARDWARE buffering to the default. Don't mess with that setting unless JRiver staff give you specific advice. For software buffering, max it out as a test. Go all the way to 1000mS. Make sure to stop and restart MC after you make this change, then verify that the change is there.
Where are your media files located? On your internal fusion drive? If so, that should be fine. Though, if my theory holds, you really want an SSD as your main drive. I hope I'm wrong in this particular case. :)
Good luck,
Brian.
Dennis in FL:
Most of my media files are on a direct connect external USB 3 hard drive (I also have some lesser used files on an external drive via a USB 3.0 hub). But I did get some hiccups from an AIF itunes file on my internal drive. And I had fiddled with the buffer settings quite a bit. If I get a drop out - I change it. I had thought reading the entire album into memory would solve it - but it didn't.
Parallels can hog some of the CPU and memory but I normally have Parallels disabled and my drops come when the only thing I'm running is a web browser. I have checked the activity monitor and there's nothing I see out of the ordinary. Actually - I was trying to have it in view when I got a dropout to see if something was running in the background.....but it happens so fast, I haven't caught it yet. Probably need to record it.
But, alas, my patience in this investigation is expiring.
blgentry:
I feel your pain my man. I spent months troubleshooting this on my 2011 macbook pro. I got it pretty close to perfect with a 750 mS software audio buffer. I never did any "read file into memory" settings. Just the audio buffer in Options > Audio > Audio Device > Device Settings
All of my audio files, on the Macbook Pro and the iMac, are on internal drives. But again, my weird theory, is that the *system drive* is really the one that matters and it needs to be an SSD. I could easily be wrong.
I wish you the best of luck.
Brian.
Dennis in FL:
I read your SSD theory and tested it with my 2018 MacBook....which has an SSD. I did get a hiccup but the 2018 and later have the audio hardware problem.
I think I've tried just about every combination and the common denominator is JRiver so far. I don't get dropouts with other players so I'm cautiously ruling out the Mac & Core Audio but keeping a jaundice eye on it.
Update: I tried your recommendation of buffer at 1000ms and hardware at default.
So far I'm about 20 minutes into a Tchaikovsky Symphony with no skips !!!!
Update #2 - Now it is about 2 hours with no drops !!!! Happy Days are here again. Fingers crossed
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