Hello, I am a very happy owner of a Naim Nova since May 2021. It has been running flawlessly until last week. For any reason, out of the blue, it started to jump in the meddle of a song (sometimes just a few seconds ahead and sometimes way ahead to a different song) This is intermittent…. May be happening 4-5 times during a 2-3 hours period. I am mostly streaming using ROON and Tidal. So far, I unplugged my Nova for 30 minutes and power it back up, I cleared the cache on my ROON app, I powered down my computer (ROON CORE)… I am not to sure what would be the next step. My NOVA is connected via a very fast ETHERNET connection. Any other users experienced such an issue? I have been searching different topics but could not find anything similar. I also have a ticket opened with Naim Support but no answer yet as they seem pretty busy
Sorry to say I have never experienced anything like this with Roon and NDX2. However, the way Roon works (with the caching done predominantly by the Roon Core and all playback under tight Core control), as a best guess I would start looking at the Core and not the end point. Especially the skipping to a completely different track, I can’t imagine how the Nova would do that in its own, as it’s the Core that does the streaming and sends the PCM data to the Nova.
You could try changing the output device on the mobile to the mobile’s speakers (the mobile’s speakers can be enabled in the Roon settings). Would be interesting if it then skips as well.
Thanks you very much… you have an excellent point, that makes a lot of sense. I will try to unstinstall and reinstall my ROON CORE application to see if it works.
I have local file that I am planning to try if my problem is not resolved. Since it is intermittent, it is not as simple as it may look to troubleshoot. I will have a look at the ROON user forum… another step I did not think about (getting too old ). For any reason… I immediately thought it was my Nova… and I was freaking out.
The Nova has a much larger buffer than the older Naim streamers (several minutes), and for me Roon has always been more stable streaming using Roon’s proprietary RAAT engine than say Audirvana.
How are you playing your music?
Selected in Naim app and played or on the Roon Core/mobile device?
I strongly suspect it’s not the Nova but (you’ll hate me saying it) a network (especially wi-fi) or pre-Nova software issue.
Are you running current Nova firmware (or a beta)?
Is the issue reproducible at the exact same point in a track if it fails and you play it again (maybe corruption of local or streamed file).
I have a bizarre issue with a Linn Carol Kidd download where Roon plays it fine from an external hard drive but Audirvana skips around the 1 minute mark consistently and the Nova is fine with the tracks on a USB stick. All very tricky to pin down.
I’d be tempted to do a factory restore on the Nova too which will not revert firmware but may iron on some glitches.
It does, but it’s not used with Roon because the Core controls the playback, otherwise Roon multi-room would not work seamlessly if every endpoint used its own buffer
Though can the Core utilise it’s own software buffer and Nova buffer with the RAAT implementation? I don’t really know, and am less interested in implementation than I might have been years ago, I just want it to work.
Anecdoatlly ROON has streamed flawlessly when Audirvana via UPnP has often skipped tracks part way through.
Audirvana Studio was poor initially but is now my preferred playback software when at the Mac - skips from WAN streaming audio are rare but it consistently falls over on a Carol Kidd album I downloaded from Linn years ago streamed from a locally attached drive on the LAN. Weird. I suspect either a file idiosyncrasy handled better by Roon or something ‘WEIRD’
It’s how the Core can ensure that all RoonReady endpoints (which can have very different implementations of their own streaming architecture) play in sync. And it’s why a good LAN is essential for Roon.
And in the context of this thread’s problem, that’s why I can’t see how the Nova would be able to skip to a completely different track unless the Core sends it the data for this track.
Personally, I have only good experiences with Roon streaming, it hasn’t missed a beat in the 1.5 years I used it with the NDX2. I do use Roon Rock though.
I simply treated myself to lifetime, no second-guessing whether the time spent to groom the library is well spent or wasted, and the cost has long been buried by the tides of time
Yes, probably worth lifetime at the original cost (whatever ‘lifetime’ is), but couldn’t originally justify it myseld, great for thos that did, but with my usage pattern currently no real loss.
Just a thought before you disappear down the technological rabbit hole… is anyone in the household actively browsing Roon when these skips occur? What you describe is consistent with an accidental swipe across the progress bar at the bottom of the Roon interface. Don’t ask me how I know…
Thank you Andy, no, I am the only one using ROON in the house. Again, all was absolutely perfect for more than 6 months and suddenly it happening intermittently since approx a week. most of the time it is stepping forward a few second in the same song but occasionally it does step to a complete different song on the same album. It reminds me the issue I had when I was playing a CD with important scratch on it. I believe it makes sense that the issue is with my MAC, my ROON CORE App or my network… I will work on it over the next few days.
Okey doke. Always best to eliminate the simple stuff first. Can you say at the moment whether it only occurs with Tidal, or with other routes into Roon too? What about Tidal direct into the Nova?
