Server Version#: 1.41.3.9314
Player Version#: 4.11.5
My Plex music library is mostly 44K CD quality, but I have a few albums at 48K, 88K and 96K. If a play queue contains a mix of them, I get dropouts between tracks, and sometimes, the new track simply does not play unless I do something to force the stream to re-buffer (like hitting the previous track button). The problem is slightly worse when I have SoundSource running (for keyboard volume control), but stopping it does not fix the problem.
I have an alternate bit-perfect player on my Mac (Swinsian), and it handles this situation perfectly, with or without SoundSource. This app is reading the music files directly from an external hard drive containing a mirror backup of my Plex server drive.
Is there a setting I need to check? Is this a known issue? This effectively makes my PlaxAmp (and subscription) useless for any sort of queue containing a mix of resolutions.
Interestingly… changing to “Smart” seems to fix the problem by forcing the next track to output at the same resolution.
16/44 → 24/96 keeps the resolution at 44, per my DAC.
24/96 → 16/44 keeps the resolution at 96, per my DAC.
In my test, I went from a 44 track to 96. Output stayed at 44. I paused the track and restarted it, output changed to 96. Next track at 16/44 continued to output at 24/96, presumably converted on the fly by PlexAmp.
I’m fine with this as a workaround, because CD quality into my DacMagic 200M sounds just fine.
Good deal. You may want to consider posting some Plexamp logs here of the original scenario in case someone wanders by who can make use of them, if it’s at all important to you. (I’d test it myself, but I’m a mostly 320 Kbps scrub with some 44/16. I suspect I’d need some higher bitrate stuff to reproduce as I’ve never seen this in my environment.)
At any rate, glad you got it working to your satisfaction.
Yeah, this will do until the problem is addressed in Plexamp. I really prefer the UI for Plexamp to the alternatives (WiiM Plex interface or Swinsian), but those handle the resolution switch flawlessly if I want it.
I’m not surprised, and I honestly can’t say I specifically recall it being noticeable in the past. It could be a Mac update. It could be some synergy, or lack thereof, with my DAC and my M1 Mac. All I know is that this setting change makes the issue go away to my satisfaction.
Yeah, my feelings exactly. 16/44 and 24/96 are indistinguishable to my ears and system, but losing the fades would be a tragedy.
As an aside, Nyquist-Shannon is right, and we really didn’t need higher res. We just needed DACs that work, which took about 20 years from the intro of the CD format. I’m more than happy to downsample 24/96 to CD level, sounds great either way, and the differences, if any, are practically inaudible.
I had some random drop outs and issues between songs when i was on strict as well, and when I played with cache settings and increased the cache size and track cache it fixed the problem for me. Might be worth a shot.
