ISPs, Routers and Tidal

My ISP is currently SSE. It's an 80Mbps fibre connection using a Technicolor Lime router version 15.2. 

No issues streaming from Tidal in the 15 months I've had it

I have no problems streaming Tidal using my recently upgraded Sky Fibre connection (38Mbps) with either of my main streaming systems (Linn Klimax DS/1 or Sonore microRendu).

I also had next to no problems before my fibre upgrade, using my Sky ADSL Broadband connection (3.6 Mb) with a Sky supplied Netgear router. From recollection, I did have very occasional Tidal dropouts when I used a Naim ND5XS streamer, but they too were very few and far between.  

There is another current thread "Tidal dropouts, probable cause" which explains in detail why you should not have a Virgin Media Superhub 3 for Tidal, but the Superhub 2 variants are ok, though almost unavailable from VM.

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David

I suspect that latency issues upstream of the router, and therefore largely out of your control, are the main issue for most, so care should be taken not to blame the router when the problem may lie elsewhere, somewhere between the ISP and Tidal's servers.

Chris you should look at the thread I mention above. It is interesting because the cable modem (rather than the router) in the Superhub 3 is giving higher priority to background housekeeping than to data processing and this is leading to regular latency blips of up to one second instead of a few msecs. There is loads of stuff about it on the internet, including a 186 page thread in Virgin's on line forum. Virgin know about the issue but it is still not fixed nearly a year after being identified, basically because the chip manufacturer hasn't developed a firmware upgrade yet.....

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David

I'm aware of the Superhub issue, just saying that one needs to be careful not to jump to conclusions about where the fault may lie.

@chrissu There may well be latency issues upstream Chris but at the risk of repeating myself my drop-out problems only started when I had a superhub 3 installed so unless something happened upstream at exactly the same time it really is difficult not to jump to conclusions.  It's also a much bigger problem than just Tidal as the majority of people affected are online gamers who have probably never been anywhere near Tidal.  Thankfully I'm getting my superhub 2 put back next week and I'll know within a track or two if the problem has gone away.

Johnell posted:

@chrissu There may well be latency issues upstream Chris but at the risk of repeating myself my drop-out problems only started when I had a superhub 3 installed so unless something happened upstream at exactly the same time it really is difficult not to jump to conclusions.  It's also a much bigger problem than just Tidal as the majority of people affected are online gamers who have probably never been anywhere near Tidal.  Thankfully I'm getting my superhub 2 put back next week and I'll know within a track or two if the problem has gone away.

As I mentioned above, I'm aware of your specific Superhub issue. My point is that if people start posting here along the lines of 'I get Tidal dropouts, and my router is xxxxx' there is a chance that people will see this, and draw conclusions from it, likely based on statistically insignificant information. The Tidal latency problem is an issue that's been known for some time now, and anyone who is suffering from Tidal dropouts specifically, on the current/older range of Naim streamers in particular, should be aware of it.

As you say, the Tidal latency problem has been known about for some time but I read every thread I could find and no-one appeared to have a clue what might be actually causing the latency.  The research I did flagged up something which a major provider knew full well about but are still denying, even though the chip provider has finally acknowledged there is a problem (possibly due to the lawsuit).  

I think [@mention:51970829741422995]'s question is valid because it will go a long way in proving whether it is specific modem rather than ISP related.  What people chose to do with that information is down to them.