Audio stutters with USB Dacs on Macbook M1 Pro

[lsanbourne]

Hi, I'm having audio dropouts every so often with Reaper (DAW) + RME UFX III + 2021 M1 Max on Sonoma 14.6.1 (23G93). I set Reaper's thread priority to Time Critical but still get dropouts.

To everyone who had these issues on M1: Did upgrading to M2 fix things? I'm considering M4 Macs…

 

[stefanovesa]

Hi, I have a M3 Macbook Air. Non sure if It can be helpful, but the USB stack seems far more stable on M3 than on my previous M1. No more dropouts from laptop to DAC with USB cables more than 2 meters long, for example. I suppose M4 should be good too.

 

[lsanbourne]

Thanks for the report! Can anyone else report stable USB performance on M2, M3, etc? I'm using this to record live events, so I can't have even a 0,1-second dropout.

Also, to anyone who had the M1 dropouts, did upgrading to Sequoia help? RME recommended trying this.

Thanks!

 

[mkt]

I followed this thread for a long time before I upgraded from intel to M4 on Friday. No stuttering so far (fingers crossed)

 

[Klonatans]

Got a Mac Mini M4 Pro last week and there are no stuttering or any other issues. Using a Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ via USB.

 

[aagstn]

Got a Mac Mini M4 Pro last week and there are no stuttering or any other issues. Using a Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ via USB.

I just got the base M4. Tried it with Apple Music, Kodi, and Plex Amp out to my SMSL DAC and no stuttering or issues of any kind. Switching bitrates in Kodi and Plex Amp also works correctly and causes no issues with playback.

 

[elshaddai]

Suffered the same problem and here's a simple solution that's worked for me:
Mac M1 USB-c out -> USB to Toslink adapter (such as DSD Tech SH-AU02A , $25 on Amazon) -> Optical input on DAC.
The conversion of the USB signal to optical seems to sidestep the stutter/pop/crackle and distortion issues, maybe because the DAC
handles the two signals differently? Not sure why but problem solved.

​

I just ordered a similar SMSL PO100 off eBay - hoping that this will work with equal success. I was having audio stutters with a Cubilux USB-C to optical adapter.

 

[luxxxman]

In case it helps someone, I have an M1 Pro Macbook Pro with 16GB unified memory and since the update to Sequoia the stuttering issue has improved dramatically with my Topping DX1.

I listened for several hours to Apple lossless m4a files and I think I only detected one brief stutter.

 

[elshaddai]

I just ordered a similar SMSL PO100 off eBay - hoping that this will work with equal success. I was having audio stutters with a Cubilux USB-C to optical adapter.

Just following up... I have a 2021 MacBook Pro with M1 Pro chip from work. Using the new SMSL PO100 USB interface, audio playback has been flawless.