[PROBLEM] Initial stuttering when playing back high resolution files

[DutchBassAddict]

Does "impact on performance" mean that the rate at which the random dropouts occur lessens when you make these changes? Is there a noticeable ordering to the effect? E.g., is making one of the changes better than making the other, or v.v; is making both changes better than making only one or the other?

If the default USB driver (dwc_otg) is being used, then the 32 bit version is a much better choice. On the 64 bit version, I experience dropouts every 30 secs or so if on the 'ondemand' governor and I can force a dropout by logging in with ssh. If I switch to 'performance' the dropouts occur about every 50 - 60 secs. 

On the 32 bit version, a dropout might happen after 7-8 minutes with dwc_otg + ondemand. I can't trigger a dropout with ssh. With dwc_otg + performance, I get a dropout about every 10 minutes. Here's a post from a kernel dev on a possible reason why 32 bit is better - link.

Using the 'dwc2' USB driver instead of 'dwc_otg' and enabling 'performance' on either the 32 bit or 64 bit version results in the most stable system. Dropouts are very rare - I may get one after 30-40 minutes of playback.

I tested a few previous releases and the most stable version out of the box was 7.6.1. It played for about 30 minutes until I got a dropout.

Re: CIFS errors, I think I may have been getting the errors because of a series of blackouts due to weather. I reset folder sharing on the Mac and now I don't get the error messages anymore.

Appreciate the clarification, and even more excitingly, switching to 32 bit solved the audio issue completely from my initial testing (half an hour or so, default settings except for setting up the i2s DAC and fileshare, trying to keep it simple). I would have never thought to try that! Verified on both of the Pi's that this fixes the audio. Unfortunately the UI also seems a bit slower and my initial boot failed to resize the disk. But definitely a worthy tradeoff. Forgot to mention this, but I tried moode a while ago (can't remember version, +- half a year ago) and I had the same stuttering happen then, too. Now to get spotify connect working and I will be all set! The spotify connect not working may be user error, but I had it working sporadically (intermittently though) and now it's just never showing up at all when I try to connect to it (32 and 64bit).

Thanks once again for all the help everyone!!

Any way to mark this problem "solved"?

Spoke to soon: When I'm using DoP the problem occurs, and when I use "native DSD" it seems to downsample to 352k pcm, is this correct? If my Dac somehow can't do DOP even though it should, this may be the same in the 64 bit version as I always defaulted to that as the dac was advertised as being able to handle it.