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thanks - i'll try a different socket.
the DAC is hi res capable so that shouldn't be an issue, plus I get noise in between tracks too.
ChasnotRobert-
You could make a Roon Rock from an old i5 NUC. I did it a few years ago and it works ok. Of course the newer expensive NUC's are more expensive and fanless cases even more so but it will run quite a lot of stuff on an i5.
I use some Raspberry Pi's with audio hats running Roipeee. They are great via ethernet, faultless.
I got lucky and bought the lifetime membership early doors, spending on the rest of the kit was a slow process but it's solid.
Anything USB audio is likely to have dropouts and other issues from time to time. Cables make a difference sometimes but often it's just the USB bus not having time to poll the ports.
Airhead
“ Laptop plugged into stand alone USB DAC”
Maybe try a different output on the laptop, my audioquest dragonfly dac has clicking if I use the front (usb-3) socket but works fine on the rear thunderbolt socket.
Also the tidal accounts were upgraded recently so there may be a hi-bit or mqa signal being shoved to the dac that is red book CD spec only