I am finding that music plays but there are frequent brief "dropouts" which system recovers from almost immediately.

Is this similar to your problems?

Meridian owner 1982 —>
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Chord Dave, MScaler, Ultima 6, Explorer 1, Muso, Muso-QB, Primare BD32, Franco Serblin Accordo Essence, REL S/812, Sony WH-1000XM3, QuietPC Media PC i5 (Roon Core), Stax SR-507 Lambda, Stax SRM-006tII.