The strange thing is the dropouts are specific to AAC+ streams while connected to high-bandwidth wifi.
I can play MP3 streams while attached to a 5GHz network all day with no dropouts. I can also play high-res DSD64 or 24-bit/176kHz files from my Time Capsule NAS with no dropouts or clicks (this was the reason I got the 802.11ac adapter — those files won’t play back at 802.11g speeds). These high-res files must use way more bandwidth/CPU/power than a 128kbps AAC+ stream…
My guess is the problem is in the AAC decoder. I tried using gdb to get a backtrace of where the dropout is happening, but it seems the mpd file wasn’t compiled with debugging information. (I’m not even entirely sure what module actually does aac decoding).
FWIW, I’m using a HifiBerry Digi+ card for SPDIF output.
Thanks
muski