Gapless playback, and what Silent Network actually does

Gapless removes the small silence between tracks so albums that were meant to run continuously actually do: live recordings where applause bleeds into the next song, classical works that fade one movement into the next, beat-matched mixes.

It is on by default, in Settings → Playback. There is no crossfade in Serento, by design.

Just below it sits Silent Network, a value in milliseconds, and it is not the musical pause its position suggests. It is a settling window for the DAC. Some DACs re-initialise their decode path whenever a new stream starts and click audibly while doing it, which is most common on DSD. Silent Network holds the network quiet for that long before the next stream begins, so the click lands in silence instead of in the music. The slider runs from 0 to 12 seconds.

Gapless wins. While Gapless Playback is on, the Silent Network value is never read at all. A fresh install shows 1000 ms there and it does nothing, because gapless is on above it. The value only takes effect once you turn gapless off.

So if your DAC clicks between tracks, turn gapless off first, then raise Silent Network until the click is covered. If your DAC is quiet, leave both as they are.

Gapless also depends on the renderer. Devices that support OpenHome's autonomous queue handle it best, because the whole queue is handed to the device and it manages the transitions itself.