This is a longstanding issue for me which has occurred since AS was released. Basically if I load anything from 2 to 50 tracks in a play queue all tracks are recorded in the play history with the exception of the last track which is intermittently not recorded in the playback history or has a play count added. My observations on this are as follows;
This issue does not occur when playing via USB to a Chord DAC or when using the internal DAC and MacBook speakers.
It only occurs when using UPnP over wireless to KEF speakers.
The frequency of occurrence seems to be related to the BitRate of the files. It very commonly occurs (80% of the time) when playing 11290 kbps DSD files. This frequency is reduced when playing PCM files which are upsampled (power of 2, R8Brain) to 24/384 to about 40% occurrence and even less frequency if I turn off upsampling and just play 16/44.1 to 24/192 files. (I have noticed an increase in the frequency with the KEF speakers since the “Plays with” addition of the KEF’s which allowed upsampling to 24/384 kHz prior to this was 24/192. Hence the reason for this post)
From a playback perspective all files play perfectly over wireless UPnP, there is no truncation of tracks or dropouts. I have experienced faultless playback of all tracks for the last 18 months or so since investing in the best possible home network (within apartment constraints - wired connection for KEF’s to satellite router, fibre backhaul to main router, wireless from MBP to main router).
As an example I played 3 DSD tracks (Vivaldi/Podger/Brecon Baroque) the first two are recorded in the playback history, the last is not recorded despite playing all the way to the end. At the same time as playing I have recorded an Audirvana log which does show an error at the end of the log, (No idea obviously whether this is related?)
There are no errors when transitioning from track 0 to 1 or track 1 to 2 however I do see the following Error 714 at the end of the log…
321912702 for 951042 requested 951042 loaded 322863744 from buffer 0 trackId 2
2024-04-30 10:45:46.212 [debug]: UPnP Received updated transport actions:Play
2024-04-30 10:45:46.213 [debug]: UPnP Received new transport state STOPPED
2024-04-30 10:45:46.338 [error]: UPnP Error 714 setting AVTransportURI to http://192.168.68.61:49152/audirvana/audioTest.pcm on instance 0
I understand this is a low priority as playback is faultless however due to my desire to have the play counts and history accurately reflect the number of times I have played a file I would appreciate it being looked at at some point in the future… Thanks.
Update:
As an example of how upsampling/bitrate seems to affect this issue. I played two tracks from the 1975 Looking for Somebody to Love then Human Too without upsampling (16/44.1) . Both were recorded in the play history. I then replayed the tracks with upsampling turned on, AS then upsamples to 24/352.8. As you can see the first track Looking for Somebody To Love is shown as played twice. The second and final track in the queue, Human Too is not recorded as played twice.
Thanks! No urgency, I check the play history when finish playing to the KEF’s if the last track is not added to the history I replay it to the internal MBP speakers with the sound off to ensure my playback counts are accurate (I have a little OCD affliction).
Just returned from a month away with only a DAC and headphones for company to find the issue of failure to record the final track in a play queue has not occurred with any DSD or upsampled PCM files when using UPnP over wireless to my KEF speakers with 2.8.2.
I can’t thank you enough for your efforts in resolving this!!
Probably spoke to soon saying the issue was resolved. After about 5 days of flawlessly recording the last track played the issue returned with avengance. DSD files fail to record the last track probably 30% of the time. When queuing PCM files it is about 60% of the time the last track in a queue is not recorded as having been played using UPnP.
Obviously seeing as the issue appeared to be resolved and then returned I suspected the network. So…
Rebooted network and endpoints… (problem still occurs).
Tested network speed - getting +/- 90 mbps at the KEF’s (problem still occurs)
Reset the KEF’s to factory defaults (no change)
Tried using Airplay to the KEF speakers (works fine, records last track in play queue every time)
Obviously because airplay is limited in terms of sample rates I then installed and fired up Roon for the first time in a long while and tried to reproduce the issue upsampling to the KEF’s, obviously now using RAAT and again all tracks played and recorded as played. Hence does not appear to be network throughput issue.
Therefore assume this is KEF UPnP/network implementation issue. Will wait and hope KEF address this in a future firmware update but as it does not occur every time then my hope of getting a solution is fading fast. In the interim have been going back to replaying the last track to the MBP speakers with the sound turned off to keep play counts accurate…
I should add that when I got back from my trip and started using UPnP to the KEFS the firmware revision of the KEF’s was 3.3. At some point since then the KEF’s were updated to version 3.4. Can’t be sure whether this coincided with the return of the issue or not…
An update on this issue. The issue still occured on an intermittent basis despite extensive troubleshooting to define the cause, so decided to try one more time with KEF. Went through a whole bunch of testing that showed it was limited to UPnP playback to the KEF’s and not a network issue.
KEF support then suggested I connect via USB to the KEF LS60’s and 50’s which was astonishing as both the LS50 and 60 does not have a USB input! I therefore conclude KEF supports knowledge of its own products is pretty abysmal.
Despite proving that it was a UPnP issue between Audirvana and KEF’s by connecting the MBP directly to the KEF’s with an ethernet cable bypassing the home network their next suggestion was to turn off MESH on my network…WTF?
Once it finally dawned on them that it was a UPnP issue they suggested that it was Audirvana’s problem. I pointed out that the issue did not occur when playing from Audirvana to a Chord Hugo 2/ 2GO combination over wireless UPnP followed by an analogue connection to the KEF’s. I therefore suggested to them that the issue may lie in their implementation?.. a quick response with a “if there is anything else we can do for you” followed by silence.
Conclusion therefore was to sell my KEF LS60’s and invest in a power amplifier and some good passive speakers. The LS50’s I gave to my daughter as she only streams airplay from Apple Music.
