When streaming over UPnP to a Phantom Ultimate Stereo pair I have a couple of playback issues as follows. When setting up the speakers they are recognised as “Plays With Audirvana” and settings are applied. The default settings facilitate a maximum sample rate of 192 kHz and also the universal gapless play back mode is turned on.
When playing files with the default settings I get two issues;
Intermittently when playing a track the first 1 second is played, then I get a burst of white noise then the track re-starts from the beginning and plays normally.
When playing 192 kHz files after a period of time (sometimes 3-4 consecutive 192 kHz files) the track playback stutters. It is a on/off/on/off stutter that is consistent at 2 times per second +/-. Pausing playback for a minute and then resuming will facilitate normal playback for a brief period before the stuttering starts again.
Issue No 1 can be resolved by overriding the “Plays With Audirvana” manufacturer settings and turning off the “Universal Gapless Playback Mode” so this does appear to be an Audirvana issue with this setting. It occurs on both 2.11.5 and 2.99.19 so is not specific to the beta.
Issue No2 I believe is a buffering issue in the Devialet DOS3 software. I have a support case ongoing on this issue with Devialet. It is not a network issue as I can stream from the same Macbook Pro to the same router, then rather than ethernet to the Devialets, I can go ethernet to a 2Go/Hugo and play 768 kHz files with no issues. The consistent rythmic stuttering rather than random dropouts is also evidence that this is not a network issue. I can alleviate this issue by again changing the default “Plays with Audirvana” settings to 96 Khz and the issue does not occur.
As I have workarounds for both issues by overriding the default “Plays With Audirvana” settings these issues are not unduly disconcerting other than when a device is stated as “Plays With Audirvana” one should not expect to have to modify the default settings to get flawless playback operation.
Both issues occur with the following setup. MBP M4 Max 64GB RAM running Tahoe 26.3.1. AS 2.11.5 or 2.99.19 No DSP applied just playing the files “bit perfect”.
Have you tried isolating the Devialet speakers from the Ethernet feed, using something like these devices? … I see that lower sample-rate signal bandwidth appears to be handled… But I wonder how long before the stuttering appears in that scenario.
No, but then again if I can send 4 times the data (768khz) to the 2Go/Hugo2 from the same MPB through the same router through ethernet to the 2Go/Hugo2 without any issues then it is not the network. The totally consistent stutter compared to normal network issue related variable dropouts confirms the network is OK, as did the logs of transmission sent from AS to the Devialets also confirmed zero issue on the data packet transmission. As such it is internal to the Devialet’s to my mind….. Devialet have the logs. Will wait to hear back from them, they have had all the requested data for 4 weeks or so…..
The Chord and Devailets are not connected in any way. To confirm issue was not network related I selected the totally seperate Chord 2Go/Hugo2 on my desk and upsampled in Audirvana to 768 khz and also 192 kHz native and listened over headphones. The Devialets are for background noise in my office and are streamed to separately.
Seriously good quality background noise from the Devialet Ultimate 98dB’s I might add. Only issue to my mind is that the testing by Devialet for the “Plays With” accreditation seems to have been less than thorough. The DOS3 Ultimates do work much better over UPnP than my old Phantom II 98dB which I could only use totally successfully over Airplay, but I should not have to modify the “Plays With” manufacturer default settings to get a successful result……
Okay… how is the Devialet speaker-set getting signal if not by Ethernet? From your description you installed the Chord stack to test… But the behavior is exhibited when you make a direct Ethernet connection from your computer to your router and then to the Devialet speaker.. Yes?
No the Chord Stack is on my desk with an ethernet cable run to a 2.5 gbps ethernet port on an ZenWifi BQ16 wifi 7 router. The 2 Devialet Ultimate 98 db’s connect to the same router via additional 2.5 gbps ports on the router (it has 2 x 10 gbps and 4 x 2.5 gbps ports on the router). Unfortunately the Devialet’s each have an ethernet port to connect to a router separately, there is no inter-speaker cable capability that you have with for instance KEF speakers. Channel transmission and syncing between the 2 speakers is handled by the DOS3 firmware in the designated primary speaker.
The first thing I would insure is there are no ground/earthing differentials, where the entire playback scheme is tied to a single power/ground/earth reference..
If the behavior is not a product of ground/earthing differential voltage gremlins, then it makes sense to verify your assumption regarding buffering, by monitoring 96kHz playback … If that behaves as expected over a week or more, you have some baseline to work from…
Note: there is no guarantee that the separate plug outlets on the wall port are connected to the same power/earth circuit.
The speakers and the Chord/Macbook Pro are attached to different wall sockets which are on separate socket fuses in the main distribution panel. Apart from that seeing as it is a 42 storey condominium I have no control over the electrical system. Will wait until I hear back from Devialet to see if they could reproduce the stuttering issue at their end. Thanks for the feedback though!
As stated in another thread the internal DSP processing in the Devialet’s is 96 kHz so I am not losing anything by downsampling 24/192 files to 24/96 in Audirvana rather than leaving it to the Devialet speakers to downsample the files.
The white noise issue seems related to the Universal Gapless Playback Mode. Turning the default setting from on to off in the Plays With Audirvana settings solves the occasional loud white noise burst at the start of a track issue. No more rude awakenings when I am dozing off in my office chair!
Respectfully disagree, the other 2 streaming endpoints ( Chord 2Go/2Yu/HugoTT2/BerTTI main system in lounge and KEF LS50’s in Master Bedroom) work flawlessly at 768 kHz and 384 kHz respectively despite being on different electrical circuits in the apartment to my MacBook Pro sitting in the office.
Also if my MacBook Pro is run on battery in the apartment so not connected to the power circuits the issue still occurs with the Devialet’s and Devialet’s only.
DOS Version reported by going the iP address in Safari in the General Information Tab (its not shown in the Devialet app) as far as I can see is 3.2.5 (3.2.5.49152). A check on the Devialet app says my products are up to date.
Hi @Antoine Just for more information. I first resolved the stuttering issue which occurs only ever from the start of a 24/192 track by setting the max sample rate to 96 Khz. The stuttering was intermittent in that the first track was OK but could occur from the start of any track after the first in a 24/192 album. This solved the stuttering however the white noise persisted. Not every track typically once in an album of 24/192 music. Another observation was that the stuttering occurs from the start of a track never in the middle of a track being played.
After turning off the Universal Gapless Playback Mode the white noise issue dissapeared. I have left the system with max sample rate set at 96 kHz and UGPM off for a month until today. After posting I thought I would try one more thing. I have reset the max sample rate to 192 kHz in the settings and left the UGPM set to off. So far today I have played 60, 24/192 classical tracks consecutively without any issues. Maybe both issues are linked to UGPM? Time will tell………
Again… The Chord stack is the common denominator…
Your computer running on battery is only one piece of the transmission scheme, you have other devices that are using mains power…
What happens when you transmit through a simple computer/router/switch playback scheme, powered from the same single power outlet/ground as the Devialet speakers?
Example: Computer → Switch → Speakers on a common power/ground/earth/ circuit… Bring the computer close to the switch/router/speakers all getting power from the same single power/ground/earth socket on the wall outlet.
There is not one Chord stack in my home. The Chord 2Go in my office is attached to a Hugo2 for headphone listening plugged into the same circuit as my MacBook Pro. Works with no issues.
I have a second Chord 2Go attached to a 2Yu digital bridge which then feeds a digital stream to a HugoTT2 /Berti Amp, my main system in the lounge. Different power circuit to my MacBook Pro, works fine.
The Devialet’s are active speakers with internal Streamer, DAC,Amps and speakers. Separate circuit to the MacBook Pro like the main system in the lounge but unlike the main system it has the white noise/stuttering issue.
KEF system in master bedroom, internal streamer DAC Amps speaker on the same circuit as the Devialet’s, different circuit to the MacBook Pro, works fine, no issue.
And finally plug the MacBook Pro to the mains socket next to the Devialet power plugs. Same circuit, exactly the same white noise/stuttering issue. Conclusion therefore nothing to do with electrical circuits.
Is the MBP connected directly to the speakers via a switch connected on the same power socket on the wall outlet? Do you get this problem with a wireless connection?
Yes when the Macbook Pro is connected to the same socket or using wireless. In both cases the issue occurs.
Also if it was a power issue, why would turning off universal gapless playback mode in Audirvana which is set to on in the default “Plays with Audirvana” settings result in no white noise or stuttering with the Devialets? It’s appears to be an issue either in the Devialet’s firmware or Audirvana’s universal gapless playback mode workaround for systems that do not support gapless playback introducing an issue with the Devialets.
When first resolving the issue I negated the stuttering issue by first downsampling 192 kHz files to 96 kHz in Audirvana but the intermittent white noise burst issue at the start of a track remained. At a later date I further negated the white noise issue by turning off the Universal Gapless Playback Mode in Audirvana which is set to on in the default “Plays with Audirvana” settings.
After posting yesterday I changed the max sample rate back to the default “Plays With Audirvana” setting to 192 kHz but left the Universal Gapless Playback Mode toggle off. I have since played approximately ten 24/192 albums to the Devialets consecutively since yesterday afternoon with zero white noise/stuttering issues. With the default “Plays With Audirvana settings, the white noise and/or stuttering issue would start at some point whilst playing one album of 24/192 kHz music. It seems that both issues are linked in my playback chain to having the UGPM turned on . When overiding the default and turning UGPM off, the issue goes away.
However, please report back if the behavior rears its ugly head again… Because you really have not described a proper power/earthing scenario in this particular set-up… There is no guarantee that two or more sockets on a wall-outlet are on the same circuit and It appears the router with its multiple connections is not on the same circuit in this room… Without isolation the speaker electronics may be more vulnerable because of the direct Ethernet connection to the router that is sourcing components in multiple rooms on multiple circuits. The Chord stack(s) maybe providing a level of isolation from ground-differential gremlins… But as you say… Time will tell…
