02-Nov-2014, 15:49
I have spent much of my weekend trying the new AIR 2.1.3, as well as a short time trying the beta version. The following are my observation, as summarised and sent to Devialet for there further consideration.
In summary, both (2.1.3 & beta version) still suffer the white noise issue. I do have some observations, which may be useful.
For your information, I am using a 3 months old Hewlet Packard "all in one" touch screen PC. This machine is used for general computing duties, as well as for providing music files for the Devialet. This PC is completely standard specification, and has hot been "audio optimised" in any way. Some times I use iTunes, sometimes JRiver MC19. (The point here being that this machine is about as standard as you can get in the PC world) AIR buffer 1000ms
Recently, to avoid white noise, I have been using iTunes, with the sound card GUI set to 16/44.1 and AIR also set to 16/44.1. I loaded 2.1.3, restarted the PC for good order, set everything to 24/192. I then listened to exclusively 16/44.1 material, via iTunes, for maybe two hours, no issues. I then switched to JRiver WASAPI and played a selection of 24 bit material (a mixture of 44.1 / 48 / 96 / 192), after an hour or so, the white noise came.
I restarted the PC, and ran a selection of 24 bit songs using JRiver WASAPI. These were in a playlist, I touched nothing, just let the music play, white noise came in 1 hour 6 minutes. I repeated this, and got white noise in 1 hour 27 minutes.
Out of interest, I tried the "beta" version. Again with 24 bit material from a playlist, white noise in 1 hour 25 minutes. Interestingly, I restarted AIR, and then got white noise in 10 minutes, restarted AIR again, AIR in 10 minutes, this was repeatable endlessly, and the white noise coincided with the PC going into screen saver mode (hence the 10 minutes). I then reloaded the website version of 2.1.3, rebooted, tried the same playlist, white noise in 56 minutes. (the longer sessions have nothing to do with the screen saver mode, as this would have been invoked a considerable period of time earlier) This time with a fuzzy "half white noise half music", which then recovered to normal music, full white noise followed in 10 minutes.
Then I gave up and returned to my 16/44.1 iTunes "safe mode"
One other interesting observation. The first time I ran the new 2.1.3 with JRIver / WASAPI, there was an issue that at the start of a new track, the volume on the Devialet would change to -17. Change the volume, say to -25, then at the start of a new track, the Devialet is set back to -17. Very odd! I looked at the various volume settings in JRiver, the volume control was disabled in JRiver but in the JRiver "Audio Device", "Options". "Devialet AIR WASAPI" "Maximise device volume during playback" was ticked. I un-ticked this, and the issue went away. This must have been selected during my use with the previous AIR, but I had not noticed any issues as it did not appear to do anything. (Curious?)
So, it does not look like the white noise issue is cured......
I also still have an issue with the dual mono configurator. So all in all, not very happy
In summary, both (2.1.3 & beta version) still suffer the white noise issue. I do have some observations, which may be useful.
For your information, I am using a 3 months old Hewlet Packard "all in one" touch screen PC. This machine is used for general computing duties, as well as for providing music files for the Devialet. This PC is completely standard specification, and has hot been "audio optimised" in any way. Some times I use iTunes, sometimes JRiver MC19. (The point here being that this machine is about as standard as you can get in the PC world) AIR buffer 1000ms
Recently, to avoid white noise, I have been using iTunes, with the sound card GUI set to 16/44.1 and AIR also set to 16/44.1. I loaded 2.1.3, restarted the PC for good order, set everything to 24/192. I then listened to exclusively 16/44.1 material, via iTunes, for maybe two hours, no issues. I then switched to JRiver WASAPI and played a selection of 24 bit material (a mixture of 44.1 / 48 / 96 / 192), after an hour or so, the white noise came.
I restarted the PC, and ran a selection of 24 bit songs using JRiver WASAPI. These were in a playlist, I touched nothing, just let the music play, white noise came in 1 hour 6 minutes. I repeated this, and got white noise in 1 hour 27 minutes.
Out of interest, I tried the "beta" version. Again with 24 bit material from a playlist, white noise in 1 hour 25 minutes. Interestingly, I restarted AIR, and then got white noise in 10 minutes, restarted AIR again, AIR in 10 minutes, this was repeatable endlessly, and the white noise coincided with the PC going into screen saver mode (hence the 10 minutes). I then reloaded the website version of 2.1.3, rebooted, tried the same playlist, white noise in 56 minutes. (the longer sessions have nothing to do with the screen saver mode, as this would have been invoked a considerable period of time earlier) This time with a fuzzy "half white noise half music", which then recovered to normal music, full white noise followed in 10 minutes.
Then I gave up and returned to my 16/44.1 iTunes "safe mode"
One other interesting observation. The first time I ran the new 2.1.3 with JRIver / WASAPI, there was an issue that at the start of a new track, the volume on the Devialet would change to -17. Change the volume, say to -25, then at the start of a new track, the Devialet is set back to -17. Very odd! I looked at the various volume settings in JRiver, the volume control was disabled in JRiver but in the JRiver "Audio Device", "Options". "Devialet AIR WASAPI" "Maximise device volume during playback" was ticked. I un-ticked this, and the issue went away. This must have been selected during my use with the previous AIR, but I had not noticed any issues as it did not appear to do anything. (Curious?)
So, it does not look like the white noise issue is cured......
I also still have an issue with the dual mono configurator. So all in all, not very happy
