AIR and Win10

[Manfred]

Hi,

I have a PC (Office) and HTPC (Living Room) with JRiver MC 21. I upgrated both to Win 10 last week.  ÁIR has never worked for me (White Noise, cracking ...). I am using USB up to now.
My Network is:

• PC-> FritzBox Cable 3660 (WLAN off)-> AVM 1750 E (LAN Bridge)-> AVM 1750 E (WLAN Bridge) ->D-200 (Wifi)
  

• FritzBox Cable 3660 (WLAN off)-> AVM 1750 E (LAN Bridge)-> AVM 1750 E (WLAN Bridge)->D-Link Switch ->HTPC (Killer LAN, Intel LAN Fix IP. Adr. for D-200) ->D-200 (Ethernet, Audioquest Cinnamon)
  
• NAS->D-Link Switch
  
• HTPC (Killer LAN)->D-Link Switch->AVM 1750 E (WLAN Bridge) ->D-200 (Wifi)
  

I have all type of FLAC files up 24 bit/192 kHz. Playing though the PC (Files are stored on SSD for testing) I have played music for hours using Wifi without any problems. Using the HTPC I have played music now for around 50 hours without white noise using Ethernet or Wifi connection. I had 3 times cracking if using Ethernet, but the reason for that could be related to using Memory Play with JRiver. JRiver loads the Files with around 800 Mbit/sec from my NAS going through the same switch, when JRiver already started playing the file and both workloads are using the same switch. Playing through WIFI - no problems up to now. Could play Supertramps Crime of the Century in 24/192  without problems. The sound through Wifi using Air is much better then through USB (SOtM tX-USBexp Audiophile PCIe to USB Audio Card + Transparent Audio Performance cable 1.5m)

Best Regards: Manfred

[Antoine]

When's the last time someone actually requested a status update from Devialet and shared it here?

[hk6230]

More update:

Whenever I tried playing DSD/DSF after other music format been played, I have to 'reset' AIR (disable and re-able), otherwise, gibberish sound (not the same as white noises) will appear.

This can be an issue if my Roon server is headless. I can turn on my NUC (headless) with AIR startup and AIR "always stream to it automatically" but if the above situation happens, headless-wise, I will be in trouble. Must find a solution which doesn't need me to reboot my Devialet. If you guys have a solution, please share. Thanks.

[hk6230]

I think solution is found: Just change (recycle) the source back to AIR-wifi or AIR-ETH, and the above problem will be solved.

[hk6230]

RECOMMENDATION:
------------------------------
If you are playing DSD64 DSF music through AIR, please ensure your volume is lowered prior to play. If possible, restart your AIR protocol, to ensure smooth playing without any problem.

[runlonger]

Hi

I can confirm that the upgrade from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 indeed changes a lot.

Under Windows 8.1 MusicBee with WASAPI output to Devialet AIR was my favorite player. I had occasional white noise after 2-3 hours while listening to 16bit/44khz FLAC's. Annoying, but still not a total deal breaker. Under Windows 10 MusicBee produces immediate white noise if I try to jump position within a track. This is of course a total deal breaker and I had to look for another player. Up to now I was never satisfied with Foobar's interface. But this time I took my more time to configure a really nice interface with cover art selection and a wavebar (see screenshots), and the most important thing is: it's 100% stable with WASAPI output to air over the last 8 days.

So, I think Windows 10 is more consistent with streaming and timing. So that in some conditions (MusicBee) it triggers white noise a 100% and in some it really never occurs. At least I wanted to inform everybody that with Windows 10 and Foobar you should have no white noise.

[Manfred]

Hi,

I have a PC (Office) and HTPC (Living Room) with JRiver MC 21. I upgrated both to Win 10 last week.  ÁIR has never worked for me (White Noise, cracking ...). I am using USB up to now.
My Network is:

• PC-> FritzBox Cable 3660 (WLAN off)-> AVM 1750 E (LAN Bridge)-> AVM 1750 E (WLAN Bridge) ->D-200 (Wifi)
  

• FritzBox Cable 3660 (WLAN off)-> AVM 1750 E (LAN Bridge)-> AVM 1750 E (WLAN Bridge)->D-Link Switch ->HTPC (Killer LAN, Intel LAN Fix IP. Adr. for D-200) ->D-200 (Ethernet, Audioquest Cinnamon)
  
• NAS->D-Link Switch
  
• HTPC (Killer LAN)->D-Link Switch->AVM 1750 E (WLAN Bridge) ->D-200 (Wifi)
  

I have all type of FLAC files up 24 bit/192 kHz. Playing though the PC (Files are stored on SSD for testing) I have played music for hours using Wifi without any problems. Using the HTPC I have played music now for around 50 hours without white noise using Ethernet or Wifi connection. I had 3 times cracking if using Ethernet, but the reason for that could be related to using Memory Play with JRiver. JRiver loads the Files with around 800 Mbit/sec from my NAS going through the same switch, when JRiver already started playing the file and both workloads are using the same switch. Playing through WIFI - no problems up to now. Could play Supertramps Crime of the Century in 24/192  without problems. The sound through Wifi using Air is much better then through USB (SOtM tX-USBexp Audiophile PCIe to USB Audio Card + Transparent Audio Performance cable 1.5m)

Best Regards: Manfred

One week further now without white noise either through Wifi or dedicated Ethernet. I further optimized Win 10. The antivirus under Win 10 is an aggressive process. I excluded several folders and processes: 
..\Devialet
..\Devialet USB
..\J River
..\Logitech
..\DevialetAir.exe
..\JRWeb.exe
..\JRWorker.exe
..\Media Center 20.exe
..\SetPoint.exe
Using AIR through the dedicated Ethernet port for streaming no issues so far. Wifi depends on the signal strength, must be > -49 db else I get stuttering. Also if using Wifi there should be no concurrent workload on the network devices. If I copy a file with 100-200 Mbit/sec through my AVM repeater and also want to use the same repeater for High Res streaming stuttering begins immediately. CPU of the repeater is not designed for this kind of workload.
I have Air 2.1.4ß. My CPU is i7-4770T running at 3.5 GHz when playing music and creating a CPU workload of 2-3%. When playing Supertramp "Rudy" in 24/192, Air creates a network stream of 8.8 Mbit/sec through the dedicated Ethernet port.

Best Regards
Manfred

[Confused]

I was using AIR Ethernet / Windows 10 for a few hours Friday evening. For a while, lots of stuttering and similar annoying artefacts. For the record, the PC was being used for nothing other than music streaming at this time. I tried the normal thing of shutting down and re-starting AIR, which didn't help much. I had a quick look at task manager, and Kaspersky ant-virus appeared to be top of the CPU usage list, along with a couple of other utilities flicking up. It wasn't an appropriate time to start messing with PC settings etc, so we just put up with it. Shortly after this, all annoyances stopped, and AIR Ethernet / Windows 10 ran 100% perfectly for the rest of the evening.

Curiously, AIR appears to be running ok this morning, and Kaspersky is still lurking high up on the CPU usage list, although not as obviously dominant as it was Friday, and at a typically lower CPU %.

Mindful of all this, Manfred's post above certainly peaked my interest. I recall AlexS mentioning once that he runs a PC with all anti-virus software disabled (brave man), although a risk he was fully aware of and prepared to take.

I am not a PC specialist but I get the basic gist of what Manfred is doing, worthy of further investigation I think?

[thumb5]

I'm also not a PC specialist, but I guess you are running on a multi-core machine. That being the case, personally I wouldn't be too worried about high CPU usage on a single core from an anti-virus process, unless there is also something causing high CPU usage on all other cores at the same time.

Although...I don't know how Windows would schedule the processes involved in running AIR. I'm assuming that they don't have a specific CPU affinity so could migrate between cores.

[Confused]

I'm also not a PC specialist, but I guess you are running on a multi-core machine.  That being the case, personally I wouldn't be too worried about high CPU usage on a single core from an anti-virus process, unless there is also something causing high CPU usage on all other cores at the same time.

Although...I don't know how Windows would schedule the processes involved in running AIR.  I'm assuming that they don't have a specific CPU affinity so could migrate between cores.

I kind of agree ....   I am running an Intel i5 quad core machine, not exactly the last word in high power PC's, but should be more than capable of streaming 16/44.1 material whilst dealing with a few background processes.

Today, I am using the PC for internet, email, and indeed catching up on this very forum, and AIR is running just fine.  So what's changed from the crackling session last Friday?