Roon sound quality observation

[mdconnelly]

It's what drives me a bit nuts, but I have to agree that so far, in my experience, Roon via AIR to Devialet sounds better than Roon to Squeezebox Touch to Devialet and better than Roon via USB (from a laptop PC) to Devialet.   When I contacted Devialet support about my AIR issues, their response was that using USB to the Devialet should sound as good or better than AIR. Not my experience but that was just from a laptop USB output.

Unfortunately, I just can't get AIR to work consistently so I've given up on it for now.  I'm hoping that Roon -> uRendu -> Devialet will sound just as good if not better than AIR, but that's just wishful thinking at this point... still waiting to see the Sonore uRendu ship. If anyone else has found something that sounds better than AIR for streaming, I'd sure like to know.

[Dr Tone]

It's what drives me a bit nuts, but I have to agree that so far, in my experience, Roon via AIR to Devialet sounds better than Roon to Squeezebox Touch to Devialet and better than Roon via USB (from a laptop PC) to Devialet.   When I contacted Devialet support about my AIR issues, their response was that using USB to the Devialet should sound as good or better than AIR.  Not my experience but that was just from a laptop USB output.

Unfortunately, I just can't get AIR to work consistently so I've given up on it for now.  I'm hoping that Roon -> uRendu -> Devialet will sound just as good if not better than AIR, but that's just wishful thinking at this point... still waiting to see the Sonore uRendu ship.   If anyone else has found something that sounds better than AIR for streaming, I'd sure like to know.

I think it can be done with a dedicated Windows 10 box and Roonbridge.  A NUC would be perfect but you have to be willing to have that box only do one thing and that is stream to the Devialet.  Of course you have to have ethernet at your Devialet.

[hk6230]

I'm trying RoonBridge now. Setting up a new Win10 system and will be used for only to AIR-ETH to Le200. My NUC will only be used as RoonServer. I'm testing also to put this new RoonBridge away from my Le200 in another room and see if it is reliable and stable enough to play all music type from 16/44.1 to 24/192 and DSD64.

[Dr Tone]

I disabled allot of stuff on my Windows 10 box but I think the important things are:

*) Clean install & completely update the Windows 10 box with the latest updates. Remove all extra Windows 10 features except, .Net 4.6 Advanced Features and Remote Differential Compression API Support. This is is done in "Programs and Features".
1) High Performance power mode. Never sleep. Never turn HD off. PCIX Link State Power Management Off
2) Fixed IP Address on both the windows 10 box and the Devialet ethernet port. Also disable the remote app functionality in the Devialet configuration. Turn off wireless completely in the Devialet.
- Back to the Windows 10 box.
3) Disable Firewall completely.
4) Disable Defender.
5) Remove all indexed folders. In the Control Panel.
6) Remove all unneeded UWA apps.
7) Basically turn off every feature in the main Windows 10 Settings app.
8) Disable power saving on your NIC. This is done in the device manager.

Install the 2.1.3 AIR Drivers. Set AIR to launch on startup. Enable WASAPI Bit Perfect. Change the buffer to 500ms.
When AIR sees your Devialet set it to 24 192000 and "stream to it only if not already streaming".
Exit the AIR app and start it again so the settings take.

Install Roonbridge and configure it through your Roon Remote, cross your fingers, do 2 back flips and hope for the best.

[hk6230]

Impatient with my notebook update from Win 8.1 to 10, I installed Fidelizer 7.1, AIR 2.1.3 (WASAPI enabled) and RoonBridge64 onto my notebook. Hooked it up wired to a router in another room. Enabled Devialet AIR on this remote RoonBridge, so far so good with all music bitrate playing smoothly. Let's see how long can it last.

New RoonBridge hardware info: Lenovo IdeaPad U310, i3, 4GB RAM, Win 8.1

[hk6230]

[NickB]

Great album to try it with 😀


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[hk6230]

2 hours of non-stop playing, still performing well. Now, I think I can remove AIR driver and JPlay from my NUC. This should allow my NUC to be 'very' stable without AIR driver causing rebooting ever again.

[Zappydev]

So Gary - is your logic that by having AIR running on a remote machine it will be more stable than when running on the Core? Or is it more the case that when AIR craps out, then at least it won't reboot the Core, just the endpoint?

I could always repurpose a spare Mac and turn my NUC into an end-point, but I have zero confidence that AIR will actually be any more reliable, so I am very interested to hear your experiences going forward.

[hk6230]

First, according to Roonlabs knowledgebase, separating the core and audio output will supposedly result in better SQ, which should make sense considering leaving my NUC to focus on music library management and playback, and leave audio output handling to a AudioRenderer (which is RoonBridge). I always worried that my NUC running Win10 will have BSOD because of Devialet AIR device driver issue, which has happened many times in the past (though it has none for more than 1.5 month).

As for now, since I last re-configured my setup, it has been reliable and trouble free. And, Roon has been playing non-stop with all kind of music bitrate music with no issue. Having Fidelizer on both Core and Audio Output further improves SQ. I have also installed JPlay on the RoonBridge which now allows me to select JPlay ASIO or Devialet WASAPI output. Both use Devialet AIR-ETH streaming to my Le200.

I will update further after a longer period of testing.