Roon RAAT and "An audio file is loading slowly"

[David A]

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So the root cause may be the network handling in the Devialet, but I would not be surprised if Roon does have its part of responsibility, something along the lines that the mishandling in the Devialet is triggering a faulty behavior in Roon.
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I think it is well accepted that Roon's RAAT is a difficult streaming protocol in some ways. It relies on a lot more data being streamed back to Roon from the end point than other protocols and this was documented by measurements made by a forum member back in the early months when this problem was first reported. Roon also makes a lot of internet data calls that other streaming software doesn't. Roon is aware of this and their last to software updates have included changes to improve streaming performance for ALL users, not specifically Devialet users.

Still, it's impossible to get around the fact that the problem Devialet users are reporting is not occurring for users of other devices in a Roon based system. Roon have also said that our problem is not a Roon problem and Devialet have effectively said the problem was a Devialet problem and have issued a partial fix. I'm not saying that users of other devices than a Devialet don't have problems with Roon but Roon has a strong record of acknowledging problems when they occur and fixing them and I am unaware of users of any other device complaining about a problem that has remained unfixed, whether by Room or by their equipments's manufacturer, for as long as this problem has existed. There is something here unique to Devialet.

I don't know that there is any evidence that "mishandling in the Devialet is triggering a faulty behavior in Roon". What is the evidence for that. Roon is reporting that a problem is occurring with the communication between Roon and the Devialet but that does not tell us whether something in the Devialet is triggering a fault in Roon or whether something in the stream from Roon is triggering a fault in the Devialet. All the error message is telling us is that a fault is occurring SOMEWHERE.

Historically Roon seems to have a much better track record of fixing software faults than Devialet has. Devialet, for instance, didn't issue a first attempt at fixing this problem until nearly 2 years after the problem arose when the Devialet became Roon Ready. If you check the history of Roon's software updates you will find multiple instances of Roon issuing bug fixes within days or a couple of weeks of a problem arising. Roon are also much more open than Devialet about admitting when their software has a bug while Devialet on the other hand is extremely uncommunicative about problems and what they're doing about them. There are also features promised for the Expert Pro range back when the range was first released without the CI board which have still to be delivered several years after the CI board was released.

I also remember that when Roon added the ability to stream to a Devialet using AIR, there were numerous posts on this forum with users saying how Roon's implementation of AIR actually workied properly and how it didn't have the problems people had been reporting when using Devialet's own AIR app which, I understand, still has problems.

I am extremely happy with my 140 Pro, it does what I want and it does that extremely well. I have no thoughts of changing to a different amplifier. I'm not trying to say bad things about Devialet for the sake of just running them down but it has to be said that Deviialet do a much better job with their hardware than they do with their software or their customer communication. In a situation like this one I look at the evidence I have which basically boils down to the statements made by both companies and the history of the performance of both companies when it comes to software problems over the last few years. Roon have been significantly more willing to admit fault and fix problems and I would regard them as being more honest than Devialet simply because of their greater openness and willing to admit and fix things quickly when they have a problem.

I don't believe that the Devialet is triggering a fault in Roon. If it were, then on past experience Roon would have admitted that fact quickly, have fixed it quickly, and we would not still be regularly discussing this situation. Roon is definitely reporting the interruption of the stream but, as I said above, that just tells us that there is a fault. It says nothing about what the fault is or where it is located.