17-May-2019, 10:26
First, thanks to @audio_engr for his very flattering comments about what I came up with. I'll be a little bit more hesitant about that in a minute.
But first, for @"alaw":
The Nucleus and Nucleus+ have 1 ethernet port and 2 USB ports. The USB ports can be used in a number of ways including as a network connection by connecting a USB to ethernet adapter to one of those USB ports and making an ethernet network connection via the adapter. If you do that you will see a second ethernet connection appear at the bottom of the Nucleus web page interface. Connecting your Nucleus to the network that way frees up the actual ethernet port for a direct connection to your Devialet. As for control, the Nucleus has a network connection just as it does if you connect your network to the ethernet port in the normal way and you control the Nucleus in the normal way, either by using an iOS or Android app on a tablet or by running the Roon app on a desktop or laptop computer. You control Roon in the same way as you currently control it, the only difference is in the way you connect your Devialet to the Nucleus.
Now back to my experience. I've noticed improvements in sound quality in the same areas @audio_engr mentioned, I'd just be a bit more cautious about how big the improvements are. I've noticed over many years that we focus on improvements and improvements are always seen as a big thing and since most of us are to some degree regularly seeking improvements in sound quality we make a big deal of them. Our subjective appreciation of improvements tends to be somewhat out of proportion to the actual objective improvement in the sound, simply because the experience of noticing the improvement has such importance for us. Yes, I hear an improvement and yes, I really like it and I'd rather listen to what I'm hearing now than what I was hearing when I was using a switch to connect both my Nucleus+ and 140 Pro to the network but I was also really enjoying the way things sounded when I was listening with the switch in the system. The sound improvements are icing on the cake in my view but they aren't the cake and the cake is the main part of the experience. These improvements make something which was already very good a little bit better and in my experience it's impossible to make something which is already very good better by a large degree. The better the starting point, the smaller the improvements you tend to get and, paradoxically, the more I find myself appreciating small improvements.
Now to the subject of this thread, the "audio file is loading slowly" problem. I don't have any native 24/192 content. It's Friday night here and I figured this connection our on Monday night so I've been running things this way for 4 days with a gigabit speed connection between Nucleus and Devialet. I've played CD quality, 24/44.1, 24/48, 24/96, 176.4/24 and DSD64 in bit perfect mode without running into a problem. I used Roon's DSP engine to convert everything to 24/192 and listened to that for somewhere between 3 and 4 hours without problems before going back to bit perfect mode because I preferred the sound of the bit perfect connection. Roon make the observation that upsampling can improve the sound but also that one reason for not using Roon's DSP to do it is because you've chosen gear which does a good job of upsampling and that equipment manufacturers are in a good position to optimise the upsampling process for their equipment.
So, over 4 days I haven't experience ed the "audio file is loading slowly". That's a positive but I think many of those who have posted on this thread would like to see that result maintained for more than 4 days and that means keeping things running this way for longer and seeing whether or not the good experience continues. Also, some people have reported this problem and others haven't, there seem to be differences in the experience that various people have reported. I'm not going to guarantee that it works for everyone. It's working for me and it's working for @audio_engr which is a good sign. It's not a guarantee that it will work for everyone. If you're having problems and you can set things up this way with a Nucleus, it's worth a try, it will cost you nothing but a bit of time. I haven't tried it with any other server like a normal Intel NUC running ROCK or any other server and I'm not going to make any claims about how it would work with servers other than the Nucleus/Nucleus+. You can try it if you want.
Next, some big caveats on my part. I know nothing about networking and I know even less about setting up manual IP addresses. I put together some sketchy comments I found and tried something and it worked. I have no idea if this is the best way to set up a connection between a Nucleus and a Devialet using manual addresses. If we have any networking experts here who want to throw up their hands in horror at what I'm doing, then please throw up your hands in horror and then put fingers to keyboard and respond with details on how to do it better. I'm not going to complain if someone can make improvements to my process, I'll thank them.
Next caveat: My config file only has the ethernet input active, it's the only input I use. With this direct connection the Devialet is connected to the Nucleus but it is not connected to my wider network so it doesn't show on the network. The Nucleus shows because it is connected to the network via the USB to ethernet adapter. I don't know if it's possible to come up with a manual address setup that lets the network see the Devialet through the Nucleus. It would be nice if that is possible and that's an area where I would really like it if someone can suggest a better way of doing the manual address setup, especially if Devialet start letting us do things via a network interface rather than relying on an SD card for things like configurations.
So, to the method:
- connect the Nucleus+ to your network with the USB adapter just as you're doing and use DHCP addressing.
- open the web interface for the Nucleus+ where you can do things like firmware updates. Down the bottom of the page you'll now see tabs for 2 ethernet connections. Your active USB adapter connection is the second ethernet connection, the actual ethernet port is always the first connection and that's the one you have to give a manual address to.
- look at the address settings created for the second ethernet connection using DHCP. There are 4 items, the address, sub net mask, gateway and DNS server. Copy down the last 3 settings and then copy them into the windows for those settings in the tab for the first ethernet connection.
- that leaves you having to set the IP address for the Nucleus+. It apparently needs to be in a range other than the range your router uses when it sets DHCP addresses. The address for your second ethernet connection is 4 items in an a.b.c.d arrangement. just change the c and d figures so if c is 0, use a 1 or 2 and for d use a number between 2 and 254 so your address for the Nucleus+ port will be something like a.b.1.25.
- now create a new Devialet config file and create a manual IP address for the Devialet. Use an IP address that uses the a.b.1 first 3 numbers and for the last number just pick a different number between 2 and 254 than the one you used for the Nucleus+. The other 3 settings are the same as the ones you used for the Nucleus.
Load your configuration file to your Devialet and you should get an ethernet connection to the Nucleus. It may take a minute or 2 for the Nucleus and Devialets to connect but once they do you should be up and running with a working connection.
So, that's it. As I said, if someone has suggestions for handling the IP address settings better, please post them here. I followed some very sketch comments and they worked but that doesn't mean it's the best way to make the manual connection.
But first, for @"alaw":
The Nucleus and Nucleus+ have 1 ethernet port and 2 USB ports. The USB ports can be used in a number of ways including as a network connection by connecting a USB to ethernet adapter to one of those USB ports and making an ethernet network connection via the adapter. If you do that you will see a second ethernet connection appear at the bottom of the Nucleus web page interface. Connecting your Nucleus to the network that way frees up the actual ethernet port for a direct connection to your Devialet. As for control, the Nucleus has a network connection just as it does if you connect your network to the ethernet port in the normal way and you control the Nucleus in the normal way, either by using an iOS or Android app on a tablet or by running the Roon app on a desktop or laptop computer. You control Roon in the same way as you currently control it, the only difference is in the way you connect your Devialet to the Nucleus.
Now back to my experience. I've noticed improvements in sound quality in the same areas @audio_engr mentioned, I'd just be a bit more cautious about how big the improvements are. I've noticed over many years that we focus on improvements and improvements are always seen as a big thing and since most of us are to some degree regularly seeking improvements in sound quality we make a big deal of them. Our subjective appreciation of improvements tends to be somewhat out of proportion to the actual objective improvement in the sound, simply because the experience of noticing the improvement has such importance for us. Yes, I hear an improvement and yes, I really like it and I'd rather listen to what I'm hearing now than what I was hearing when I was using a switch to connect both my Nucleus+ and 140 Pro to the network but I was also really enjoying the way things sounded when I was listening with the switch in the system. The sound improvements are icing on the cake in my view but they aren't the cake and the cake is the main part of the experience. These improvements make something which was already very good a little bit better and in my experience it's impossible to make something which is already very good better by a large degree. The better the starting point, the smaller the improvements you tend to get and, paradoxically, the more I find myself appreciating small improvements.
Now to the subject of this thread, the "audio file is loading slowly" problem. I don't have any native 24/192 content. It's Friday night here and I figured this connection our on Monday night so I've been running things this way for 4 days with a gigabit speed connection between Nucleus and Devialet. I've played CD quality, 24/44.1, 24/48, 24/96, 176.4/24 and DSD64 in bit perfect mode without running into a problem. I used Roon's DSP engine to convert everything to 24/192 and listened to that for somewhere between 3 and 4 hours without problems before going back to bit perfect mode because I preferred the sound of the bit perfect connection. Roon make the observation that upsampling can improve the sound but also that one reason for not using Roon's DSP to do it is because you've chosen gear which does a good job of upsampling and that equipment manufacturers are in a good position to optimise the upsampling process for their equipment.
So, over 4 days I haven't experience ed the "audio file is loading slowly". That's a positive but I think many of those who have posted on this thread would like to see that result maintained for more than 4 days and that means keeping things running this way for longer and seeing whether or not the good experience continues. Also, some people have reported this problem and others haven't, there seem to be differences in the experience that various people have reported. I'm not going to guarantee that it works for everyone. It's working for me and it's working for @audio_engr which is a good sign. It's not a guarantee that it will work for everyone. If you're having problems and you can set things up this way with a Nucleus, it's worth a try, it will cost you nothing but a bit of time. I haven't tried it with any other server like a normal Intel NUC running ROCK or any other server and I'm not going to make any claims about how it would work with servers other than the Nucleus/Nucleus+. You can try it if you want.
Next, some big caveats on my part. I know nothing about networking and I know even less about setting up manual IP addresses. I put together some sketchy comments I found and tried something and it worked. I have no idea if this is the best way to set up a connection between a Nucleus and a Devialet using manual addresses. If we have any networking experts here who want to throw up their hands in horror at what I'm doing, then please throw up your hands in horror and then put fingers to keyboard and respond with details on how to do it better. I'm not going to complain if someone can make improvements to my process, I'll thank them.
Next caveat: My config file only has the ethernet input active, it's the only input I use. With this direct connection the Devialet is connected to the Nucleus but it is not connected to my wider network so it doesn't show on the network. The Nucleus shows because it is connected to the network via the USB to ethernet adapter. I don't know if it's possible to come up with a manual address setup that lets the network see the Devialet through the Nucleus. It would be nice if that is possible and that's an area where I would really like it if someone can suggest a better way of doing the manual address setup, especially if Devialet start letting us do things via a network interface rather than relying on an SD card for things like configurations.
So, to the method:
- connect the Nucleus+ to your network with the USB adapter just as you're doing and use DHCP addressing.
- open the web interface for the Nucleus+ where you can do things like firmware updates. Down the bottom of the page you'll now see tabs for 2 ethernet connections. Your active USB adapter connection is the second ethernet connection, the actual ethernet port is always the first connection and that's the one you have to give a manual address to.
- look at the address settings created for the second ethernet connection using DHCP. There are 4 items, the address, sub net mask, gateway and DNS server. Copy down the last 3 settings and then copy them into the windows for those settings in the tab for the first ethernet connection.
- that leaves you having to set the IP address for the Nucleus+. It apparently needs to be in a range other than the range your router uses when it sets DHCP addresses. The address for your second ethernet connection is 4 items in an a.b.c.d arrangement. just change the c and d figures so if c is 0, use a 1 or 2 and for d use a number between 2 and 254 so your address for the Nucleus+ port will be something like a.b.1.25.
- now create a new Devialet config file and create a manual IP address for the Devialet. Use an IP address that uses the a.b.1 first 3 numbers and for the last number just pick a different number between 2 and 254 than the one you used for the Nucleus+. The other 3 settings are the same as the ones you used for the Nucleus.
Load your configuration file to your Devialet and you should get an ethernet connection to the Nucleus. It may take a minute or 2 for the Nucleus and Devialets to connect but once they do you should be up and running with a working connection.
So, that's it. As I said, if someone has suggestions for handling the IP address settings better, please post them here. I followed some very sketch comments and they worked but that doesn't mean it's the best way to make the manual connection.
Roon Nucleus+, Devilalet Expert 140 Pro CI, Focal Sopra 2, PS Audio P12, Keces P8 LPS, Uptone Audio EtherREGEN with optical fibre link to my router, Shunyata Alpha NR and Sigma NR power cables, Shunyata Sigma ethernet cables, Shunyata Alpha V2 speaker cables, Grand Prix Audio Monaco rack, RealTRAPS acoustic treatment.
Brisbane, Qld, Australia
