My AIR issues sorted??

[teddlesdee]

I have been using a Dell XPS 12 laptop which was knocking around the office unused for a dedicated quick-n-dirty music server for the last two months with W8.1 Roon Server and Air with a Sony Tablet remote and it worked without issue apart from one or two tracks that seemed to occasionally introduce feint crackles on the left speaker for some reason, but going to the latest Air seemed to have fixed that, no drop outs, no white noise, nothing...

Then I upgraded to W10, initially with no issues, but as I said on another thread, several weeks in, I found that after 10 to 15 mins of listening I would get the 'blue-screen-of-death" on the Dell, well, the W10 version which is a tad more helpful than the older windows given that situation. The Dell would automatically reboot, but 10 mins in, and the problem repeated - the error I can't remember but it related to Air I think!

Being well peed of by this, I tried going the USB route, but for days I could not find out why I was not being able to route music out of the USB port, never having to do this before. Last weekend I got to do some proper analysis of the problem, comparing another machines config out to USB. Then I twigged and I felt such a numpty!

What was needed was a USB windows audio driver... Doooh!

Finding one was not as easy as I thought it was going to be... I looked in vain for any help on t'internet - nuffing of any direct help....then decided to look at the Dev site, and peruse their help files... strangely they do mention USB setup in one of the short articles, but no useful links as to where a driver might be found.... annoying...
Then I looked at the download page, and sure enough... about halfway down that page tucked away is a Windows USB driver!!!!! Not a lot of description but I gave it a go, installed it on the W10 Dell, and BAM! Eureka! It worked!

Had a one hr session last night... Initial impression:

sounds quite different to Air (I am running two USB jitterbugs), smoother, mellower, not so prominent top-end treble... In two minds as to if I miss the 'excitement' of Air though...but am waiting to my Regen to be delivered (taking a friccin long time!), so as soon as I get that I will do some more comparative listening tests.

Not having to mess with the vagaries of Air is a bonus, it became a pain!

As to the USB sound... Jury is out at the moment!

[Womaz]

Hello Steve,

I'm with Gary (hk6230) on this: get a Sonos Connect, use its digital output into the 200, and you'll have trouble-free listening to as wide a range of sources as you can shake a stick at.  Agreed, it won't do higher-than-CD resolution, but I am hard-pressed to hear the difference between my Connect and AIR on CD-resolution material.  (Disclaimer: my ears are a smidge older than yours!)  And if you decide later to get something more sophisticated, just sell the Connect on eBay and you'll probably get close to what you paid for it.

Ian

Hi Ian
I considered this but I do have some high res music and if I am to go for a streamer I would want one that was played these. Thanks for reply

[Womaz]

I have been using a Dell XPS 12 laptop which was knocking around the office unused for a dedicated quick-n-dirty music server for the last two months with W8.1 Roon Server and Air with a Sony Tablet remote and it worked without issue apart from one or two tracks that seemed to occasionally introduce feint crackles on the left speaker for some reason, but going to the latest Air seemed to have fixed that, no drop outs, no white noise, nothing...

Then I upgraded to W10, initially with no issues, but as I said on another thread, several weeks in, I found that after 10 to 15 mins of listening I would get the 'blue-screen-of-death" on the Dell, well, the W10 version which is a tad more helpful than the older windows given that situation. The Dell would automatically reboot, but 10 mins in, and the problem repeated - the error I can't remember but it related to Air I think!

Being well peed of by this, I tried going the USB route, but for days I could not find out why I was not being able to route music out of the USB port, never having to do this before. Last weekend I got to do some proper analysis of the problem, comparing another machines config out to USB. Then I twigged and I felt such a numpty!

What was needed was a USB windows audio driver... Doooh!  

Finding one was not as easy as I thought it was going to be... I looked in vain for any help on t'internet - nuffing of any direct help....then decided to look at the Dev site, and peruse their help files... strangely they do mention USB setup in one of the short articles, but no useful links as to where a driver might be found.... annoying...
Then I looked at the download page, and sure enough... about halfway down that page tucked away is a Windows USB driver!!!!! Not a lot of description but I gave it a go, installed it on the W10 Dell, and BAM! Eureka! It worked!  

Had a one hr session last night... Initial impression:

sounds quite different to Air (I am running two USB jitterbugs), smoother, mellower, not so prominent top-end treble... In two minds as to if I miss the 'excitement' of Air though...but am waiting to my Regen to be delivered (taking a friccin long time!), so as soon as I get that I will do some more comparative listening tests.

Not having to mess with the vagaries of Air is a bonus, it became a pain!

As to the USB sound... Jury is out at the moment!

You have the dedication i just do not have with my Hifi. I never intended to have a PC in the chain until I got the 200, so in time I will go back to my original thoughts I would imagine. If AIR worked satisfactorily then great, but like you say Windows might do an update and we are back to square one. Thanks for the reply.

[Womaz]

OK it appears that my AIR problems are definitely related to my wifi signal as it works for when the lap top is in the same room.
I upgraded to 40mb broadband in anticipation of the 200 being bought, and I get around 24 to 25mb consistently.
I have the brand new sky router so would have thought that would be good enough, it appears not.
I have looked at wireless strengtheners from BT ie placing this in my kitchen where my lap top is, but there are bad reports saying that it reduced the speed of your overall broadband connection, as the wifi always picks up the slower connection.

I really am not prepared to spend a lot of cash on this , nor am I capable of messing around with settings etc. Anyone got any ideas or cheap solutions?

[ledesc]

Just to let you know, I made a change on my wifi parameters on my Windows 7 laptop: wifi mode 802.11 b/g only and not a/b/g

Guess what...

Perfect streaming with Air, 1000ms default setting !!!!
24/192 ok so far !
DSD played from foobar2000 also !

Before I couldn't go over 24/96 in wifi and 5000ms settings in Air
Dropouts every 60 seconds.
(Everything was ok wired)

[Womaz]

Too late for me , already purchased the Melco
After 8 months of problems I finally gave up

[JeanF]

OK it appears that my AIR problems are definitely related to my wifi signal as it works for when the lap top is in the same room.
I upgraded to 40mb broadband in anticipation of the 200 being bought, and I get around 24 to 25mb consistently.
I have the brand new sky router so would have thought that would be good enough, it appears not.
I have looked at wireless strengtheners from BT ie placing this in my kitchen where my lap top is, but there are bad reports saying that it reduced the speed of your overall broadband connection, as the wifi always picks up the slower connection.

I really am not prepared to spend a lot of cash on this , nor am I capable of messing around with settings etc. Anyone got any ideas or cheap solutions?

I guess a lot of AIR problems are purely related to poor network settings and equipment.
Before I was getting my new Devialet 200 I build up my network with a lot of attention. Provider modem (in bridged mode) is placed in the hall and its wired with 17 m. Belden 1885 ENH cat 7 cable with Telegartner connectors to the Netgear R7000 Nighthawk router which stands in my livingroom, just a couple of meters from the place where my Windows laptop (with Roon Labs as audioplayer) is situated.
The Windows laptop has a strong 5,0 ghz wifi connection with the Netgear router and the Devialet is wired to the Netgear router with also Belden 1885 ENH cat 7 cable.
AIR is adjusted as ethernet and it works and sounds great, without any problem. I also tried AIR wireless on the Devialet and even that worked flawless.
Even with high res. files no probs at all...
Personally I prefer to use AIR by ethernet because its sound has more body and a more colored timbre.

During the last months I was trying a lot of different network settings by changing different brands and types of cat cables and power supply,s to the router, NAS, and gigabit switch and experienced a lot of unexpected differences in SQ, so i.m.o. a good network has not only a huge impact on the performance of AIR but also on SQ.

[hk6230]

JeanF, stop rubbing salt onto Womaz's wound. He had already spent money on a Melco. And, in other thread he had said he find Melco's SQ equaled, if not better, than AIR's. So let him enjoy his new setup.

And yes, I have to agree with you that there's noticeable differences on the SQ for different type of network equipments. In any case, for any one else who is experiencing AIR white noise problem, I do suggest that you upgrade to Win 10 (clean install, if possible), and stop Windows Defender service. I preferred AIR 2.1.3 over 2.1.4beta4, as it solves the stuttering, too. And, my wireless router is an old TP-Link WR841N. I do have a dedicated NUC for Roon only which is set to AIR-ETH to my Le200.

I had experienced BSOD before, but lately after the latest Win10 updates, this has not occurred for at least 2 weeks now, and I leave my NUC on for 24/7.

[Hifi_swlon]

I guess a lot of AIR problems are purely related to poor network settings and equipment.
………….

That's what Devialet would like us to believe. Certainly not true in my case with new, dedicated, gig-e wired network.

And of course when you ask Devialet what the optimum network setup is for a reliable Air, they're unable to tell you….

[ledesc]

Also all issues are different, we're using different OS, router, AIR versions...
But I was so frustrated to have my laptop wired that I made further investigations about my wifi settings. At least for Windows 7 x64, the NIC parameters have a huge impact.

By the way I'm running Air 2.1.3 and my dedicated router is an airport express. But I have the feeling I could use directly my Orange box now. If I find some time I will double check.

You can learn a lot about your network health with a ping -t from your laptop to the Devialet and checking the round trip time over 2 or 3 minutes or when you have an issue.