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Random Music Pausing on Gold Phantom Stereo Pair
#1
After digging deep for the past two weeks, I've finally succumbed to posting on the forum for assistance / guidance in the hope that someone else has dealt with similar issues. Forgive the length, I'm trying to be as thorough as possible in my issue(s). In short, I have random dropping of the signal to the speakers where they cause the audio source to pause playing. If I hit play, or replay the entire file, it usually will play through except some random times, it will pause again. No, the music file is not corrupt, I can get it to play completely and no, its not directory or song specific either. Complicating matters is that I may have several pauses of play and then the speakers will play flawlessly for 10+ hours. I'm reasonably tech savvy and am at a complete loss as to the cause.

I'm running a roon core (most recent version) on an iMac (32MB RAM), 1TB SSD, 4Ghz Quad Core Intel Core i7 processor. No, the iMac nor any other connected component are configured to go to sleep when inactive. Attached via Thunderbolt to the iMac is a Pegasus2 R6 RAID array with my FLAC music library. The iMac along with everything else in my system is connected via CAT7 ethernet cable to an ASUS RT AX88U wifi router (most recent firmware confirmed). I'm not using any wifi except for my iPhone & iPad to use the roon remote and the Devialet app. The speakers, and iMac are all connected via CAT7 ethernet.

The speakers: 2 Gold Phantoms configured in a stereo pair, both connected to the router. I've confirmed they're connected via ethernet using the browser to see their configuration. In addition, the TV is connected to left Gold Phantom via Toslink. The Gold Phantoms are both running Firmware 2.10.0 (no Dialogue required - and is for sale, new in the box if anyone is interested). The speakers were purchased within the past 3 weeks. As a side note, two have been returned thus far to Devialet for replacement. The first one kept rebooting and was unstable, the second one played flawlessly for a day and then wouldn't work the next day, despite every effort to reboot, reset, etc. (perhaps power supply). Both speakers are plugged into the same APC power strip. No other devices are plugged into the strip.

Regardless of source: roon playing FLAC files from external RAID drive, roon streaming TIDAL FLAC files, iTunes on iMac playing music to the Gold Phantoms, iPhone or iPad playing Apple music to the speakers, the music will randomly pause.

Here's what I do know:

1. The music will randomly pause on any source (Audirvana, roon, iTunes) or format (AAC, FLAC, TIDAL stream). Its not specific.
2. The audio signal from the TV will not drop...ever; its solid - either from Apple TV via ethernet AirPlay connection or the TOSlink from the TV.
3. I deleted both roon remote apps (all most recent version) from my iPhone & iPad yesterday, and reinstalled. roon then played flawlessly for 10+ hours. Started roon this morning on iMac and within a few songs it paused. Ran iTunes instead from iMac and it paused randomly. No, its not song or file format specific.
4. Opened ASUS Router traffic monitor and have been watching wired data transmission to see if I could see anomalies - I've seen none and while the traffic monitor has been running, the speakers have not paused once - playing as designed.
5. Every other component connected to network works flawlessly.
6. The speakers are not rebooting when the music pauses. They play as soon as "play" is pressed again on the audio source.

In summary, I'm three weeks into ownership, exchanged two faulty speakers with Devialet and to date, have not had one day (22 days in) of uninterrupted play. I'm trying to determine what is causing the music to pause, regardless of app source, file format, or device source. I think i've eliminated that its iTunes or roon, or audirvana, or iPhone, or iPad, but rather the only common source are the speakers or the router (which has been working flawlessly with all other connected (ethernet & wifi) devices.
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#2
Have you tried factory reset of both phantoms by bringing up their web page using their IP address?

I am guessing some sort of networking issues. Are the IP addresses fixed or dynamic? If fixed, is there a clash? As a last resort, shut down everything including router?
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#3
(23-Jun-2020, 11:26)Snoopy8 Wrote: Have you tried factory reset of both phantoms by bringing up their web page using their IP address?

I am guessing some sort of networking issues. Are the IP addresses fixed or dynamic?  If fixed, is there a clash? As a last resort, shut down everything including router?
Both speakers were factory reset and a clean install / configuration was completed when the last replacement speaker arrived. 

IP addresses are dynamic.

And yes, I shut everything down and restarted everything in order: modem, router, speakers, computer.
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#4
Update:

Removed the stereo pair and playing them individually from difference sources of music. Left speaker pauses music randomly. Right speaker has worked flawlessly. Changed music sources, Left speaker still pauses.

This is the second replacement speaker (both left side) from Devialet.

P.S. Just confirmed with Devialet that the second replacement speaker was in fact a "refurbished" unit. Sending "refurbished" units to a customer who purchased less than 30 days ago? Not cool, not impressed.
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#5
Update 2:

I've been assured by Devialet that I received a new speaker and that there is no refurbished inventory in the US.

My case was sent along to the engineers in France. They came back this morning with the following:

Once you have an optical cable connected to your system, this source gets activated once the optical cable starts to send a signal. This is very convenient for cases such as yours, in which the sound of your TV is also coming out of the Phantoms. The goal for this feature is that the TV sound should come out of the Phantoms as soon as the TV is on. Now, it seems like your TV is sending data through the optical cable even when it is not on, which is interpreted as a "wake-up call." This would explain why the music just pauses: it is because the system is switching the source it is listening to. For your information, the software team told me that we would include a switch to turn this feature off for cases like yours in our next firmware release.

I'm sharing this information so that is anyone else has a similar setup, you'll know what to do...at least until the next firmware update. So far, so good.

Devialet's customer support has been excellent throughout this ordeal. Despite the early glitches, the speakers are simply amazing.
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#6
(24-Jun-2020, 15:28)bravocharlie Wrote: Update 2:

I've been assured by Devialet that I received a new speaker and that there is no refurbished inventory in the US.

My case was sent along to the engineers in France. They came back this morning with the following:

Once you have an optical cable connected to your system, this source gets activated once the optical cable starts to send a signal. This is very convenient for cases such as yours, in which the sound of your TV is also coming out of the Phantoms. The goal for this feature is that the TV sound should come out of the Phantoms as soon as the TV is on. Now, it seems like your TV is sending data through the optical cable even when it is not on, which is interpreted as a "wake-up call." This would explain why the music just pauses: it is because the system is switching the source it is listening to. For your information, the software team told me that we would include a switch to turn this feature off for cases like yours in our next firmware release.

I'm sharing this information so that is anyone else has a similar setup, you'll know what to do...at least until the next firmware update. So far, so good.

Devialet's customer support has been excellent throughout this ordeal. Despite the early glitches, the speakers are simply amazing.

... it seems like your TV is sending data through the optical cable even when it is not on ...  Undecided  Confused  Huh  Huh  Huh
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#7
(24-Jun-2020, 15:28)bravocharlie Wrote: Update 2:

I've been assured by Devialet that I received a new speaker and that there is no refurbished inventory in the US.

My case was sent along to the engineers in France. They came back this morning with the following:

Once you have an optical cable connected to your system, this source gets activated once the optical cable starts to send a signal. This is very convenient for cases such as yours, in which the sound of your TV is also coming out of the Phantoms. The goal for this feature is that the TV sound should come out of the Phantoms as soon as the TV is on. Now, it seems like your TV is sending data through the optical cable even when it is not on, which is interpreted as a "wake-up call." This would explain why the music just pauses: it is because the system is switching the source it is listening to. For your information, the software team told me that we would include a switch to turn this feature off for cases like yours in our next firmware release.

I'm sharing this information so that is anyone else has a similar setup, you'll know what to do...at least until the next firmware update. So far, so good.

Devialet's customer support has been excellent throughout this ordeal. Despite the early glitches, the speakers are simply amazing.
Very glad problem has been resolved. It is indeed strange for the optical out from a TV (or any device) to be sending data even when not on.  A lazy design decision from the engineers who developed the TV.

Hope you get many years of enjoyment out of them...
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#8
(25-Jun-2020, 13:29)Snoopy8 Wrote: Very glad problem has been resolved. It is indeed strange for the optical out from a TV (or any device) to be sending data even when not on.  A lazy design decision from the engineers who developed the TV.

Hope you get many years of enjoyment out of them...

Thank you. I did do some quick research on the Sony optical output and did find one post from someone who determined that the output was in fact live even though the TV was off (it was messing with his sound bar). But apparently the TV isn't really "off", its in standby mode and the screen turns off.
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#9
(25-Jun-2020, 13:33)bravocharlie Wrote:
(25-Jun-2020, 13:29)Snoopy8 Wrote: Very glad problem has been resolved. It is indeed strange for the optical out from a TV (or any device) to be sending data even when not on.  A lazy design decision from the engineers who developed the TV.

Hope you get many years of enjoyment out of them...

Thank you. I did do some quick research on the Sony optical output and did find one post from someone who determined that the output was in fact live even though the TV was off (it was messing with his sound bar). But apparently the TV isn't really "off", its in standby mode and the screen turns off.

OMG
Nicely done! Congratulations on digging out and resolving problem!


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