First, I occasionally have the kind of problem that @
sjors.ehv described with music stopping playing and then jumping to another song. I haven't noticed whether that specifically involves hi-res music but @
sjors.ehv failed to mention whether he was streaming from Roon using the AIR protocol or Roon RAAT, the Roon Ready protocol, whether he was using an ethernet connection or a wifi connection, and if he was using ethernet whether it was a 100T connection or a gigabit connection. All of these things could be relevant. In my case I was using RAAT with a 100T ethernet connection.
Devialet and Roon "have history". Back in 2017 Roon included Devialet's AIR protocol as one of its streaming options. The Devialet AIR app that Devialet users had been running on their PCs/Macs up until then had problems. Roon made AIR work and everyone was happy.
That was the situation when Devialet first introduced the Expert Pro range, sold without the CI board initially. Devialet made a lot of promises about what would come with the CI board but Roon Ready status was not one of those promises. Devialet started promoting Roon as its preferred streaming option and Roon users started asking for Devialet to make the Expert Pro range Roon Ready. They eventually did that some months after the CI board was rolled out.
People almost immediately started reporting problems using RAAT with high-res files and it quickly became clear that these problems only occurred with gigabit ethernet connections. People connecting via wi-fi or by 100T ethernet connections did not have any problems. Devialet and Roon initially both blamed the other but Devialet eventually admitted that the problem was a Devialet problem, not a Roon problem. Eventually, around late 2018/early 2019 if I recall correctly, Devialet issued a FW update and while they did not specifically state that it fixed the problem, it seemed to fix it for many users. A long running thread on this forum about the problem eventually stopped receiving posts about the issue. @
daniel.avasilichioaei made many posts to that thread and conducted a number of interesting tests comparing RAAT and AIR streams which indicated that RAAT used more bandwidth than did AIR but both used only a fraction of the bandwidth available with a 100T connection which doesn't explain why the problem occurred only with gigabit ethernet connections which have 10 times the bandwidth capability of 100T connections.
In some aspects the problem @
sjors.ehv reports and which I have experienced is similar to problems reported in that thread but there are obviously differences. For one, I have had a problem which sounds like the one @
sjors.ehv reports and I use a 100T ethernet connection.
That's all history. What @
sjors.ehv wants are solutions. As @
daniel.avasilichioaei has stated, using the Devialet AIR option in Roon's audio settings does not appear to have this problem.
If RAAT, the Roon Ready streaming option in Roon's Audio settings, is the preferred option then as far as I know the problem has not been reported when using a wifi connection. I have no experience with RAAT and wifi, I gave up on wifi before the Expert Pro became Roon Ready because I could not get a reliable wifi connection in my setup and I had swapped to a gigabit ethernet connection before the Expert Pro became Roon Ready. When I started having problems streaming high-res files some time after the Expert Pro became Roon Ready I changed my gigabit ethernet switch to a 100T switch and the problems went away apart from the occasional problem similar to what @
sjors.ehv is reporting that I have experienced.
There are essentially 2 different ways I have managed to deal with that problem. The first is to swap to AIR but I eventually find myself going back to RAAT because I seem to have a slight preference for the sound of RAAT. Some people claim to hear a difference between the 2 protocols and amongst those who make that claim, some of us prefer RAAT and some prefer AIR. Some people claim to not hear a difference. In theory I think that RAAT should be the better protocol because it apparently has better error correction built in but whether that makes a difference in streaming reliability or sound quality in real life is unproven as far as I am aware. Despite the fact that I seem to have a slight preference for the sound of RAAT, I'm thinking about swapping to AIR. It's been some time since I had any problems using RAAT but the longer I go without the problem occurring the more I start to wonder when it will next occur.
If you can't use wifi and you prefer RAAT for some reason then the first thing to do is to make sure you're using a 100T connection to the Expert Pro. I use a 100T connection and the problem occurs rarely, only every few months, but once it does occur it continues to occur repeatedly every track or two until I take action to fix it. In my experience the way to stop the problem occurring once it starts is to first reboot my server, a Roon Nucleus+, and once the server has rebooted to then use the web browser interface for the Nucleus, to restart the Roon Server application on the Nucleus. I don't know how that process would work if you're running Roon on a PC or Mac rather than on a Nucleus or Nucleus+. It doesn't take me long to get things working properly again when I have the problem but it's an annoyance and it certainly ruins my mood when it occurs.
I think Devialet have not solved all of their problems with the RAAT protocol at this stage but I also think that any remaining issues are now at the stage where it's down to particular issues with a user's network whether or not problems occur. The most problem free solutions would seem to be using RAAT with a wifi connection if you wish to use RAAT or simply using AIR which appears to be pretty much problem free thanks to Roon's implementation of it in their software.
