(30-Apr-2015, 14:49)AlexS Wrote: [ -> ] (30-Apr-2015, 10:55)Rufus McDufus Wrote: [ -> ]I'm trying the 2.1.4beta on Windows 7 64-bit now. Not good I'm afraid. First instance was crackling when the screen powered off on the PC. I've set it in Power Options to turn off the display after 1 minute as I find white noise/dropouts seem to occur when the display turns off or shortly after. This is the first time I've got crackling though.
I then left it playing music for about ten minutes but muted. Came back and unmuted it. It's dropping every half second to one second in a weird phasey kind of way. It continued constantly. Only restarted AIR solved it. Unfortunately I forgot to look at the Task Manager to see if memory/cpu usage had increased.
What player are you using on Windows? Do you have bit-perfect enabled in AIR? WiFi or Ethernet streaming?
PC & Devialet are connected by ethernet.
With AIR 2.1.3 & fw 7.1.1 I found:
* iTunes & AIR in non-BitPerfect - white noise
* JRMC 19 & AIR in BitPerfect - dropouts
* JRMC 19 & AIR not in BitPerfect - dropouts.
So I seem to get dropouts when BitPerfect, white noise when not.
Now with 2.1.4-beta4 & fw 7.1.1 it's crackles/weird pulsating. No white noise or dropouts any more.
I don't think I've ever been able to reproduce the issues with my MacBook Air (wi-fi) & iTunes or Audivarna or whatever players I've tried. I haven't tried for a while (since probably last summer) though.
I'm not a keen fan of AIR anyhow so only try to reproduce these issues. I use USB streaming from a Cubox normally as it sounds a lot better to me.
(02-May-2015, 07:21)Rufus McDufus Wrote: [ -> ] (30-Apr-2015, 14:49)AlexS Wrote: [ -> ] (30-Apr-2015, 10:55)Rufus McDufus Wrote: [ -> ]I'm trying the 2.1.4beta on Windows 7 64-bit now. Not good I'm afraid. First instance was crackling when the screen powered off on the PC. I've set it in Power Options to turn off the display after 1 minute as I find white noise/dropouts seem to occur when the display turns off or shortly after. This is the first time I've got crackling though.
I then left it playing music for about ten minutes but muted. Came back and unmuted it. It's dropping every half second to one second in a weird phasey kind of way. It continued constantly. Only restarted AIR solved it. Unfortunately I forgot to look at the Task Manager to see if memory/cpu usage had increased.
What player are you using on Windows? Do you have bit-perfect enabled in AIR? WiFi or Ethernet streaming?
Now with 2.1.4-beta4 & fw 7.1.1 it's crackles/weird pulsating. No white noise or dropouts any more.
Does 2.1.4-beta4 work any better for you with fw 8.0.0?
An update. I had been running AIR 2.1.4 beta4 for a few weeks. It was becoming more and more apparent that this version was rather prone to jitter, stuttering and other annoying artefacts. As a positive, no white noise at all. I have now returned back to AIR 2.1.4 beta1, this is also white noise free if I am careful with PC settings etc, and far less prone to jitter etc.
(30-May-2015, 16:56)Confused Wrote: [ -> ]An update. I had been running AIR 2.1.4 beta4 for a few weeks. It was becoming more and more apparent that this version was rather prone to jitter, stuttering and other annoying artefacts. As a positive, no white noise at all. I have now returned back to AIR 2.1.4 beta1, this is also white noise free if I am careful with PC settings etc, and far less prone to jitter etc.
I understand how you can hear stuttering (although it does not happen to me with AIR 2.1.4 beta4), but how exactly do you detect jitter? So we speak the same language, here is a good definition of audio jitter I found on the Internet:
"inaccuracy in the timing of the "ticks" of the clock that transfers the samples of digital data into the D/A converter chip"
Given that Devilaet's Ethernet input is asynchrounous (meaning, the received data packets are sorted based on Devialet's own clock), I don't see how jitter can occur.
BTW, to fight stutters with JRiver (happened to me once), it's a good idea to increase both the size of pre-buffering, as well as the output buffer. Also, if you run an Antivirus or Windows Defender, those need a special treatment, not to interfere with JRiver.
Thank you for keeping this thread alive. I thought with AIR 2.1.4 beta4, it would soon be discontinued
PS. I'm speculating, but in theory it's possible that AIR 2.1.4 beta4 is heavier on the CPU. Given that you were getting issues before with the screen saver enabled, there may be moments when your CPU is exercised to the limit, or else is frequently caused to transition from a low power consumption mode to a higher one, or vice versa. For optimal music playback, some recommend changing Window's power option to "High Performance". I've never done it myself, since I was able to solve all stuttering problems through disabling Windows Defender and increasing JRiver buffers, but you may try giving this a shot, and see if it helps.
Hi Alex - to clarify, it would appear that we are not quite talking the same language. I was using the term jitter with it's traditional literal meaning, that is "To make small quick jumpy movements", rather than the modern electronic audio meaning per your posts above. My bad! Plus I should know better because I have recently been taking a bit of interest audio data clocking and related subjects.
The good news for me is that 2.1.4 beta1 appears to be working almost perfectly in my set up. Well almost, if perhaps not quite 100%. Near enough to be acceptable though. I will cirtainly give your power management and JRiver settings a go, easy enough to give a try, and 100% stability is now tantalising close for me, it might only take a couple of tweaks to get there. Thanks for the tips!
I have to say though, how a modern quad core CPU can ever be close the limit for audio data streaming does baffle me a bit, even if it is multitasking with anti virus software etc.
(02-Jun-2015, 19:40)AlexS Wrote: [ -> ]Given that Devilaet's Ethernet input is asynchrounous (meaning, the received data packets are sorted based on Devialet's own clock), I don't see how jitter can occur.
No offense and very off topic but this is a very 'textbook' deduction. If everyone believed the DAC could solve all issues, computer audio wouldn't have progressed as much the past few years.
You could, if you'd like, look up some of John Swenson's articles through Google or his posts on computeraudiophile.com
(02-Jun-2015, 21:56)Antoine Wrote: [ -> ] (02-Jun-2015, 19:40)AlexS Wrote: [ -> ]Given that Devilaet's Ethernet input is asynchrounous (meaning, the received data packets are sorted based on Devialet's own clock), I don't see how jitter can occur.
If everyone believed the DAC could solve all issues, computer audio wouldn't have progressed as much the past few years.
Well, my statement was not general, and only applied to Devialet's Ethernet input. If you think otherwise, and could explain how Devialet's ETH input would exhibit jitter under certain conditions, I would be all attention.
Just skimmed through this thread. I can't believe this crap has been going on this long and still no sign of a fix.
I'm starting to get concerned the issue is on the Devialet end of things and simply can't be fixed via a driver or firmware update.
(21-Apr-2016, 21:07)Dr Tone Wrote: [ -> ]Just skimmed through this thread. I can't believe this crap has been going on this long and still no sign of a fix.
I'm starting to get concerned the issue is on the Devialet end of things and simply can't be fixed via a driver or firmware update.
I stopped being concerned when I removed AIR and switched to a Raspberry Pi. Money well spent, which is more than can be said for my D400.