One other thought, can you try using the USB input on the Companion rather than the master? Or swap the Master <-> Companion so the Companion is now Master, and see if the problem is the same using the USB input on the other Devialet?
I will see if I can get my Aries Mini hooked up via USB in the next day and will let you know the result.
(04-Mar-2018, 21:22)baddog Wrote: [ -> ]One other thought, can you try using the USB input on the Companion rather than the master? Or swap the Master <-> Companion so the Companion is now Master, and see if the problem is the same using the USB input on the other Devialet?
I will see if I can get my Aries Mini hooked up via USB in the next day and will let you know the result.
I tried using the usb input on the companion but that did not resolve the issue. Hope to hear how you got along with the Aries Mini. Thanks
Could it be that for some reason your USB audio stream (data packets) are sent in synchronous mode, because of some hw/sw upgrade or update, such as the CI upgrade, that may have incorporated some incompatibility between your devices and the ability to use asynchronous usb mode?
From my experience, synchronous mode causes glitches in the audio, such as pops, cracks, drop-outs, etc.
I have tested the same front end with a D200 and it works perfectly without any issue. So it does lead me to believe that the issue is limited to the new CI board. I am not sure how the USB input is configured on the new CI board, but it is my understanding that the CI board has a onboard clock, which should mean an asynchronous data stream.
The USB input on Devialet amps has always been asynchronous. If the USB input on the CI is not behaving it is a bug in the implementation. There was a clock involved in the old models too (would not work without). The only difference is that the clock (xtal) on the CI is of better quality so Devialet is now also routing the CI clock back to the rest of the amp.
To the credit of SOtM they did try to solve the issue and recommend increasing the buffer size, unfortunately that did not fix the issue. I can now only hope that Devialet has implemented a fix in the upcoming firmware, which should be out shortly.
(20-Mar-2018, 09:49)JimSmith Wrote: [ -> ]To the credit of SOtM they did try to solve the issue and recommend increasing the buffer size, unfortunately that did not fix the issue.
I think the problem is on Linux drivers, so SOtM should fix those so that their devices would follow usb audio 2.0 official specifications.
@
petrik the problem is widespread, users of Aurender, Auralic Aries, and Melco have all reported similar issues with USB playback.
(20-Mar-2018, 11:16)JimSmith Wrote: [ -> ]@petrik the problem is widespread, users of Aurender, Auralic Aries, and Melco have all reported similar issues with USB playback.
That's interesting. I'm not sure which Linux distribution each of these have, but it might be the same issue on all of these.
Anyway, let's wait for the next FW.
Devialet has been releasing a new beta firmware every month since December, that is till now. We are now pretty much coming to the end of March and thus far we have not seen anything. Will we see a new Beta firmware this month?
Anyhow I hope a stable FW version will be released before Munich hifi. But there are too many bugs in the current beta software and it seems to me that the pace of software development has been really slow.
As an example Devialet had been notified about the Pops and Clicks issue on the 06/Dec/2017. I found the post below at:
https://help.devialet.com/hc/en-us/artic...1#comments
Stevensegal
Hi Olivier
Got CI back in a 250 Pro and I am having issues with usb. There are sporadic pops and clicks, sound a bit like static. Did not get it before. The only set-up difference is that I have had to take out an Intona reclocker from the Aries streamer to Devialet usb signal path as for some reason the Aries can no longer see the Devialet through the reclocker. Anyway, the Intona is relatively new and I had no such problems before without it in place.
I've switched to Ethernet-AIR from my mac and it is clean as a whistle - no problems with the same source (Qobuz Sublime HD).
The usb thing is a real pain. Will give it a good night time listen with the lights off to confirm.
Can't get Air wifi to work, worked before. Will wait a bit and for software updates first before spending time on that.
Regards