Roon RAAT and "An audio file is loading slowly"

[David A]

@David A  ok, understand. I thought you were using this as a solution for the current Roon/Devialet 1Gb/s network drop out problem, but it’s primarily to split audio and control streams. I will have a play when I get home. Thanks for all the excellent information.

There are servers from firms like Innuos, Antipodes, and Melco which have 2 ethernet connections, one for the network and one for passing the music signal to your chosen endpoint which in our case is a Devialet. They claim that this delivers better sound quality than passing the music over the wider network. Given that we've had people here such as @GuillaumeB  posting about the benefits of audiophile switches I've wondered whether the best solution to dealing with switches was eliminating them as Innuos and those others do by providing a second ethernet connection for your endpoint. I approached this issue as a way of achieving that.

As a side issue, it seems to avoid the gigabit ethernet problem. The connection between Nucleus and Devialet is gigabit as confirmed by the connection speed light on the Nucleus. As I said, I haven't had any issues with the gigabit dropout problem in 4 days streaming the high res source material I have at its native rate or when I tried using Roon's DPS to convert everything to 24/192 for 3 to 4 hours.

And as I said, I'm not claiming this as a fix for the gigabit problem. I think we'd all want to see this running for a longer time and with a lot more people than the current 2 before we started claiming a fix but so far it does seem to avoid the problem. In any event, even if it is a "fix" it's only going to be a fix for those people like me who have their Nucleus close enough to their Devialet to allow them to make a direct connection. It's unlikely to be a practical fix if your Nucleus and Devialet aren't in the same room.