Devialet AIR working (mostly) on QNAP virtual server...and a few questions

[Zappydev]

Thanks for the replies.

You certainly have me curious about acquiring a NUC for faultless playback at all bitrates -- do you know of any forum dwellers who have tried a similar NUC solution to your own WITHOUT success? In essence, is your setup a reliable solution to the issues with AIR?  I could easily repurpose the RAM from the QNAP and then get an M2.SSD for the operating system on the NUC....might be worth a go...

As Chris said, it is not hardware dependent but rather it is Win10. I can't say I know anyone else who is using NUC with Win10 and AIR. Please note on my current setup, AIR is working well with hardly (almost zero) any cases of white noise. But it may happen when switching from 44.1 or 96 to DSD64 or 192. This is rare, though.

Like Chris, I have encountered BSOD before but with the latest Win10 update and auto-update disabled, I don't experience BSOD anymore.

Chris, Gary, thanks for the responses.  I'll probably give a NUC a try in the coming couple of weeks to see whether I can achieve reliable "ultra" hi res streaming as you have via AIR.  I have a feeling the NAS server would be rock solid using the Win 10 virtual server setup I described above if it was one of the higher end QNAP models with an i5 or i7 processor.  As you've alluded to, Win10 is a game changer. 

There's still a part of me that doesn't trust AIR at all and I'm half expecting to blow my speakers one of these days when it finally kicks in! The safer option would be to use my Slim Devices Transporter (which is now supported by ROON) and hook it up via AES to the D200...but AIR sounds ever so slightly superior.

Hi, and thanks for sharing your interesting approach. My system is similar to Gary's, and I am extremely grateful to him for all the tips and suggestions he has shared on this forum over the months. Following his advice, I got my NUC system to be about 95% reliable most of the time using AIR2.1.3 but the final step was to install FW 9.0.1 in my D400 about 3 weeks ago. Since that time, I have not had a single BSOD or other issue, even with leaving the system playing for days at a time, and assuming it stays that way, I shall not be looking to add a RoonReady device, since AIR is doing all I need for now.

Please keep us informed of your progress, and good luck.