Questions, questions & questions! New 220pro

[awkaplan]

Thanks for the SAM note - yup - have enabled SAM for my speakers. I am in complete agreement with your philosophy of optimum sound with minimum complexity - so so important and is exactly what I'm striving for - do not want extra components, reclockers. Want to have a simple setup that just works and is stable. The big issue is currently trying to get AIR to function through ethernet. I think I've given up on AIR functioning over wifi! Would love for anyone who has AIR over wifi working to help a brother out. 
So far what I've done
I've installed Devialet AIR on my mac and it's showing properly on my audio midi config window.
In Expert Configurator: 
enabled the ethernet option
dhcp - on and let it have whatever options it has (not tinkered around with it); haven't changed anything in special modes
Ensured the other things on configurator specific to speaker/ sam are correct - save the file into the sd card
Question - I bought a used unit and the SD card had a bunch of stuff in it outside of the cfg txt file - should I be formatting the SD card and just load the configurator text file on it?

Got the ethernet cable hooked between the devialet and my router. When I log into my mac and go to the devialet air menu, I find a DEVIALET-ETH entry showing up - but upon clicking it, it keeps blinking every 10-15 seconds (shows an IP address and then apparently loses connection). 
I have the preferred output path selected to the Devialet AIR through my audio midi, but can't seem to get any audio going out.

Is there something I need to be doing with the router? Do I need to give the devialet a fixed IP? Is Devialet support/ customer care helpful? Really a bit lost. In the interim,have usb and airplay options working so I managed to hear some hi-res songs last night thru USB - but I definitely do want AIR as my primary transport layer. Any advice?
Would Roon be much easier to manage the AIR transport layer? The Devialet would still probably need to be connected through ethernet to my router for a stable Roon AIR connection (should I choose to buy Roon - correct?)


Lesson #1: You actually need to select the ports in the "Expert Configurator" page and make them light up - it wasn't immediately apparent! I just thought that some of them were dim 'cos there were no configuration options/ details to tweak in them! Perhaps I'm just a dimwit too - very possible! I had optical (to my TV) not work because of that all day yesterday!

I run TIDAL -> AIR over wifi on my MacBook Air with zero dropouts, and according to the router software, no lost packets. Needs the occasional reset after a long session. This took repositioning the router to have a direct line of sight to the Devialet (I have a 140 Pro).  The aluminum cover over the antenna doesn't help much, and luckily my unit is also hardwired for ethernet, so I have the option down the line to switch.  Just not so sure about the quality of the cabling in the wall, so on.

For AIR to work consistently over wifi, Devialet claims you need a signal strength of -55dbm or higher, which is basically saying you need the router sitting on top of the amp.  Luckily my router software lists signal strength, and through experimentation, I've been able to keep the connection at around -65dbm.  If I hide the router for aesthetics, this drops to -75dbm or lower, which sometimes works.  The amp still shows 44.1hz when streaming TIDAL Master (first unfold) when it should really be 88.2 as I've seen through Roon.  

I'm happy keeping it wifi as it means one less cable in my very simple system. To get wifi to work, you either need a monster of a router (think Ubiquti, etc.) that will display the signal strength of connected devices, or simply proximity and some tinkering.  Keep your laptop and the Devialet on the 5ghz radio and everything else on the 2.4 radio, and knock the strength of the 2.4 radio down a bit.  I noticed dropped packets when using 2.4. 

If anyone knows of a router on the market with software that lists the signal strength of connected devices, please let me know!  I'm looking for that -55dbm moment.

I probably mentioned elsewhere that I use my Devialet to drive the front speakers of my AV system. This means that I have all my gear on a single very heavy stand but reasonably unobtrusive as you can only see functional devices with everything else including router, switch and God knows what else hiding behind the 65” tv. Admittedly, the D3s are not visually subtle either. 

However, am a little puzzled with your router issues. I use a Sky router with an attached switch. The Devialet is connected via Ethernet to the router and that is how my music is received. Control of the music is via Roon on my MacBook Air which itself is connected via WiFi to the outside world and the Devialet. This is utterly transparent  and requires no understanding of or tinkering with routers. The AV system works via Line 1 connected from the AV amp which itself has an Ethernet connection to the router or switch (I can’t remember which). I just have to remember to turn on Line1 when using the tv.

My apologies, just some commmentary from the WiFi/WiFi Air community :-).   Considering WiFi/Eth but so far so...tolerable.