MacMini –> Audirvana 3.5 –> Sonarworks –> UpnP –> Golds (DOS2) = BLISS!

[Pwalder]

When streaming from Tidal/Qobuz Using the Audirvana Remote to Devialet Phantoms the first few bars  of music are very disjointed. Once through this phase the rest of the track plays without a hiccup. This seems to point to some sort of Network issue but I’m not sure why the majority of the track plays fine. This seems to happen whether it is a 16bit or 24 bit track that is being streamed. From experience of using Audirvana are there any options available that might eliminate the initial stuttering? I’m using a 2019 iMac running the latest version of Catalina to a pair of Devialet Phantoms running DOS 2.

Hi @Pwalder,

Nope, never had that.  Just tested from my late 2015 iMac (Catalina 10.15.2) running Audirvana 3.5.29 and regardless what I play (tested Kind of Blue 24/96 and Come Away With Me 24/192) it plays perfectly from the first note.  I am not using Audrivana Remote but I don't see why that should make any difference (can you reproduce without the Remote?).

The only setting I can see with any obvious relevance here is "Max. memory allocated for tracks pre-load" under Low level playback options, which in my case is set to 5120 MB, but as best I can recall I have never changed this.

Thanks (again!). It stutters when playing back directly from the iMac to the Phantoms as well as the remote. I have now tried varying the Low level play back option (now set at 15Mb) and also the System optimiser  which prioritizes Audirvana but sadly this doesn't seem to have changed things. As you know due to your help I got the system working a couple of days ago and the sound quality was great. However when I came back to use it the next day I couldn't get any sound out of it at all....in fact in turned out that no apps on the iMac were generating sound  and I had to contact Apple who assisted in remaking the audio preferences files and managed to get sound back to the iMac. When I then played through Audirvana there was initially no sound. This was with the Audirvana Network setting to Wifi which is what was set when it was working. By chance I switched to a Network setting of Ethernet and hey presto I got sound out of one Phantom. This was strange as the Phantoms are not directly wired to ethernet although the now legacy (because of DOS 2) Dialogue is wired to ethernet and this is plugged into the same socket board as the Phantoms ....so I assume the signals are somehow getting through (sorry I am not very technical)?As I was only getting sound through one Phantom I  went though the http: Devialet Configuration pages to reset network name and passwords of the Phantoms but this didn't work. After multiple Phantom unplugged resets I managed to get a working pair albeit with the stuttering. So the current situation is I get the stuttering, usually at at the start but sometimes extending into the track, I am using Tidal and Qobuz free trials on Masters and Studio, Audirvana has been optimised (I think) and is using a Network Ethernet setting even though the Phantoms are not wired. When not stuttering the sound is fabulous!! Ive sought advice from the Audirvana community forum but not sure there are too many Phantom owners there.

Update: I now have a solution. I created a new dedicated network. I then restricted streams to 24 bit 96khz In Audirvana and this seems to do the trick. If tracks sampled at 192Khz are played then the skipping returns but 96 is more than adequate for 66 year old ears! Fingers crossed for some stability now.