Crackling in higher bit rate streams

[David A]

Hi folks. Just an update. I have tried every conceivable variable in my system that could be causing these dropouts. Today I tried hard wiring my 120 directly to a new router – not the Orbi – and my Mac mini directly to that new router. The drop outs were still they are at anything above 2496.  Given that I also heard dropouts with a test configuration of rune on a different Mac also hardwired to a different router, my conclusion is this is a Dev and Roon Software issue, or I have a bad network card in my 120. I have shared this with Devialet, and I am awaiting a response . I’ll update as possible.

For anyone following this thread, I’d appreciate knowing if you can successfully stream anything at 2496 or above to your non pro expert using Roon?  Thanks

I think it is a Devialet issue.

When people started reporting the problem with the CI Expert Pros and RAAT, Roon investigated at their end and ended up saying that it was a problem with how the Devialet was processing the ethernet stream. The reason why it seems to be an issue with high res files seems to be the increased amount of data being streamed isn't handled successfully by the Devialet which is why reducing the speed of the ethernet connection apparently works, it slows down the arrival of the ethernet packets to a pace that the Devialet can handle. At least that's the way I understand things.

There are lots of issues which can occur on a network which affect things and can result in the same or similar problems, or exacerbate a particular problem so it's always possible that someone with a given issue such as the RAAT problem can experience that problem more severely than another person because they have a second issue exacerbating it.

I'm going to step out on a limb and say that Devialet probably kept the same ethernet data handling code in the Expert Pro range as they did in the Expert range so both ranges are susceptible to issues with high resolution streams. We just haven't seen as many reports of the issue with the Expert range as we have with the Expert Pro range and RAAT because it doesn't occur as frequently.

So why do you seem to be experiencing it more severely than others with Expert models? I wonder whether you have another issue affecting your network which is exacerbating this. Have you checked Roon's page about best networking practices:  https://kb.roonlabs.com/Networking_Best_Practices         There may be something there which could help you reduce or eliminate your problem. Otherwise I think that you,. like those of us with Expert Pro models with the CI board and the RAAT problem, are stuck with using workarounds like reducing the speed of the ethernet connection to 100 Mbps or using wifi until Devialet issue a fix in new firmware.