Issue with streaming FLAC - naimuniti

I would download a speed throughput tool and see what average speed you get through your network from the home server.  The big files are indeed big. Now in fairness even a 100 speed network should cope just fine but it does sound like something causing the uniti to not keep up is occuring.

If I had to make a guess I would say your network is struggling.

It does seem strange because in your mind you are thinking, 'I rebooted the uniti, now it works, so it must be the uniti' but where networks are concerned the uniti on restart has negotiated its position on the network as well, so indeed it could be a network issue.

Also for the sake of 50 quid, I would upgrade that switch to gigabit. As I said should not be an issue, but they are very cheap now, and something else to take out of the equation.

Although a 100MB switch would imply just that, with network overhead and all the rest you will be lucky to actually see throughput of 14MB/s with a gigabit switch you can expect to see 60-70MB/s to give you and idea of where you fifty quid is going. Also if your home windows server is self built check that the ethernet card is gigabit, these are all super cheap upgrades to consider. 

One thing to do and perhaps you have is to fix the IP on both the uniti and the server. More an issue of not finding the server at all, but worth doing if you have not.

I acknowledge that the uniti is not gigabit, but that infrastructure upfront will help things a lot in my opinion.

Thanks for your reply.  The uniti has a fixed IP address, also hanging off the 100Mb switch is a media streamer that has no problem in streaming full HD .iso files from the WHS so I don't think the network is the issue.  The WHS is an HP MediaSmart server with a gigabit NIC.  I also do not see this problem with WAV files, only FLAC.

As said - I have plugged the uniti direct into the gigabit switch (into which is also plugged the WHS) and the problem still exists.  My testing has more or less eliminated the network.  I also work in LAN/WAN design/management so I do know a little about networks .

I'm stumped  really, as for a year this setup has worked fine.  It's only in the last few months this problem has arisen.  Even more confusing is the fact that nothing has changed within the network or the server.

Ok, egs and grandmother aside, in the past few mobnths have you taken on these hidef flacs? In short something has changed. Update on the server?

Hi, I agree if similar bandwidth files in other formats playout fine it's unlikely to be network. Can you plug a PC or similar into the switch and set it up as network player, illustrate have some free software that does this. Does that exhibit the same problem when streaming hidef FLACs to it?

If not it does look to be specific to your Naim.

BTW, I don't think it is this, but this has caused me major headaches with a large client recently. With GigE and higher switches, they occasionally don't  auto negotiate correctly to 10/100mbps network adapters, and so you get duplex mismatches. This causes network throughput and interruption problems (and if you can see into the switch loads of runts and CRC errors) . It's worth checking your switch and Naim (although I am away from it and so can't think how to check the Naim from memory) are  correctly set at 100mbps/Full duplex

I'm not sure how the versions map to the software release numbers but it seems like you may have an old software release on the Uniti. You could try loading the 3.13 release from http://www.naimaudio.com/updates and see if it improves playback. I had issues with 24/96 FLAC playback on my NDX. The buffer level occasionally fluctuated and the streamer board reset one the odd occasion when I started playback of a 24/96 track but I've not had any problems since I updated to 3.13.

Thanks for your thoughts so far...

I agree that something must have changed - but certainly nothing by me.  No major updates on the WHS, apart from me updating Asset as part of the troubleshooting.  I hate problems like this when there is no obvious culprit.

These 24/96 FLACs aren't new to me - well over a year in fact.  Playing about last night, the problem exists with all FLACs, which to me suggests Asset.  The buffering even crops up with new FLACs that I've ripped using Vortexbox, as well as downloads from HDTracks.  It is odd that WAVs don't exhibit the same behaviour though.

I'll try a PC and different upnp server and see if that makes a difference and report back.

If you set Assett to 'play flac as WAV' are you saying that the problem disappears?

If you are running the older firmware, there was a problem with embedded artwork that was too big causing problems, I seem to remember that I had files that ran for a time and then stopped working after a while, correcting the artwork size restored normal playback; just a thought.

Peter

Just to update following a week of playing about.

Symptom: 24/96 flac files cause buffer issues.  Play any other other file type and they play normally.

To isolate the problem I have plugged the uniti into the same switch as the homeserver but this made no difference.  I've tried several sets of cat5E cables with no change.

If i power cycle the uniti or change the network settings from static ip to DHCP (or vice versa) to force a re-initialisation of the input, I can play any and all files.  After a couple of days (the uniti is left powered up all the time) I can play any file except the 24/96 flacs.  All other file types (WAV, mp3s, streaming radio play fine).  Some of the mp3 files are in excess of 250mb (trance compilations) so this rules out the network not being up to the job as the 24/96 flacs are c80-100mb.  When the flacs have buffer issues I'm still able to stream .iso files to my ACRyan with no issues, so again, this supports the theory that the network is not at fault.

I initially thought it was Asset struggling, but when the uniti starts to have buffer issues with the 24/96 flacs I do nothing except power cycle the uniti and then they play normally so that rules out Asset - either it would work or it wouldn't.

I'm at a loss now.  I thought it might be a heat issue as the uniti is running at c45 degrees but a power cycle/network setting change solves the buffering issue so I'm not sure it is a heat issue.  The uniti is not enclosed but the shelf over it is only 20-30mmmm from the top of the uniti.

So, before I take it back to the dealer and make do without it for a couple of weeks, does anyone else have any bright ideas?

Just to nail it down here.

Is Asset set to play FLAC as FLAC and not as WAV?

Temperature at 45c should not be an issue.

Are your trance tracks being transmitted as gapless? If so, there's a lot of buffering being needed.

flac set to play as flac.  It's only the 24/96 flacs that cause the buffering, others play fine at all times.

trance files are one big mp3 at 200+mb in size

I wonder, if you grab a nice fat USB stick and load it up with FLACs and play them direct into the Uniti if you get buffering issues there as well? If you do, then you know the problem is at the Uniti end. Just a thought.

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.

Have you established if you have the current firmware installed on the Uniti?

Do the flac files have embedded artwork? What size is it?

Why not set Assett to stream flac as WAV (this would be my preferred setting anyway), this may make matters worse, but may help identify where the problem originates.

If all else fails an email to support at Naim may bring more useful advice.

Peter

the 24/96 flacs play perfect from a usb stick.

As it had a reinitialisation of the network interface, it's working perfectly now , will have to wait until tomorrow/day after for it to start playing up again to run some more tests.  I've removed the embedded album art from a selection of the 24/96 flacs to see if that makes a difference.

Thanks for advice so far - an email to naim will be my next step I think.  The frustrating thing is that this issue has only recently started and there have been no changes to the server/network/files.

An update following some testing today....

the uniti was streaming radio2 all morning until a certain J Vine came on, then it was switched to shuffle music.  First 24/96 track it came to the buffering started so a prime chance to do some testing.  I dialled into the WHS and CPU usage was hovering around 2%, network usage about 0.5% but a very definite pattern showing the dropoff.

I'd already copied some 24/96 flacs to a vortexbox instance running in a virtual machine on my mac so I pointed the uniti to these files and experienced the buffering too, so that rules out the windows home server as I would have expected the vortexbox virtual machine to really struggle but it played a large (230mb) mp3 fine, just the 24/96 flacs buffered and they range from 80-190mb.

So, flicked the uniti back to the WHS and the buffering issues were still there.  The flacs I was using for testing had had their album art removed too, just to take that out of the equation.

I reset the small switch the uniti hangs off which caused the uniti to re-initialise the network interface and whaddya know - all now play perfectly.  No buffering at all from either the WHS or the vortexbox virtual machine!  I've previously tested it with this switch completely out of the chain so I'm really starting to think there is something wrong with the uniti's network card but to be honest, I can't see the wood for the trees now.  It will now work fine for a day or two, then the buffering of 24/96 flacs will occur.  At all times, other files (WAV, mp3s, non24/96 flacs etc) play perfectly....

As a last and desperate measure: Have you tried running the Uniti wirelessly?

Don't laugh. I'm being serious. Try it.