DSD Drop Outs on NDS firmware 4.3
Posted by: sjbabbey on 07 July 2015
I successfully updated my NDS to firmware 4.3 yesterday but am experiencing intermittent drop-outs when playing native DSF DSD files. I initially thought that it might be a network issue so I tried copying some DSF files onto a USB drive to play via the iPod/USB input and the same thing is happening i.e. the streamer will play 3 or 4 tracks from an album OK but will have momentary dropouts as if the buffer were full. I've tried a factory reset on the NDS but this hasn't made any difference.
The DSF files show as 2822kHz/5644kb/s DSD on my iPad naim app.
Does anyone have any suggestions (e.g. can the update process be redone?) before I refer the issue to naim support.
I had an all DSD session last evening with my NDX, 4 albums over 3 hours & not a hint of drop outs.
OK its not an NDS, but I expect buffer size is the same & also we have not heard a similar complaint from others with NDS or NDX, including some months of beta testing
As yours is the same with USB it indicates its not your network
Is it the same on another album and/or does it drop out at exactly the same place?
It might be worth trying a re-install of 4.3
After that I would drop Naim an e-mail
Have you confirmed the DSD file is not faulty? Does it play out on another DSD decoder. The Naim development team have noticed that the compliance of DSD encoding is poor on some media files... a view is that quality can be varied as we are perhaps still in the cottage industry stage of DSD downloads.
Simon
Hmmm, this sounds similar to the issue I have previously mentioned. A small pause in playback - perhaps half a second - then all is well again. I probably get one or two pauses per album. My investigation so far has shown:
They are not in consistent positions, so it's not a obvious fault in the DSD files.
Processor and network utilisation on both my NAS and headless Win 7 PC running Asset 5 are low.
I ran wireshark on the Asset PC for a while and never had a pause - either the watched pot never boils proverb at play, or perhaps the monitoring in some way modified behaviour?
I've never tried the Memory Stick approach, so may give this a go sometime soon.
Something odd certainly.
Dave.
Thanks to all for your imput. I've tried several albums and my experience seems to be similar to Dave's. I've created the dsf files from SACD isos using Sonore ISO2DSD. I have played the dsf files using JRiver MC19 decoding to 24bit 176.4kHz PCM WAV and these play fine.
Will try redoing the firmware upgrade tomorrow to see whether this cures the issue. If not I may speak with my dealer to borrow some DSD files to check and/or ask him to see if the dsf files on my usb drive play OK on their demo streamer.
Unfortunately, re-doing the firmware upgrade has not solved the dropouts problem. I'm now also getting regular dropouts when streaming 24/192 transcoded flac files too so it looks like the problem is either the new firmware upgrade or the NDS itself and my testing of the higher bitrate (5644 kb/s) dfs files just highlighted the issue.
Ironically, I've just fitted a netgear wireless extender which now allows my UQ2 to stream 192kHz files with no problem.
I also have the same issue (intermittent drop outs at varying parts of the material). The buffer level is full when the drop out occurs. Does anyone happen to have an update? Thanks!
I've reported this issue to Phil Harris and he has referred it to Naim's software team. The more people who formally report the issue to Naim the better as it will hopefully be given a higher priority, so please send an email to naim support at support@naimaudio.com.
Last Saturday night I ran 5x DSD albums & 3x 24/96 or 192 made up as a playlist - stacked one after the other. The play was continuous non-stop & no hint of a drop out.
Last Saturday night I ran 5x DSD albums & 3x 24/96 or 192 made up as a playlist - stacked one after the other. The play was continuous non-stop & no hint of a drop out.
I'm pleased for you Mike but I'm not imagining this problem. I hope that it proves to be a software issue and not a problem with the NDS itself.
Not saying you are sj, but to get the reported occurrences of your problem balanced, it needs to be set against other units with no problems. That way the Salisbury boffins have something of a bigger picture to work with. It might well be a variation of your buffer in NDS vs NDX, or maybe a LAN bandwidth issue, who knows, hopefully Naim can ID it.
Indeed, it might even be down to a specific batch of dac chips used in the NDS. I believe that I've ruled out the LAN/network bandwidth problem given that the same issue arises when using the front iPod/USB input on my NDS. In any event I have provided full details of my network setup to PH.
Anyway, the matter has been reported to naim support who are investigating and, as you say, they will hopefully be able to identify and resolve the issue.
Reported to the support mail address, thanks.