Audirvana not detecting Uniti Nova much of the time

Hi [@mention:71539985729025468]

My Nova was delivered yesterday  and I love it. Initially I tried connecting with Audirvana Plus v3.1.8 and thought I was home and dry. However I am seeing the same issues as you. I'm leaving the Nova on to let it burn in. After a while, when I open Audirvana, it has lost the connection to the Nova which no longer appears in the Preferred Audio Device list after clicking the Change button. The only way I can get it back is to reboot the Nova by shutting it down with a long press, then restarting. I haven't tried your trick of unplugging/reconnecting the Nova ethernet cable but I will next time.

I never had this problem with the Mu-so. Also, Audirvana to Mu-so is gapless but as you reported Audirvana to Nova is not. There's a certain amount of flashing on the Nova screen (back to home, then back to track details) and a noticeable gap when it changes tracks, whereas on the Mu-so it seemed to be seamless, as I reported in the other thread.

Thus, I think you can rule your Roon upgrade out of the equation.

While writing, I've realised that there is one difference. The Mu-so ethernet cable was plugged into the Airport Extreme that the iMac connects to via Wi-Fi, whereas the Nova is plugged into a Netgear gigabit switch. The switch and the Airport are connected to separate ports on my Firebrick 2700 router/firewall. Thus the path from iMac to Nova passes through two additional devices. I'll try moving the Nova in a while and let you know if that makes any difference.

I'd like to get Qobuz Hi-Res streaming working properly. The Nova Chromecast solution works I prefer the Audirvana approach. 

david

Thanks DavidS

I somehow doubt the network setup is the issue now that you've seen what I have - it could be Audirvana, but equally that worked with the Mu-so for you which implies it may be the new Uniti series way of doing things.

Gapless playback is not needed most of the time, but lack of it is such an annoyance on albums where it's expected and provided on any other playback medium.

PS - Enjoy the new Nova - it's a lovely device - I've just got an Echo Show from Amazon and was suprised to hear how good the Nova sounds on Bluetooth.

It doesn’t help either of you, but the Nova is capable of gapless playback as mine is happily playing gapless from Asset which is sitting on a QNAP NAS. It plays gapless via USB for me too so it’s looking as though you should be pointing your fingers towards Audirvana. Being a Windows user I’m afraid I can’t help there, other than confirming the Nova does do gapless. 

[@mention:71539985729025468] Yes, you were right. Moving the Nova to the Airport Extreme made no difference. It doesn't seem to be a network issue. It is weird though. Your workaround (momentarily disconnecting the Ethernet) works like a charm and I noticed Audirvana finding the Nova as soon as I did this (I'd left the Preferences open). I'm not sure how to take this further. I think I will ask Damien what Audirvana is looking for and then try to see what is happening on the network.

[@mention:72103499036178358] Thanks for this reassurance. I noticed yesterday that the Nova was gapless from the Core, though I need to look into that more. I'll also try USB.

As an example of why gapless matters, the new Natalie Dessay and Michel Legrand "Between Yesterday and Tomorrow" (24/44.1) is pretty much ruined by the gaps. On the other hand, the new "Cecilia & Sol" (24/96) which has natural gaps between tracks is wonderful (both streamed from Qobuz via Audirvana).

Off topic, I do like being able to read the Qobuz booklets (e.g. translations of libretto). Reminds me of my concert going days as a youth, reading and trying to understand the program notes 

Agree completely about the Nova.

TallGuy posted:

It doesn’t help either of you, but the Nova is capable of gapless playback as mine is happily playing gapless from Asset which is sitting on a QNAP NAS. It plays gapless via USB for me too so it’s looking as though you should be pointing your fingers towards Audirvana. Being a Windows user I’m afraid I can’t help there, other than confirming the Nova does do gapless. 

Thanks, yes I can play gapless from an old WD NAS and USB too as well as using Roon.

The problem I'm trying to solve mainly is how to playback streamed rather than purchased Qobuz music - the purchased stuff I can stick on the NAS or USB, but I'd quite like to upgrade my subscription to HD streaming , but am reluctant to do so if I can't get gapless to work with the Nova.

While it may be Audirvana, the fact that it works for DavidS using the Mu-so makes me think it may be due to something behaving differently on the Nova.

DavidS posted:

[@mention:71539985729025468] Yes, you were right. Moving the Nova to the Airport Extreme made no difference. It doesn't seem to be a network issue. It is weird though. Your workaround (momentarily disconnecting the Ethernet) works like a charm and I noticed Audirvana finding the Nova as soon as I did this (I'd left the Preferences open). I'm not sure how to take this further. I think I will ask Damien what Audirvana is looking for and then try to see what is happening on the network.

 

I emailed him a couple of weeks ago and his response was that it was probably the Nova not fetching the next track until too late leading to noticeable gaps between tracks - this could be the case, equally it could be Audirvana, not really sure how to progress this with Naim.

I was thinking of setting up some tracking so that I could compare what the Mu-so and Nova do.

BTW I was just playing an album on Nova from Core and noticed the Core had disappeared from the Servers folder. Had to quit (swipe up) the app to recover it. Have reported that on one of the beta threads

My WD NAS is old but functions adequately until I can justify some cash for a QNAP or Synology.  It does not disappear from the folder.  Odd though that 2 Naim devices are 'disappearing' - could be a common issue?

The other day I ran iNet network scanner on iPhone - it seems to provide details of services on the Net including those used by the Nova.

Typically (never tried before), I can use Airplay to the Nova from the Mac and it's gapless, but I don't really trust Airplay audio quality to be anything close to SD let alone HD playback.  Still wondering what Airplay 2 will offer apart from multiroom.

[@mention:71539985729025468] As I understand it, Airplay is limited to 44.1 kHz 16 bit. It used to be my preferred method of streaming Qobuz, either from  the Qobuz desktop app or Audirvana (though recently, selecting output to Airplay has become harder except in iTunes). However, in my new Sublime+ world, I want to listen to Hi-Res, especially on the Nova. This week I've been trying every method I can think of. Here are a few quick thoughts:

I found Qobuz app to Nova Chromecast Built-in kept stopping. Eventually I realised this was after 20m and sent a feedback. Phil Harris confirmed it was problem with the default Auto standby time and recommended setting this to Never which fixes it. Mentioning this in case you haven't come across it.

Returning today to Audirvana Plus v3.1.8 (3128), I've been listening to a recent release of Pygmalion in 96kHz 24bit. It sounds wonderful and there are only a few tracks where the lack of gapless is an issue. Audirvana has stayed connected to the Nova throughout, including stopping for lunch. If I do lose the connection, your trick of temporarily disconnecting the Nova's ethernet connection gets it back.

I also noticed that pause/play, track change and seek to time all worked from Audirvana to Nova (this is better than Audirvana to Mu-so). The only thing I noticed is that it is probably best not to have the Naim app open across track changes.

I'm going to be away for a couple of weeks but when I get back, I'm planning an in depth study of what works and what doesn't. Hopefully this will lead us to a solution.

Joke solution: I tried streaming from Audirvana to Mu-so, then in the Naim app connected to Mu-so, set up multiroom from Mu-so to Nova and muted the Mu-so. That was one way of achieving gapless from Audirvana to Nova 

DavidS posted:

[@mention:71539985729025468] As I understand it, Airplay is limited to 44.1 kHz 16 bit. It used to be my preferred method of streaming Qobuz, either from  the Qobuz desktop app or Audirvana (though recently, selecting output to Airplay has become harder except in iTunes). However, in my new Sublime+ world, I want to listen to Hi-Res, especially on the Nova. This week I've been trying every method I can think of. Here are a few quick thoughts:

I found Qobuz app to Nova Chromecast Built-in kept stopping. Eventually I realised this was after 20m and sent a feedback. Phil Harris confirmed it was problem with the default Auto standby time and recommended setting this to Never which fixes it. Mentioning this in case you haven't come across it.

Returning today to Audirvana Plus v3.1.8 (3128), I've been listening to a recent release of Pygmalion in 96kHz 24bit. It sounds wonderful and there are only a few tracks where the lack of gapless is an issue. Audirvana has stayed connected to the Nova throughout, including stopping for lunch. If I do lose the connection, your trick of temporarily disconnecting the Nova's ethernet connection gets it back.

 

I think I set standby to 2 hours so rarely had issues with Chromecast from the iOS app.

Powering down and restarting the unit via the power button also seems to allow Audirvana to detect the Nova again.

Roon never seems to have issues seeing it, or Airplay service either.

Not sure if Audirvana may be using some other protocol to detect the Nova on the network and is not seeing it when other apps/services do.  Hardly a major chore to unplug ethernet or power on/off physically but you just feel network connection ought to be more stable.

Hi [@mention:71539985729025468]

I think Audirvana is missing something because when it doesn't find the Nova, I can see the Nova's UPnP connection with other tools. On the other hand, surprisingly, when it is working, you can seek to time and pause/resume, something that doesn't work with the Mu-so. I've been away for the last two weeks so haven't been able to investigate further. Streaming Qobuz Hi-Res is still top of my list and I'm hoping to put together a list of what does and doesn't work using various methods.

david

DavidS posted:

Hi [@mention:71539985729025468]

I think Audirvana is missing something because when it doesn't find the Nova, I can see the Nova's UPnP connection with other tools. On the other hand, surprisingly, when it is working, you can seek to time and pause/resume, something that doesn't work with the Mu-so. I've been away for the last two weeks so haven't been able to investigate further. Streaming Qobuz Hi-Res is still top of my list and I'm hoping to put together a list of what does and doesn't work using various methods.

david

Unfortunately I've killed my 2015 MBP which I had in the same room as the Nova to use Audirvana or Roon (appreciate there are remote Apps), but as noted Roon never had issues detecting the Naim and as you say other methods of detection found it.