SuperUniti UPnP & iRadio Conundrum

Not good news.  In spite of it being a known issue, I had not heard of it before you brought it up naimUnT, and engjoo answered.  I have reached the point where I could not survive without a few 320kb/sec iRadio stations (OK, perhaps not being able to survive is a bit over the top--I suppose I could whine, tear out my hair, gnash my teeth, and twist my hands around in my apron a lot ).  I have not yet tried 192, but intend to do so, but I have to say, if I had to give one up in favor of the other, I would go the iRadio route. I have had a few drops using wireless for (for example) Linn Classical, but nothing I would characterize as "stuttering".   

Next question is this: if you plug a network cable into the back of the SU, does it automatically override the wireless antenna?  Or can you keep both plugged in and change the network settings via the remote--to activate first one, for one purpose, then the other for the other purpose?  Certainly would not be convenient, but a possible alternative?  I don't have an ethernet cable hooked up to try it and will not for a couple of months.

Best regards and a Happy and Prosperous New Year,

Russ

With the NDX, this is determined at power-up time; if there is a wired ethernet connection present, the NDX will use it, and you then cannot use wireless, unless you power-cycle the unit, with wired ethernet disconnected, at which point it will try to use wireless.

I suspect that the SU behaves identically.

David, I suspect that you are correct.

Russ

I don't know if it helps much, but I had the same problem as others report going wireless or Internet over mains. But since I switched to hard wired Ethernet, no such problems with either 192 or 320 radio. I'm a bit bemused by your problems with the latter, I'd have thought that with the most solid connection you'd be least likely to have a buffering issue. Where's Simon in Suffolk when you need him?

Happy New Year back at you, Stefan.  And naimUnT: If you do that, please update the thread with your findings.

Best regards,

Russ

Thanks to all for your contributions! Apologies for delay in responding.

Just to clear the point that the SU cannot run wired and wireless at the same time. When wired, the wireless cannot function unless the Ethernet cable is disengaged. 

Stefan, yes I much prefer the wired routeand I think it seems to be the consensus of most that (wherever possible), the wired should be used. But, try as I may, listening to higher bit stream iRadio stations is impossible without the stuttering! Here is where I question if the iRadio buffering lies at the modem/router or SU side? I have a feeling Naim has not allowed enough buffering on the SU. Please correct me if I'm wrong as I am not an expert in the technical side of streaming and Internet stuff.

As an experiment, I have set the SU wireless but disabled both iRadio and UPnP. I connected a Mac Book Pro, played with Pure Music and Amarra software with music via USB into a SPDIF converter (24/96) into SU's digital input. What a revelation! The SQ from my ripped CDs (AIFF format) and iRadio from iTunes sounds significantly better than the SU's iRadio and UPnP! Has anyone tried this route? I'm beginning to feelit his revelation will make the SU's streaming function quite redundant awill thoughts of whether I should have gone the 5i-nDAC route might begin to sound attractive indeed! Of course, I would need a NAT tuner as well and this is beginning to question the logic of box count which makes the SU such an attractive package. So it looks like I'm in a bit of pickle right now!

But I think because of your very specific and unusual problem, you're making assumptions about the quality of the SU. You have a mysterious problem with streaming which means that iRadio isn't working properly for you at the moment. It is working just fine for thousands of others, and I'd be most surprised if, say, Radio 3 @ 320k or the 320k Radio Paradise stream didn't sound better through the SU directly rather than through iTunes. Others are better able than me to help you through the technical issues here, but please don't assume there's a design fault in the SU!

+1 on that - no problem streaming 320k Radio Paradise via ethernet to my SU.

I have a direct optical connection from my PC to my SU but I find streaming via upnp sounds marginally better on ripped cds. No way I'm going back to multiple boxes!

Are you on virgin?

Hi Glennardo, occasionally I have the same problem with 320K radio on my UQ. The music stops every 10 seconds or so when the buffer is empty. I found it helps to reset the router, switch it off at least 10-20 seconds. Then it works fine again. I am looking into it and will keep you posted if I find out more but initially it seems to be router or ISP related.