From separates to Uniti

Posted by: Revoliño on 28 November 2018

As I am encountering the disabilities of my NAC-N272 quite a lot now I am thinking of replacing my separates to a single box, a new Uniti Nova.

I am keen on the sound of my system now so I am afraid I will just loose a lot with the change so maybe you can help me with some information about it. 

At the moment my system consists of a NAC-N 272, a NAP 200DR and two Dynaudio Contour 20’s. My annoyances are coming from the streaming (dis)abilities of the NAC and I think the Nova will do this better. I am using Tidal streaming and vTuner iRadio. Every day it’s a 50/50 bet if I can stream my favorite music without any hiccups, delay and/or freezes. When it’s working without any issues, the experience is delightful but when it’s not working, I am annoyed and I won’t listen to any music any more. 

I’ve troubleshooted my network but nothing is wrong with it. The moments my NAC have issues with streaming, my other devices can stream without any problem. At that specific moment, the physical link between the NAC and my switch (Cisco 2960C 12p) is still there. The logical link also stands (I can reach the NAC through my webbrowser/get a reply on my pings). So I am pretty sure the streaming section of my NAC is buggy, especially with Tidal. Strange thing is that Spotify Connect is working flawlessly. 

So how can I compare the Nova with my current system, streaming-wise and sound-wise? Are there people who have experiences with both systems? At the moment I don’t have any time for auditioning, otherwise I could answer my question in real-life.

Thanks.

Posted on: 28 November 2018 by Japtimscarlet

I know you think it's the 272

But what app are you using ... Android or ios?

Posted on: 28 November 2018 by hungryhalibut

I can use Tidal for hours on end, day in day out without problems, so the 272 is perfectly capable. While the Nova is more resilient for Tidal streaming there is no guarantee that it will be better and it would seem foolish to swap to a Nova in the hope it will solve the problem. 

Is your Network fully wired? Have you checked the speed and more importantly the latency of your internet connection?

Posted on: 28 November 2018 by Revoliño

I am using the iOS app on my iPhone and iPad.

My network is partly wired, partly wireless. All mobile devices connect through Wi-Fi where the static devices connect with wire.

No issues with speed and latency or packet drops.

The fact you don’t have any issues with Tidal on your N 272 is worrying. Could it be my specific device who is troubled?

Posted on: 28 November 2018 by hungryhalibut

Is your 272 connected to the router by wires all the way? If it is not, try running a wire and see what happens. 

Posted on: 28 November 2018 by Revoliño

Yes, only my mobile devices are connected wirelessly.

It’s connected with wires like this:

NAC - Switch - Firewall - Modem - NTU

Before you ask: the FW doesn’t restrict internet access of my NAC.

Posted on: 28 November 2018 by Shellspeed

Might be worth trying and alternative CAT cable. CAT6 or may be a 7 depending on distance from router/switch. We had 5e cables crap out all the time even on shortish runs. Just a thought. 

Posted on: 28 November 2018 by hungryhalibut
Revoliño posted:

Yes, only my mobile devices are connected wirelessly.

It’s connected with wires like this:

NAC - Switch - Firewall - Modem - NTU

Before you ask: the FW doesn’t restrict internet access of my NAC.

In that case, I don’t know what the issue might be. Have you tried searching on posts about Tidal in the streaming audio room? I’m assuming the 272 is on the latest firmware?

Posted on: 28 November 2018 by ChrisR_EPL

Hi

I've experienced similar issues in the recent past, with the 272 failing to connect to iRadio streams and then when it did it would soon drop the connection leading to interrupted interviews on Today and never hearing a complete story on Danny Baker's show. In my case Tidal was solid as a rock and so too was music sourced from the NAS. Listening to radio through the iPlayer on the iPad was fault-free, as was HD video through Amazon, Netflix, and iPlayer video streamed to the Sky box. The 272 tho, waste of time & space sometimes.

It's still not clear what the underlying cause was but in the end it was resolved by a factory reset on the 272, bracketed by two full cycles of rebooting the network components in a logical sequence. Thus - with a start point of everything powered down; power up the modem at the BT master socket, then the router, then the switch that the 272 [and PC] hang off, then the switch in the other room that connect to a NAS, Raspberry Pi and printer - power those up in that order, waiting for each one to complete its power-up sequence before moving on. My NAS shouldn't act as a DHCP but it seems to if it's first to become active e.g. after a power cut. That cured things for a week or so, it recurred and is now good again, has been for a week. Fingers crossed. Naim Support suggested latency or a slow connection, so check your speeds if you can. My reboot restored the normal speeds altho that doesn't explain HD video being unaffected.

Clearly your setup will differ from this, but the underlying principle of powering up each device in the right order seems to have resolved the issue here.

Posted on: 28 November 2018 by Mike-B

You need to sort your network,  if the 272 is having trouble,  I expect that so will all the other units, including Nova.  

Your network input seems overly oldschool complicated with NTU, Modem & Firewall, I suspect the problem is in there somewhere,    why do you not use an all in one router/wireless hub?

Posted on: 28 November 2018 by Revoliño

I will try resetting my NAC to factory defaults like Chris is stating in his post, I totally forgot about something that simple... I know that my home network is flawless.

My first annoyance has already been solved with the reset: when I queue a playlist consisting of more than 50 songs, the NAC will only add the first 50. Only when I queue that same playlist for the second time, it will load up all songs and start playing.

I will start apologizing if this simple reset has resolved my issues, will update in a couple of days.

Thanks.

Posted on: 28 November 2018 by hungryhalibut

Please don’t feel the need to apologise, what’s important is to fix your issue. And please don’t assume your network is flawless, just because you think it is. People have said that before and it’s turned out to have funny settings. Keep an open mind. 

Posted on: 28 November 2018 by Richard Dane

Revolino, I’ve moved this thread to the Streaming Audio room, which I think will be more appropriate and helpful here.

Posted on: 28 November 2018 by RaceTripper
Revoliño posted:

... I know that my ... network is flawless.

 

.

Said by no successful IT organization, ever!

Posted on: 28 November 2018 by Stover

Based on my experience with 272, but also with Naim streamers in general, this sounds like a network problem. 272 should be connected to the same router (cable) that also feeds wireless to your Apple unit. Is it so?

S

Posted on: 28 November 2018 by Popeye

Definitely try a different Ethernet cable, cat 6. I had a similar problem a few years ago. 

Posted on: 28 November 2018 by Simon-in-Suffolk

Hi, I suspect this matter has been covered many times on this forum... however please clarify that locally sourced  streaming works without issue, and the issues only occur with a Tidal or possibly web radio.

If this is the case it is almost certainly nothing to do with your home network, but more likely to do with round trip timing from your streamer, your broadband access, your cabinet / fibre aggregation point and your ISP backhaul, and even onwards to the internet peering point... other than changing your package, service provider , or even package type your options are limited, and even these changes themselves  can’t  gaurentee to remedy your situation in all cases. The issues can be often related to the uplink speed and NOT the download link unless very small. The original streamer architectures are sensitive to round trip latency... hence your TV might happily display Netflix, but your audio streamer struggles.

One possible solution assuming you have the minimum bandwidth required is to use a proxy server such as Bubble UPnP Server... not ideal as the apps required to control are outside the Naim ecosystem, but will typically address round trip latency issues and dropouts with Tidal.

The newer streamer architectures have mitigated this to some extent compared to the legacy architecture of which the 272 uses.

Posted on: 28 November 2018 by HiFiman

What is the make of your firewall.

I recently swapped out my old Sonicwall NSA220 as the CGSS security suite expired and cost a small fortune to renew.

Installed a Ubiquiti USG24 and the IPS on the USG dropped data packets to my 272 when using iradio and Tidal. Few tweeks to the IPS settings resolved this.

Posted on: 29 November 2018 by Innocent Bystander

If anything computerised - and a streamer is - has been working well then ceases to, a reboot is always worth a try (as has already been mentioned). When I had an ND5XS it benefitted from occasional turning off and on again.

Posted on: 29 November 2018 by Rich 1

Nova is no match sonically to a 272, you'll be disappointed. When I upgraded a year ago a Nova was on my shopping list, I liked the idea of a one box solution. After several comparisons I dropped the idea. I can't think off hand of any problems I've had with my hard wired 272. Rich 

Posted on: 29 November 2018 by Timmo1341

Ditto to above - when in doubt, reboot! Perhaps once every 3 months or so, normally after a metadata editing session, my 272 refuses to connect with my server. A reboot invariably sorts the problem. It’s just the nature of the computer beast. I guess when you think of the millions of electrical operations they perform, the odd glitch here and there is hardly surprising.

Posted on: 29 November 2018 by Rich 1

Don't just reset the 272, the network might be flawless as in it's wired correctly but it may be electronically 'tangled up' . Reset the whole network. Search the forum for the correct way. Basically turn off completely (unplug from mains and disconnect Ethernet cables) all components connected to the net including modem and router. Then turn on items in order of connection, ie modem, wait a few minutes to stabilise, turn on router and connect to modem, again waiting for stability before powering up and connecting to network switch if fitted. Always allow components to stabilise before turning on and connecting the next. Hope this helps. Rich 

Posted on: 02 December 2018 by Revoliño

I am sorry guys, the problems are resolved after a factory reset of my NAC. I am a bit ashamed I didn’t think of something that simple. Thing is that I didn’t have constant issues so I couldn’t pinpoint the exact source of the issue. 

I did reboot the NAC two times but that didn’t resolve the problems I’ve experienced. 

Without these problems the enjoyment of listening to music came back so I am happy again. 

Thanks for all the tips and advices, you are very helpful!