Audio file loading slowly since Devialet RAAT

Hello All,

We understand the frustration being expressed by many of you in this thread and we share in your disappointment that this issue is yet to be resolved. Our goal here at Roon Labs is to enrich people’s lives with the best music playback experience in the world, not to frustrate users with cryptic error messages and network troubleshooting.

In April, we reached out to Devialet with the results of our testing in the QA lab as well as our summarization of the survey we put out to affected users. We offered to assist their team in any way possible and expressed desire to see this issue resolved with confidence. Their response was that they were aware of the issue and were investigating internally. We did not receive any further requests for assistance from their team, aside from an inquiry on how we recommend users should handle temporarily working around the issue. We followed up with them on July 1st and were met with the same response.

One thing to keep in mind: The majority of Devialet Expert users do not encounter this behavior during Roon Ready playback. This always adds complications to the troubleshooting process as well as the targeting of any potential fixes.

Due to the noise being by made our users, we re-started our own investigation a few weeks ago and plan to bring the latest findings to Devialet in the coming days. Our current understanding of this issue is that it is triggered by an issue in the ethernet stack on the device and is not related to the RAAT or Roon Ready implementation.

Bottom line: This issue can only be resolved by Devialet. We have offered our technical assistance to their team. We plan to reach out with further technical feedback with hopes that we can assist their investigation and expedite a fix to affected users.

In the meantime, our recommendation for users experiencing this issue is to use the device’s WiFi connection if possible. Some have reported that placing Expert Pro behind a 100mbps switch enabled use of Roon Ready playback without encountering the slow media error, however this “fix” is not endorsed by the Roon team as we cannot guarantee this will resolve the issue.

Going forward, we will be sure to do a better job communicating whatever updates we do have regarding the issue. I will follow up in this thread after we have reached out to Devialet.

-John

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@John, thank you for your thoughtful response.

It is indeed a bit frustrating. You state that "The majority of Devialet Expert users do not encounter this behavior during Roon Ready playback.". That comment has me puzzled. Does that mean that most users don’t stream hi-res content over a gigabit network to their Devialet and therefore don’t experience the problem or does it mean that most users that do stream hi-res content over a gigabit network are not having this problem? I suspect it is the former, but If it is the latter, I would very much like to know how they’re doing it.

P.S… sorry to be so noisy :wink: I really do love both Roon and my Expert Pro and am truly thankful for the customer-facing involvement by you and all Roon support staff.

Maybe this issue is related to the bandwidth usage (especially the peak bandwidth) where the RAAT seems to differ from the AIR. There are some differences between the RAAT and the AIR bandwidth usage as shown in daniel.avasilichioaei’s measurements (https://devialetchat.com/Thread-Roon-RAAT-and-An-audio-file-is-loading-slowly?pid=85873#pid85873):

Please take a look @john .

Additional info: I just perform the same test using 10 Mbps, and on this connection there is no peak at all.

10Mbps 192kHz AIR

10Mbps 192kHz RAAT

@john , thank you for your feedback on what is happening on your side. However, I would like to point out that WiFi is not free from this problem. Me and some other users, who I have seen report this on Devialetchat.com, also experience this problem via WiFi connection.

Yes, I have the same problem also with a WiFi connection, not only with a gigabit ethernet connection.

For those having wifi problems - is it the same “audio file loading slowly…” issue? I have attempted to use wifi a couple of times to my Devialet but my wifi is not sufficiently stable (too far from the router is my guess) such that I get occasional dropouts or stopped music. That happens with both RAAT and AIR. For me at least, my wifi issue is a different problem than when attempting to stream hi-res content via gigabit ethernet.

Hello @mdconnelly,

My intention was to convey that the majority of Roon users with Devialet Expert Pro products do not encounter this issue.

-John

Thank you @John! I think what I struggled with most on this is trying to figure out what I could do to circumvent the problem since many others were not experiencing it. It’s good to see the Devialet problem acknowledged and looking forward to hearing the response from them on this (whenever that may be).

I get the same message ‘slow…” with wifi, wifi router is 1m away and signal is very strong and speed is high (ac pro hd wifi). It may not happen as often as with an ethernet connection, but it happens.

I just made the same additional tests as per my previous posts, also direct cable connection, but this time using another network card (3rd one - an USB card): LINKSYS USB3GIG.
I tested multiple scenarios:

  • Using network card with USB 2 port, and with USB 3. On both USB 2+3, the network connection speed is set to 1000 Mbps. This is the “technical” connection speed.
  • Using auto negotiated speed 1000 Mbps, manual speeds 1000 Mbps, 100 Mbps and 10 Mbps.
    The bug is occurring on USB 3, but it is not occurring on USB 2. On USB 2 everything works fine: no “Audio file loading slowly” error, and no network traffic fluctuations. This is for RAAT protocol. AIR protocol is working fine in any circumstances, configurations and settings.
    Even “technical” connection speed is 1000 Mbps for both USB 2+3, USB 2 is limiting the “actual” connection speed (data traffic) to less than 1000 Mbps. This is the only network card that allows me to test different actual connection speeds over the same “technical” connection speed.

As per my limited networking knowledge, and results of all tests that I performed, my deduction is that RAAT protocol over Ethernet is generating communication errors (and package resend). This is happening at any network connection speed (including 10 + 100 + 1000 Mbps). Still, this has a user perceivable effect only when large amount of data is involved (e.g. 192kHz audio files).

Yes, I get the same error message “an audio file is loading slowly” regardless of ethernet or WiFi connection. Otherwise, WiFi works without problems.

By the way - Spotify connect is working without any problems by ethernet oder wifi. I am using Spotify now, I am tired about the ROON/RAAT (Tidal) problems. Any ROON/RAAT problems are worse than the Spotify sound quality difference.

I can’t imagine why this would be. Anything applicable here: Networking Best Practices ?

Hello everyone, I’m rather new on this forum.

I’ve got the same issue with Devialet and RAAT. My Devialet loses all connection when it its fed by Roon. Before we used Orange (provider) that maximize the speed only at 100 mbps. We now have a faster provider that goes on 240 mbps.

All problems started when fastened the internet and Devialet crashes. The only way to get it back activate is to unplug the device from the powers.

We have formation products from B&W and they work perfect with Roon!

Devialet is a lovely device with lovely sound but they have a CRAP customer service when you have issues with the device.

I hope they address this problem asap and work on a solution.

Jan, the issue with Devialet Expert and Roon RAAT via Ethernet is well documented, though you may be unaware of it. The ball is in Devialet’s court and perhaps when their people return from the August holidays we might see some progress. But, as you point out, the company’s customer service leaves something to be desired.

Now I have switched to a new router and a 1000 Mbit cable internet connection. First try Devialet by WLAN: Track loading slowly…

You can force that message, when skipping fast between the tracks.

So definitely not only an 1 GB Ethernet problem.

Exactly the same problem I have, as long as music just runs, one song at a time I rarely have problems, as soon as I skip 4-5 tracks this error occurs. Most of the time I have to restart Roon ROCK for it to work again.

Same problem for me, indeed especially when skipping songs rapidly. Restarting Roon-server solves the problem. Switched back to AIR-ETH for now.

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