When I connect cirrus7 nimbini v3 USB (Supra Cables Excalibur USB 2.0) direct to Linn Selekt DSM than I experience very shot drop-outs. The drop-out are not more than 1/2 sec. and happen sometimes after 20-25 minutes, than again after 10-15 minutes.
I have replaced my Qnap HS264 with cirrus7 nimbini v3 (Rock) in the hope that it would fix the problem. But it didn’t.
This may sound ridiculous, but have you tried just an ordinary USB cable? Like an Amazon Basics? Audiophile USB cables have been known to be problematic on occasion.
2 Likes
Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
3
Connecting a regular USB cable would be the first thing I’d try. Like a printer cable.
1 Like
Torben_Rick
(Torben - A Dane living in Hamburg - Roon Lifer)
5
Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
6
You might also try unplugging the Ethernet connection to the Linn box when you are testing the USB connection. Isolate possible issues.
3 Likes
Torben_Rick
(Torben - A Dane living in Hamburg - Roon Lifer)
7
@Bill_Janssen - Great suggestion. That gave me an idea
After a renovation in the spring I replaced some old CAT cables for 2 computers (connected in my LAN) with some CAT7 cables.
Have now done a test and replaced these 2 X CAT7 cables (computer) with BJC CAT6 UTP (I know it is overkill - but I don’t have any other cables). Have kept the Supra Cables Excalibur USB 2.0 connected - no change there.
Have now played music for over an hour without any dropouts
Hi Torben, I’ve said this before (assuming these were audiophile ethernet cables) - many “audiophile” ethernet cables will fail to meet the IEEE specs. Ethernet cables have very tight specifications for construction - individual pair twist density and then the overall twist density of the 4 pairs. If you mess with that, you mess with the transmission rate capability and noise/crosstalk rejection. Besides that, it could just be a bad termination. Something that wouldn’t be a problem with BJC as they’re all tested before leaving the factory.
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Torben_Rick
(Torben - A Dane living in Hamburg - Roon Lifer)
9
Hm unfortunately the dropouts did not go way. But now I have CAT6 UTP (BJC) all over That’s a good thing
Using Roon over ethernet/LAN works fine - no problems. Only with USB there are dropouts 1-2 times pr. hour - both local files and Qobuz.
Will try to replace the USB with the “low-end” cable when I get it with DHL.
I’m just curious - what is the motivation for USB instead of ethernet? If I’m understanding correctly, everything works fine when Roon drives your Selekt over your network. Why don’t you just use that approach?
1 Like
Torben_Rick
(Torben - A Dane living in Hamburg - Roon Lifer)
17
Did try each USB port - No improvement
Increased resync to 2000ms - No improvement
How I need to get hold of an USB 2.0 hub to see if this solves the problem.
Torben
Bill_Janssen
(Wigwam wool socks now on asymmetrical isolation feet!)
18
USB 3.1 is a version of the generic USB protocol specification, while Audio Class 2 is an application protocol that should run on top of any USB version. So I doubt that’s it.
Have now done all the updates including the ROCK update from yesterday.
No - did not fix the dropout’s, they are still there
I will turn to ethernet again - Have done everything I can do to fix the USB problem, but no luck.
My Linn Selekt DSM Surround (standard DAC) is from august this year, before the Linn Selekt DSM Hub came out. Not even sure if you can get the Hub version in a Surround version, I don’t know. I know that almost €10K must be enough
I’m sorry you weren’t able to get USB working. At the end of the day, the thing that matters is that your digital path deliver an intact and unmodified bitstream to your Selekt. It seems that ethernet is providing that for you while USB is not. The best you could hope for from USB is that it achieve the reliability of ethernet. So if this were me, I’d be very satisfied with a functioning ethernet connection and I’d move on knowing that I have the best possible working system.
If you do decide that you want to follow up, you can always to directly to Linn by submitting a report in either the Linn or Kazoo app. You’d want to have the app running (probably with verbose logging enabled), reproduce the problem, and then immediately submit the report either from the Settings page of Kazoo or the Linn app.
One other point of note is that some - possibly all - Selekt devices accept firmware updates for both DSM and Exakt (the backplane of the device). As far as I’m aware, DSM updates can be accepted from a number of the Linn apps but Exakt updates only show up in the Mac or Windows version of Konfig. If you haven’t installed and checked Konfig for updates, you might do that. This could be a timing or other type of issue on the Linn side.
In any case, I’m just glad that you have a working set up that gets you a bit-perfect stream with no dropouts.
unfortunately the dropouts did not go way. But now I have CAT6 UTP (BJC) all over 