Unimpressed. After a long wait, the MQA implementation is pretty flaky. Stops playing, has trouble starting playing, sad.
On top of the Airplay issues I have had I wonder what good is $32k worth of that compared to a $99 Dragonfly. Not happy.
Any news on when this update will be available for the Vivaldi?
We had very few issues like this in testing so this comes as a surprise. There were some initial glitches with the Roon integration, but those were isolated and resolved.
Given the issues youâve had with Airplay as well as the issues you had installing the update I have to wonder if thereâs something in your network setup thatâs causing some intermittent problems. Can you describe your network setup including models of switches, routers, etc as well as the presence of any powerline ethernet adapters, wireless bridges, and/or ethernet to optical bridges?
There currently isnât any update available for the Bridge although it should be coming shortly. If the app isnât connecting to the Bridge first kill the app on the iPad (double tap the home button and swipe up on the app) then reboot the bridge.
If I recall correctly you had some issues a couple of months ago that were related to a software update or change on your router. Have you tried rebooting your router?
Iâm going to start out by reminding you that Iâm only trying to help. I understand that you are frustrated, but thereâs no need to be belligerent toward me.
Are you currently using a âbridgedâ connection from your ROCK core to the bridge? If thatâs the case then the dCS app will not be able to connect to it. From a networking standpoint the Bridge is on a completely different network and the dCS appâs discovery process cannot find it. This is not a deficiency in the dCS software, but a limitation of IP networking.
If this is still your configuration then do the following:
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Access the bridge in the same way that you did before to set it from a static IP address to one assigned by DHCP.
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Unplug the direct connection to your core and plug it into your main network.
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Try connecting again with the dCS app. It should work.
I havenât had my Rossini stop playing since the update. On a couple of occasions after a pause it did âstutterâ the first note. I just use Roon and not Airplay so I donât know what issues you are referring to.
If you wouldnât mind please keep an eye on what type of track is playing when you run into this. There are a couple of known issues related to how MQA streams are recognized and rendered and this is the side-effect. If itâs happening with non-MQA streams then Iâm curious to know what kind of stream is being played.
The stuttering just occurred again. I had paused Enyaâs âDark Sky Islandâ. MQA 96kHZ. When I came back an hour later it stuttered when I unparsed the track Still the same album/song.
Yep. This is a known issue and I can replicate here on the same album. If you watch the display on the Rossini youâll notice that the track starts playing, but the display doesnât show MQA. Then thereâs a brief dropout and the MQA indicator comes on and then audio starts back up. This has to do with how the MQA decoder / renderer gets switched into the stream.
As with any software release there are always little issues that are known before release. No one wanted to see the MQA release delayed any more than it already was 
This problem will be addressed and I can assure you that dCS is implementing some changes which will increase the frequency and quality of updates.
Andrew
Yes. I noticed the issue occurring around the time the MQA indicator was locking in.
I am glad they released the update now so we could enjoy MQA and didnât wait for a perfect iteration for Roon.
There may issues which prevent this but in my mind when paused I pause (not stop) a MQA track the unit would maintain the MQA filter until it see a track that doesnât contain the MQA identifier .
I had an issue like this last night where the second track in Keith Jarrettâs Koln concert would start playing in Roon but there was no sound. At some point sound started, well into the track (~15 seconds). The other case was with Marianne Thorsenâs Mozart Violin Concertos - music would stop coming out even though the transport indicated still playing.
My network does not use ANY wireless connections from Roonâs mac mini to Rossini. Rossini is connected to a Netgear GS116NA (16 port gigabit) and so is the mini. Cables are at least Cat5.
Answering Airplay question separately.
My network does not use ANY wireless connections from Roonâs mac mini to Rossini. Rossini is connected to a Netgear GS116NA (16 port gigabit) and so is the mini. Cables are at least Cat5.
I would appreciate it if someone can try and reproduce. Hereâs how: Play the file below from Roon over Airplay not RAAT to the Rossini:
This is what I hear out of my speakers:
This âpopcornâ noise is not part of the file as you can verify by playing over RAAT.
I have tried different network configurations and I get the same noise.
I hear this noise with versions 1.05/323 and now with 1.10/368. No difference.
Thank you.
I tried this a couple of weeks ago and wasnât getting the noise, but that was using the beta firmware. I couldnât back rev to the old firmware that you were running so the assumption was that updates in the new builds fixed the problem.
Tried it again just now using both a Linux as well as Mac core over both wired and wireless. Also tried from iTunes. No problems.
Tried with different clocking settings on the Rossini as well.
A couple of thoughts here.
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I have experienced odd issues with the GS116 and GS108 switches in the past and they would do some seriously odd stuff. That could explain the dropouts you were seeing, but the airplay static is different.
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What router are you using? I realize that the core and Rossini are on the same switch, but some routers try to be intelligent with certain types of traffic and can end up getting in the way. Usually this results in discovery issues rather than playback, but airplay is a strange beast.
Do you have any way to try a different switch (different brand)? Even connecting the Rossini and core directly to your router would be useful.
Finally, have you power-cycled your Rossini since the issues that you had last night? If not then Iâd like to grab a copy of your logs:
- Go to the internal web page on the Rossini. You can either get the IP address from the audio setup screen in Roon or if mDNS is working correctly just point your browser at dcs-rossini.local
- Click on âDevice Settingsâ at the top of the page.
- Click on âDownload System Logsâ at the bottom of the page.
- This will download a .tar.gz file to your computer. Throw that up on Google drive and PM a link to me.
If you have power cycled your Rossini since you had the issues last night then wait for them to happen again and grab the logs.
In the case of Roon this is partly due to the way that RAAT works and partly due to the way that the DAC works.
When playback is happening (the signal path light is on in Roon) thereâs an established data stream between the Rossini and the core at whatever sample rate is in play at the moment. When you pause that stream stays open for a few seconds (8 IIRC) and during that time the Rossini is still locked at whatever incoming rate Roon was sending. When the signal path light goes off (or you long-press pause) the stream is torn down and the DAC part of the Rossini no longer has anything to lock to.
When you restart playback (unpause) then the stream is reconstructed and the DAC locks again. This is why playback start can take a little bit of time as the DAC needs to get all of its ducks in a row before music happens.
With MQA things are a little different as the MQA flag is data within that stream so in order for the DAC to know that it needs to be doing MQA decoding the actual file data needs to be flowing. The minute the actual file data stops the MQA renderer gets switched off. Switching the renderer back on requires an unlock / lock cycle within the DAC and this is the drop you are hearing.
Just want to share some user experience:
Played my first MQA album last nite with the new Rossini update and this album unfolded to 24/192.
Ben Harper - Burn To Shine
I had it on the playlist and didnât realise it was MQA until I looked at the display. I had some 16/44.1 playing beforehand and the clock change to 192 went ok without any display lock-ups.
The first time it played MQA the filter followed the same you have chosen for that particular sample rate and you have to change it to M1 if you want the MQA filter.
Will need to try more frequent sample rate change this weekend to see if dCS has fixed the display and frozen dac issues.
With 1.10/368 I get exactly the same noise. To be clear, this is playing the file via Roon Airplay:
http://goo.gl/6E3rsN
and the noise out of the speaker is:
http://goo.gl/dUvDeZ
With Apple Airplay (both from iPad and from iTunes, all latest versions) I get a different kind of noise:
http://goo.gl/ocLjVt
Tried with external clock and internal clock, no difference.
I tried this: I have an extra Apple AirPort Extreme (latest hardware version and latest firmware on it). I set it up such that Rossini and my mini are connected to itâs LAN ports, the WAN port is connected to my home network, and I set it up to create its own wireless network to connect and control with my iPad. So effectively a very simple network around the Roon core (the mini) and the Rossini, with wired internet access (for TIDAL) and wireless only connected to my iPad for control.
No difference, same issue.
Airport Extreme. Only used to feed the main GS116NA switch. But like I said above, I tried with no Netgear in the chain.
No problems with Airplay with no other sources or speakers. Arguably the Airplay version on the Rossini (190.9) is pretty old.
Done with the addition of the router being completely isolated from anything else, as I explained above. No difference.
Many times. Can send you the logs on email if you tell me where to. I donât want to post them here as some passwords are clear-text in the log (TIDAL for example).
For my edification why are you connecting using Airplay? is there are reason you are not connecting via Roon. With a Roon core and a Rossini connected to the same network everything works seamlessly.
If I am playing to my system alone, I would connect via Roon directly (aka RAAT). However, when I play to many speakers in my apartment I can group them in Roon when in Airplay mode and play to all of them at the same time. This is the case where I use Airplay from Roon.
However, before anyone jumps the gun: the noise I hear (and you can also hear in the linked file) is playing exclusively to the Rossini via Airplay.
Makes sense?
John sent me a copy of your logs yesterday and I looked them over and provided some feedback. He had some family stuff going on this weekend so Iâm guessing he got sucked into that. Based on your logs youâre having a network connectivity issue which is unlike any that Iâve witnessed before.
Power down the Rossini and plug the network cable into the LOOP port on the back rather than the MAIN port. Power it back up and test again.
Also, if you havenât done so already try a completely different Ethernet cable on the Rossini. Find the cheapest, cheesiest one you have (those always seem to work) and see if it makes a difference.
Regardless of the order you do those two tests please power down the Rossini first so that the network card has a clean boot. Then be sure to grab the logs before powering it down again.