- 3 (for the last three posts) magister and I run almost identical setups. Mine is now very stable, stable enough that using a new piece of software like Wavestream is possible to do without having to worry that the system itself is generating issues.
I’m not sure if I have a static address (that’s where you assign the address rather than letting the software do it, is that right?). However, the PW/Bridge is hardwired to a MyBook where the music files reside (which of course is backed up) and to a receiver (I know there is some discussion about leaving a preamp out of the loop, but this is needed to send to the main listening room and different zones in the house). The only wireless connection is between my iMac where eLyric, jRiver etc. is installed, and the iPad which has the remote for that software to the PW/Bridge. So I’m thinking the weak link here is between the general purpose iMac and the Bridge. The imac is in my office at some distance from the music equipment rack, so hardwiring is not a real good option. Which is why I’m thinking I’d need a mini mac or a music server (which seem a bit expensive, but are at least more convenient) wired directly to the PW. Which would then mean I have a $795 piece of hardware I don’t need.
BTW, the dropouts and other issues frequently occur when I am not using the iMac (though I know it is generally not advised for the computer to be doing other work besides playing music files) and just trying to play music somewhere in the house.
I’m really the type of guy who just wants to turn the thing on and enjoy the music, not analyze the science behind it or constantly tweak things. I’m beginning to long for the days when the only technical thing I had to do was balance the tonearm when I put a new cartridge in. Even then I could have the dealer do it. Ah, for the days when everything, including the dealer, was a real guy you could take your setup to and not virtual.
Thanks for the comments/suggestions.
soyka0120 said: BTW, the dropouts and other issues frequently occur
1- no USB disks
2- watch for system load (especially if it's Windows)
3- avoid Windows if possible
4- wired Ethernet is preferred to wireless
5- avoid daisy-chaining (the less devices in the path, the better)
If in doubt try
o- NAS with MinimServer and no other heavy programs using the same NAS (e.g. torrents, video streaming)
o- foobar+UPnP plugin or MinimServer on a computer with locally stored audio files (again: no USB disks!). And at the same time check what processes are running (e.g. Ctrl-Alt-Del -> Task Manager on Windows) and eating CPU/Memory.
Have you tried connecting your library to your imac and then seeing if that makes a difference?
I can’t figure this out - think I am missing a key piece of info. The MyBook is USB only isn’t it? Do you have a router near the PWD that connects both the MyBook and the PWD?
Ethernet from MyBook to Time Capsule (wireless router). Ethernet from PW to Time Capsule.
I have an external HD to my imac where my music files are copied. The MyBook is a mirror of that drive. I have tried playing off the external HD wirelessly. Sometimes it works flawlessly, sometimes it doesn’t. Which is the same situation when I’m playing off the MyBook.
No windows in this system, though I guess I am guilty of a bit of daisy chaining. Again, the imac is doing other things; however, the problems I’m experiencing are typically when the iMac is not being used other than to play music (though I realize there are other things going on in the background even when it is “sleeping”). One reason why I’m thinking a dedicated mac mini or other thing as a music service directly connected to the PW might be what I’m looking for, though I’d prefer to avoid it if necessary (which is why I bought the Bridge in the first place).
Thanks.
Time capsule will induce drop outs - this I know since I tried using one in the same way. The TC prioritises everything else, it seems. I gave up on it and use it as another back up to my music library. I got an airport extreme instead and problem solved. There is a new model of extreme on the market. Perhaps if you have another router around (or can borrow one) you can experiment.
David is right. The time capsule is a uniquely bad option when linked to the bridge.
Hmm. I have an airport extreme connected to the PW via optical output. I use this to do things like stream Sirius or other Internet radio. I get dropouts from this, as well, which I attribute to it being, well, wireless.
An airport extreme does not have an optical (or any other SPDIF) output - are you using an airport express?
Some time ago I switched to using 2 airport extremes to provide a wireless bridge in my ethernet network. Since doing so I have no dropouts at all. An Apple TV wired to the ‘downstream’ part of the network currently gives optical digital output for playing music from my remote library using iTunes airplay; hopefully this will be superseded by the Lens-bridge-wavestream combination.
Sorry that was stupid, yeah it’s an airport express. I was thinking I didn’t see how I could use the express as a router because, well, it isn’t. Maybe it’ll be worth checking out the new extreme and it’s supposed faster wireless, though I guess it won’t help if I don’t have any devices capable of the higher connection.
I’ve heard that adding too many iDevices on the network can actually retard performance, not improve it, though.
@woot: Thanks for this thread. Keeping things simple in this conversation helps this bear of very little brain make sense of the computer side of audio.
Recently, I started having skips in 192/24 material and couldn’t figure out why. I had turned on file sharing on my music server to move some new songs from my MacBook. Turning off file sharing did not solve the problem. I finally realized that I had not converted the new files from FLAC to AIFF. I use AIFF/WAV because, in my system, it solves the skipping/dropout problems completely. For reference, I have a USB HD to an old XP machine (soon to be replaced for WS, it seems) running Fidelizer and EMM w/o transcoding, ethernet to Airport Extreme to Bridge. Sometimes I also play off of the MacBook wirelessly which is problematic in terms of skips and instability.
@Paul,
What’s the latest Wavestream news since you primed the pump?
Steven
B-)
Soyka0120 and others,
The numbers say that a decent wifi connection has more than enough bandwidth for even 24/192 streaming, and in fact i have found that it can work just fine, however, I and many others have found that it’s wiser to try to keep wifi out of the loop except of course for the control point if you are using a phone or tablet (which doesn’t transfer nearly as much data and doesn’t stream so brief bandwidth hiccups aren’t much of an issue.) The thing with wifi is that even if you have a fairly robust connection the actual available bandwidth can vary a whole lot from one moment to the next - rf propagation being subject to a whole bunch of conditions such as interference, multipath, etc.) and even at its best there is less of a margin of safety than there is with ethernet. I streamed over wifi for quite a while in my house successfully, but if you are having dropouts the first thing I would do is go to static IP addresses for everything except your control point(s) and try to set things up so that the stream doesn’t traverse any wireless links if you can.
PS, a funny story -way way back when i was first testing the Bridge I had things working very well over wifi, until one day it started flaking out on me. I must’ve spent 3 hours diagnosing the network, running wireshark captures, etc. and could not figure out wtf was going on. Eventually pretty much gave up in frustration and decided to go out to grab lunch. as I was getting my jacket from the closet, which happens to be roughly between my router and wireless bridge, I noticed that my loving wife had left a bag of cat food in the closet. Hmm. I removed that cat food and everything worked great - it was attenuating the signal just enough to cause very intermittent problems when I streamed at hi-res. I suppose diet cat food might have been less of a problem, but ultimately I decided to run a cable. 
Bob said: go to static IP addresses for everything except your control point(s)
Why not for control point(s)? I set my iPad on a static address and it seems to work well.
David
David - yeah, the only reason I said that is that if folks are using a phone or tablet they would have to switch it back to DHCP if they want to catch a wifi signal elsewhere. But what i do here is just leave the i-things set to DHCP and reserve an address for them in the router. I dunno if this really makes any difference (hafta think for a minute about that) but it’s neater and can’t hurt.
Controllers matter less because their interaction with the rest of the system is not continuous. But data flowing from storage/server/PWD is continuous.
Exactly. One really only saves the DHCP packets etc. which constitute really minimal traffic. So as long as there isn’t a hard failure somewhere of the DHCP server or network i really can’t see it making any difference. I do it more for reasons of general anality.
Here’s the latest update. Both programmers have stepped up to the plate in good ways after our “talk” and we’re pleased with their progress. I expect to see a new release of Windows late next week that should be good enough to try out to perhaps a broader audience. Dave, our director of engineering, is working directly with the Mac programmer to try and get the same thing through him, but I do not have anything to report on that front yet. Stay tuned.