iFi audio NEO Stream - Sweet Streams!

[gryffe]

My main issue at the moment is when playing back with Audirvana. If I play an album it gets a few songs in and then starts to glitch every 5 or 10 seconds, or sometimes it gets 4 or 5 songs in and just stops playing. I have previously been using Roon, and also HQPlayer with relative success, just the odd glitch. I'm sure it might be coincidence but the Audirvana issues seemed to start when I swapped from iPower X to the Elite. I'll switch back to Roon and see how it performs.

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

My main issue at the moment is when playing back with Audirvana. If I play an album it gets a few songs in and then starts to glitch every 5 or 10 seconds, or sometimes it gets 4 or 5 songs in and just stops playing. I have previously been using Roon, and also HQPlayer with relative success, just the odd glitch. I'm sure it might be coincidence but the Audirvana issues seemed to start when I swapped from iPower X to the Elite. I'll switch back to Roon and see how it performs.

I am also going to use the 15v Elite this weekend, so if there's anything to report I surely will.

I will also check out and see if there may be a free trial of Audirvana available to me (a past subscriber) just to give it a whirl, and see what shakes out.

Cheers!!

 

[gryffe]

I am also going to use the 15v Elite this weekend, so if there's anything to report I surely will.

I will also check out and see if there may be a free trial of Audirvana available to me (a past subscriber) just to give it a whirl, and see what shakes out.

Cheers!!

To stop the glitching I tried switching to Ethernet from Optibox, am not doing any upsampling either, but if anything it got worse. Gave up and went back to Roon with HQPlayer, switched back to Optibox, and the Neo is playing back fine. Both Roon/HQP and Audirvana are running on a Macbook with 8GB memory.
I'm leaning towards the fault lying with Audirvana, although to be fair I never had any problems using my old streamer.

 

[4LoveOfSound]

Looking forward to your impressions of the unit! There is definitely a bit of ground to cover, lol

That's too bad it wouldn't behave for you, hopefully, some firmware updates for the main issues at the moment aren't far away.

For the moment I do not have any real playback issues, other than the occasional audio dropout when listening using Roon. Tidal "Connect" has its issues, but reading on this subject will show that this issue is Tidal-related and not necessarily tied directly to the NS.

The Album art/Track bug is of course only annoying if you look at the screen, but it shouldn't be happening, and again only seems to be an issue with Roon, and not other modes like Spotify, or Tidal connect. Never thought I would see the day when I could say Roon has issues, it has always been my rock-solid go-to recommended software, but ever since the shift to the new 2.0 there have been some growing pains, but that version is new as well so we shall see.

If I could pick one thing it would no doubt be the software volume default, this needs to be corrected asap, while it is a fixable thing, I perceive a major difference in sound quality when it is enabled vs. None.

Hope you get things resolved quickly!

Cheers!!

My audio drop outs also happen with Spotify connect. The dropouts only occur when using digital out. No dropouts using the built in DAC.

 

[gryffe]

To stop the glitching I tried switching to Ethernet from Optibox, am not doing any upsampling either, but if anything it got worse. Gave up and went back to Roon with HQPlayer, switched back to Optibox, and the Neo is playing back fine. Both Roon/HQP and Audirvana are running on a Macbook with 8GB memory.
I'm leaning towards the fault lying with Audirvana, although to be fair I never had any problems using my old streamer.

Switched machines. Running Audirvāna perfectly on Windows PC as opposed to Mac. Both machines roughly same spec so not sure why that should happen. I’m also upscaling as well now

 

[Currawong]

Switched machines. Running Audirvāna perfectly on Windows PC as opposed to Mac. Both machines roughly same spec so not sure why that should happen. I’m also upscaling as well now

Have you tried changing the buffer size in Volumio?

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

Switched machines. Running Audirvāna perfectly on Windows PC as opposed to Mac. Both machines roughly same spec so not sure why that should happen. I’m also upscaling as well now

That certainly is odd. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but one of the big advantages of Audirvana used to be that it buffers the whole track before playback, or at least that's how it used to be.

I have a mini PC I can setup here at my headphone Desk, I don't think it will make a difference as I run Roon Rock so it should not matter what I use as a remote.

Initial impressions so far of the 15v elite are very good, and this should be completely unrelated but I think I have only had one millisecond drop in the last three hours or so, but I have stepped away so I may have missed it.

Cheers!!

 

[ra990]

I mainly use the Neo Stream in NAA mode with HQPlayer, and in this mode, it functions perfectly for me. When I switch to Roon or AIO and use Roon, I do get occasional dropouts. I've noticed some issues with playing back over the digital (S/PDIF coax) connection, like failing to take control of the audio device from Roon or just general drop outs. So, it does seem like these issues may be fairly wide and can hopefully be addressed with firmware updates.

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

Thought I would post a couple pics of some "feet" I bought for the NS, I'm not a fan of the vertical orientation of it so I found these on Amazon, turned out pretty nice, and the rubber on both sides help keep the unit solid. Fat Fingers moved the NEO to easily for my liking

The Bulleits N' Coke must be getting to me, here's a link if you're interested in them.

https://a.co/d/dS0zjDb

Cheers!!

 

[innocentblood]

Looking forward to your impressions of the unit! There is definitely a bit of ground to cover, lol

That's too bad it wouldn't behave for you, hopefully, some firmware updates for the main issues at the moment aren't far away.

For the moment I do not have any real playback issues, other than the occasional audio dropout when listening using Roon. Tidal "Connect" has its issues, but reading on this subject will show that this issue is Tidal-related and not necessarily tied directly to the NS.

The Album art/Track bug is of course only annoying if you look at the screen, but it shouldn't be happening, and again only seems to be an issue with Roon, and not other modes like Spotify, or Tidal connect. Never thought I would see the day when I could say Roon has issues, it has always been my rock-solid go-to recommended software, but ever since the shift to the new 2.0 there have been some growing pains, but that version is new as well so we shall see.

If I could pick one thing it would no doubt be the software volume default, this needs to be corrected asap, while it is a fixable thing, I perceive a major difference in sound quality when it is enabled vs. None.

Hope you get things resolved quickly!

Cheers!!

I am trying to understand more about this bug - where does one find this software volume default setting? I am currently in AIO mode and I am planning to switch over to Roon mode since I am doing most of my listening with Roon. I am utilizing the 4.4mm analogue balanced output into the XLR inputs on my Oppo HA-1. my headphones are plugged into the 4pin XLR connection on the HA-1. is there something that I should do to maximise the sound quality in this given scenario?

 

[gryffe]

Have you tried changing the buffer size in Volumio?

I had to reboot my router for another reason last night and thought I would switch back to my Mac and see if the problem was resolved. Surprisingly it seems to have resolved, my surprise is due to a router reboot not fixing it on Friday!! Oh well, hopefully it's a permanent fix.

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

I am trying to understand more about this bug - where does one find this software volume default setting? I am currently in AIO mode and I am planning to switch over to Roon mode since I am doing most of my listening with Roon. I am utilizing the 4.4mm analogue balanced output into the XLR inputs on my Oppo HA-1. my headphones are plugged into the 4pin XLR connection on the HA-1. is there something that I should do to maximise the sound quality in this given scenario?

This pic is from the ZS but the volume option is exactly the same, it's under Playback Options, down at the bottom

Cheers!!

 

[iFi audio]

Looking forward to your impressions of the unit! There is definitely a bit of ground to cover, lol

Yup, we look forward to Amos' work too!

 

[srkbear]

Thought I would post a couple pics of some "feet" I bought for the NS, I'm not a fan of the vertical orientation of it so I found these on Amazon, turned out pretty nice, and the rubber on both sides help keep the unit solid. Fat Fingers moved the NEO to easily for my liking




The Bulleits N' Coke must be getting to me, here's a link if you're interested in them.

https://a.co/d/dS0zjDb

Cheers!!

Great looking system ya got there! Love the lighting.

 

[gryffe]

Thought I would post a couple pics of some "feet" I bought for the NS, I'm not a fan of the vertical orientation of it so I found these on Amazon, turned out pretty nice, and the rubber on both sides help keep the unit solid. Fat Fingers moved the NEO to easily for my liking




The Bulleits N' Coke must be getting to me, here's a link if you're interested in them.

https://a.co/d/dS0zjDb

Cheers!!

How did you actually fit these @Mr BubbaHyde? I'm probably not seeing how they fit, but don't these type of things usually fit on feet that already exist?