ChrisFromDublin

Thank you, Matt 😊 Thank you - both for correcting the other experts and for reminding us about these essential settings in Spotify. Your link was to the point.

Oh, I've read in the user manual for a streamer from a reputable electronics company that I MUST use Ethernet instead of Wifi. I never really understood why.

Nope. I came to audio streaming with the impression that Spotify would never be able to play with audiophile quality. I'd heard this ages ago, but now I've talked to people who disagree about this. Professional dealers of audiophile equipment have told me that Spotify can sound good when you use it for streaming to an Ethernet-connected stationary system. And, yes, I must say, it sounds pretty amazing.

UPDATE: To me, Spotify sounds way more natural and ”real”, now that my streamer is no longer on wifi, and that the Gigabit Ethernet has been enabled. I looooved my system, now I LOOOOVE it. 😁 But this is just after a few minutes of listening. I’m aware of a huge psychological component here. The difference might just be my excitement about getting my new system set up and working. I don't plan to swap back and forth multiple times to A-B and explore the difference. I’m just going to enjoy! My system is simple: Spotify and J.River Media Center on a Microsoft Surface Book 2 -> Berkeley Audio Design Alpha USB -> Two active Genelec 8361A studio monitors digitally EQ’ed by the Genelec GLM system It sounds awesome! 🤪

Wow, wow, wow!!!! That is the quickest problem-solving I've experienced in any forum. 🤩 You're right. Here is the result of my latest speed test. Within a few minutes, my download speed has been multiplied by EIGHT. Ethernet cable connection: Download: 710 Mbps Upload: 96 Mbps Ping: 11 ms Jitter: 2 ms And now the big question is if the higher speed, the 'non-pocketed' data stream, or something else (what?) will make any audible difference to my system. Do you have any experience with this, too?

People who are into audiophile music streaming have told me that streaming Spotify through wifi is a no-no. They claim that the sound is much better when the streaming device is connected to the internet through an Ethernet cable. The reason should be that whenever a digital signal is transmitted through the air, it is divided into small pockets of information instead of the continuous stream of info traveling through a cable. I'm open to testing the difference, but I've now done a speed test of my internet connection through Ethernet cable vs. through wifi, and I'm surprised to discover that the download time is higher through the cable. But jitter and ping time is reduced a bit. Which is more important - download speed, or ping time, or jitter, or none of this? Would you use wifi or Ethernet for Spotify on my system? Do you know something that might be relevant to my situation? Results from internet speed tests: Wifi connection: Download: 260 Mbps Upload: 90 Mbps Ping: 17 ms Jitter: 3 ms Ethernet cable connection: Download: 87 Mbps Upload: 95 Mbps Ping: 12 ms Jitter: 2 ms I'm very surprised to discover that my download speed is reduced to 1/3 when using an Ethernet cable. I'm open to trying out other cables if you think it'll improve my sound. At the moment, this is my internet signal path through Ethernet: My router is a Sagemcom F@ST 3890V3 WU. My subscription at Telia in Denmark promises 1 GB/s. - > Short Ethernet cable from router to socket in the wall - > Eight meters of cable inside the wall, installed by an electrician - > Short Ethernet cable from another wall socket to Satechi 'USB-C to Gigabit Ethernet adapter' - > Microsoft Surface Book 2 The Satechi USB-C to Ethernet adaptor claims to support speeds up to 1,000 Mbps. I love the Microsoft Surface Book 2, which I use as a dedicated audio streamer. It's fast and reliable but has no built-in Ethernet socket. An adapter to USB-C is needed. Thank you for your thoughts 😊

Thank you, all. Such differing opinions. 🤔 Yes, I would love to have my monitors on stands away from the wall, but unfortunately, that is not an option. And yes, you bet, room acoustics are weird in a circular room like mine. My monitors need to be up on the wall. The most visually pleasing solution is the steel mounting bracket I can buy from Genelec. However, despite the entire recording industry being happy with bolting monitors directly to walls, I still worry that this may not be the optimal solution.

I plan to hang two Genelec 8361A active studio monitors on my living room wall. The monitors are a unique design with steel cabinets that each contain three speaker units and separate DACs and amplifiers for each speaker unit. They are built for professional music studio monitoring, but I plan to use them as my home audio system. Genelec recommends that these monitors are placed 2 inches from the wall behind them, and Genelec sells a steel "wall mounting bracket" that you screw directly into the back of the monitor and into the wall. This way, the monitors will literally be held in a steel grip and might, in some ways, attain the rigidity of a 20-ton concrete speaker cabinet. Another way of hanging these monitors on the wall would be to build a small shelf for each monitor and place the monitors on top of these shelves. Then the monitors can be put on dedicated speaker stands, and their vibrations will be stopped before they're transmitted to the wall behind them. Will I be able to hear any difference between these two ways of mounting the monitors on the wall? And if I can hear a difference, how big will it be, and which way of mounting the monitors should I prefer? I live in a converted soybean silo. My living room is round with a diameter of 20 feet. In my building, ten apartments are stacked on top of each other inside these huge vertical concrete tubes. The walls are 8 inches thick, massive, and HEAVY. What do you suggest that I do? Thank you,

Ha, more troubles my way. 🤪 I’ve read everywhere that one of the great advantages of Roon is that it integrates searches in your own music collection with searches in Spotify and everything else. I have yet to try it, and also yet to read about the different ways that a system can be set up to get the Roon interface. I've only very recently achieved that my system can actually play music, so I'm taking a breather for a week or two before moving on to the next phase .... and Roon. https://musconv.com/does-spotify-work-with-roon/

Hey @DuckToller … and everyone else 😊 Response is in from Berkeley Audio Design. Wow, the day after I sent them an email, I got an answer from one of the founders of the company. He wrote: To me, this reads as if there shouldn't be any problems with my Alpha USB digital converter. I feel confirmed in the conclusion I wrote about in this thread a few days ago, that my problems arise from my Volumio Rivo being unable to handle two USB connections at the same time and/or that it takes more than ten hours before indexing the files is finished, and that the device can't be used during that period. I did however take swift action on his comment that the USB cable should be 1-2 meters long. I immediately bought a 1-meter Wireworld Starlight 8 cable and started using it in my system. My previous cable was 25 centimeters. This length should be ideal for most types of cables, but I've also previously read somewhere else that 1.5 meters is the best-sounding length for a USB cable. My system is running now, and it sounds wonderful! 😊 I still have a lot of bugs when playing Spotify, but that is a plug-in for Volumio, so I can't really blame Volumio. I hope it'll get fixed soon, without me doing anything. Now that my system is up and running, I'll soon install Roon. That should also correct the Spotify problems. I don't need any of the fancy stuff with multiple sources and Roon endpoints, but after 15+ years of using J.River Media Center on my PC, I do need a MUCH more user-friendly user interface than I have in Volumio. I've also followed your other tip and posted a question about my Alpha USB in the Roon forum, https://community.roonlabs.com/t/roon-and-berkeley-audio-design-alpha-usb/240316 @DuckToller: How come you're not a fan of Roon like everyone else seems to be? Thank you, everybody. My struggles are over. If you have any more tips about my setup and plans, I'm still all ears.

@DuckToller I'll do everything you said 😁 Thank you again

Wow, what a lot of great tips! 😃 Thank you so much for taking the time to help me! As you know, these are my first weeks in audio streaming. I arrived at streaming with the firm intention of doing the absolute opposite of, as you call it, "overthinking." I wanted to plug and play. It's very reluctantly that I've been forced to spend weeks reading, experimenting, and thinking. Not to fine-tune the sound, and not out of joyous curiosity about the tech, but simply to get ANY sound from my Volumio-based system. You suggest that I leave Volumio, Raspberry Pi, and Linux behind. Volumio is working for me right now, but my experiences with the product are awful, and it might crash again after an automatic update or something like that. So yes, I'd love to migrate to another system. But what system would you suggest that I migrate to? You know A LOT more about the world of streaming than I do. I have no idea where to go. I haven't heard of other audiophile streaming solutions with a USB output. I might be missing something, but plugging an SD Card into a dedicated streamer from a reputable company still seems to be a simpler solution than setting up a NAS server? What streamer do you think would thrive with my Alpha USB converter? I have no idea. Soon, I'll try Roon for the first time. I know nothing about how to do that, but Volumio Rivo is marketed as "Roon Ready." Do you think it'll change my situation if I use Roon on my Volumio Rivo?

You're right. I don't know how much of a difference different hardware can make when using the same streaming software and the same DAC. People online disagree a lot about this. Some hear differences when exchanging a power supply or a USB cable, and others don't. I have nothing to complain about regarding the audio quality of the Volumio Rivo, and my revelatory audio experience with the MX-Stream might be similar to how food tastes better when you've had to climb a mountain to get to the restaurant.

Hi everybody, It would be convenient for me to place my streaming device and my DAC on top of a cupboard containing a microwave oven. Would that be O.K.? The devices would be separated from the oven by 20 cm and a wooden board. Thank you for your advice 😊

Hello everybody 😊 Here, one month after my original post, I can bring you an UPDATE on how my first weeks with dedicated streamers have turned out. The Volumio Rivo streamer that I bought after my Musical Fidelity MX-Stream also caused me tons of trouble. I've now been struggling to make the Volumio streaming software work on three different dedicated streamers and in configurations with three different storage solutions. I've spent many full days trying to simply make it play music. The Musical Fidelity MX-Stream proved to be just the beginning of this long trek. I love plug-and-play products. For me, Volumio has been a "plug-and-spend-three-weeks-trying-to-figure-it-out-and-THEN-play product." At last, it works! I feel a bit sad about having dissed the MX-Stream so badly. It's obviously great hardware. When it worked (briefly) it made my system sound better than ever before. It seems to me that the problems lie in the software, which isn't produced by Musical Fidelity. On the Volumio Forum, I've described my journey and how I arrived at a working solution. If you happen to be curious you can read about it in this post. https://community.volumio.org/t/update-my-problems-with-volumio-are-in-the-past/61161