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[Heathwood99]

Hi there,

As the title suggest this has become a problem for me after the latest update to version 132.

It is a bit frustrating because I had to tweak MC Centers settings a fair bit to get HiRes Flacs (24/96K) to play successfully without dropouts.

Now I find things have become very flakey, with the music being interrupted for a number of seconds many times during playback.

My music is stored on a Macbook Air and streamed wirelessly to a CA StreamMagic in the other room.

Lower res files like CD quality FLACs and MP3s play OK.


My network is working via an Airport Express which gives better coverage and higher speeds.


Can anyone advise please?

[lobo85]

What is the slowest wireless standard in your network chain? If you have a wireless AC router and gear that only supports wireless n or g this may be the problem. In other words higher resolution= network bandwidth.

[Heathwood99]

Many thanks for your reply.

My network is 11n/5Ghz, which is the faster of the 2 networks on Airport Express.

I have had HiRes music playing successfully through this configuration in the past, which is why I thought something in MC Center may be throwing things out.

Are there any systems logs I can look at which might give some clues?

 ?

[blgentry]

Testing this rigorously is going to be kinda tough.  I think that several people here (including me) suspect (but have no proof) that your wireless network might have something to do with it.  I suggest a simple test:

Move the Macbook Air into the same room with the wireless DAC.  Then do two tests:

1.  Browse the Internet with your MBA and note if it seems at all slow or if it's perfectly normal.
2.  Play high res music to the wireless DAC as usual.  Do the dropouts still happen with the two devices in the same room?

I don't claim to know the answer; just offering some ideas for troubleshooting.  Wireless can be very strange sometimes.

Brian.

[Heathwood99]

This sounds like a great idea and I will try it tomorrow and let you know how I get on.

I have to say that I thought the Airport express might have solved a lot of problems, but I may have been a bit naive here.

Thanks for your swift reply.

 

[blgentry]

Just another thought:  My thinking of both devices in the same room is flawed.  What you really want is both devices close to the wireless router or access point.  Are you using the Airport Express as a wireless extender?  Or is it your main router/wireless point?

Ideally, you want both devices to have strong signals to the wireless access point, at the same time.

Brian.

[Heathwood99]

The Airport Express is being used as a wireless extender Brian.

There are 3 devices on a desk in one room:

MacBook (with MC Center 20 loaded + music files

Broadband Modem bridged to Airport Express via Ethernet cable.

In the other room about 10m through a thick wall is the renderer (Stream Magic)

Everything is controlled with a JRemote access point loaded on to an IPad  mini.

I will run some more tests on Friday after all boxes have had a cold restart.

Regards

John

[Thebiglebowski]

Not sure how anyone can blame the network if it was working before the upgrade.

Try checking the option to play files from memory as it won't stream them then and would eliminate the network.

PS never understood blaming the network, appreciate the audio stream is UDP but if you can copy a 100MB (average 24/92 size) file across a network in less than 30 secs then it shouldn't be an issue.

[blgentry]

Not sure how anyone can blame the network if it was working before the upgrade.

I'm not "blaming".  I'm trying to figure out likely causes.  Wireless networks are notorious for being unreliable.  What could have happened?  A laundry list of things.  The wireless access point(s) could have switched channels.  A new wireless source near the routers could have been turned on (neighbor, etc).  There might be something new in the path between the WAP and one of the clients that's made of metal.  There are a lot of possibilities.

The network might be just fine.  It's just one thing to eliminate.

Brian.

[Heathwood99]

Happy to report that everything is now functioning correctly.

Many thanks for your help.