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[swcng2001]

Hello everyone,

I recently purchased an SOtM sMS-200ultra, txUSBultra and connected the combination to my Avon Stealth DAC.

Setting up JRiver as a dlna/UPnP server and the SOtM to recognise JRiver was relatively problem free.

I’ve been putting the system through it’s paces basically trying to see what it does best and what limitations there are and whether it’s stable. At first I had an issue with a previous release of JRiver 28 crashing frequently when switching frequently between DSD and FLAC files. I installed the latest update of 28 without any changes to the settings, it seems much more stable (no crashes so far). Sorry, I digressed. All the above is beside the point, as, things seem quite stable now, however, I have noticed a problem or a difference between playing FLAC and WAV files. They are both stereo versions.

I have Roger Waters “Amused to Death” in 9600/32 bit in both formats. When playing the FLAC version much of the surround effects is lost, for example, about 14 seconds in on the first track there should be sounds of a dog barking way out on the right. Instead it comes almost directly from the right speaker. With the WAV version, the barking is as it should be at around the 90 degree angle from centre front.

Before anyone jumps in and says my FLAC version is corrupted, I have played the same file through Roon with the exact same setup and the sound placement is as it should be.

I have also played the same tracks many times before I installed the SOtM devices in my system with the Mac connected directly to USB input to my DAC. The placements of all the sounds and instruments on the same FLAC file have always been correct.

I cannot explain why there are differences. Unless of course there is a problem with the FLAC converter in JRiver when used in DLNA media network mode or there is a configuration parameter that I have missed.

I have not used any upsampling on JRiver nor have I use DSF bitstreaming. All sampling rates are set at “pass through”, though I am not sure if they have any effect in media network DLNA mode. The correct sampling rate of the file is displayed on my DAC.

Has anyone had the same experience? If anyone has any suggestion(s), it will be much appreciated.

BTW, how do I report this to JRiver?

One annoyance with JRiver, which bugs me, is that although it did not take me much messing around to setup JRiver, I’ve found it to be quite complex and the interface and wiki documentation is confusing at times. There really should be recipe on how the setup as a dlna server should be done, especially, if it is desired to play all the various formats of files in particular PCM (FLAC & WAV) and DSF. This lack of good documentation makes me wonder if I have set things up correctly. There’re so many parameters and it’s hard to decide what’s necessary and important.

Thanks in advance.