NDS - Setting up BubbleUPnP Server/Audirvana

It’s really starting to affect my enjoyment of the music. Every 2 or 3 tracks and I’m restarting the app, restarting the streamer, faced with ‘Can’t Play’ on the streamer display. A constant battle. Getting drop outs too now. Such a shame because the sound is all I could ever want from a streamer.

I have a Bluesound Node upstairs with my 42/110 and it’s never missed a beat. Not once.

I’m already invested in a 555DR. I have no room in the rack for a separate transport.

ND555 out of reach. As frustrating as the glitches are I can’t accept loss of sound quality. Any ideas?

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Could you describe your network configuration, please?

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It’s a 300Mb line into BT Smarthub2. The Smarthub2 goes into a Cisco Catalyst 2360 switch and the streamer is hard wired into the Cisco switch. Let me know if you need any more info please.

An innuos box will help buffer but I imagine there’s a less expensive solution.

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I replaced the Cisco switch after a previous identical model fizzled and popped out. I had the same problems with the old switch. It is intermittent, and some times it works like a dream. But more often not. The Bluesound is on Wi-Fi (same network). As I’m typing this I’m thinking I should try the Wi-Fi connection on the NDS streamer to see if that resolves the problem

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That’s great. :+1:
It’s worth swapping the network cables out, one at a time, to see if they are at fault. No need for expensive cables just cheap ones from eBay or similar.

I’ve had faulty cables so it’s worth checking, I’ve even had a faulty Cisco so it may be worth doing (temporarily) a single long run from the router.

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Thanks good idea. Things to try;

  1. single wire from router
  2. change cables
  3. wi-fi connection on streamer

I have a horrible feeling it’s an NDS/Tidal problem. Never an issue listening to radio but them I’m not selecting tracks which is when the problem occurs. I do have a Spotify subscription so I might also try that on the NDS for a while, accepting the lower streaming quality…

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Is your firmware up to date on the NDS?

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I have a Primare NP5 running digitally into my NDX. Very robust connection (Wi-Fi). Bought mine used as a trial for Qobuz.

Just added a better power supply and I can’t tell the difference between NDX UPnP and hi res streaming through the Prisma. Impressive…

Aren’t you stuck on a ‘non native’ 96kHz digital stream setting?

I think so I’m on 4.8.00

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Are you using the Tidal integration in the NDS? Or the work around using the UPNP Bubble Soft App? I’m using the later and didn’t have problems with Tidal on my 272 now or SU previously. And my internet connection is < 200MB. It doesn’t seem like you should be having problems.

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I’m using Tidal integration

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Ok, I’m not sure why it’s giving you fits. So are you up against the same problem as other legacy streamers where the integrated Tidal streams FLAC and can’t be transcoded to WAV? On my SU and 272 the bubblesoft work around sounds so much better than the integration b/c we’re able to transcode from the bubblesoft app. It’s not too hard to set up bubble soft on your network, a NAS or a Raspberry Pi can be used.

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It should still work OK though, before I moved to Bubble and then to Roon, Tidal still worked fine natively. This is on my ND5XS which I understand shares the same streaming and network configuration as the NDS.

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So I looked into this a bit further - the fixed settings set the maximum output sampling frequency. I reset it to 192khz and the NDX clocks on no problem.

My understanding is that all digital steams are at native freqs up to that which is set. Mine is a mk1 NP5 so hardware limited to 192khz anyhow.

Not certain how or what it is doing but it sounds very good into the NDX and doesn’t suffer from drop outs.

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Does 44kHz material play at 44 or 192?

I’ve heard about Bubblesoft before and I think I should look into it. All sounds very alien and a bit daunting though!

44 (I think).

With the help of others on the forum I’ve now got Qobuz working via Bubble on my first gen NDX. It sounds significantly better than native Tidal and was easier to set up than I expected. I’d definitely try that with a NAS first, as I am thrilled with how it’s given new life to the NDX. I’m using a Chord Qutest as an external DAC and it will go up to 192khz, but even the 16bit stream sounds better than native Tidal did.