I’ve had an issue for months with my beloved 272 whereby streaming playback will randomly stop and various combinations of restarting different bits of kit including the android phone fixes it but I cannot figure out what the root cause is. Is anyone able to assist with this diagnosis?
Playback may work fine for hours uninterrupted
Playback stops intermittently from either UPnP or Internet Radio, sometimes several times over a couple of hours
The issue is not changed by using the Naim app or the Audirvana remote app or simply using the Naim handset to control the 272
Playback from sources connected directly to the AV input are not effected
WiFi is disabled and the 272 is connected via ethernet cable to a network switch
It does not seem to matter what else is using the internet (phones, laptop, TV streaming etc.)
The connection is 250mb fibre broadband
The Buffer Signal on the 272 always shows as being full during playback
Cycling the power on the 272 usually fixes the issue
The 272 is running the latest firmware v4.9
It does not seem to be related to the NAS starting up though that does cause internet radio playback to stop and the 272 to pick UPnP as a source.
Does anyone know what might be happening here? I already know turning it all off and back on again or a combination of cycling the power and restarting app seems to fix it but I would love to know if there is just a setting somewhere on the router or network switch or on the 272 I simply need to change to stop it happening.
If this was a network problem you would expect to see the buffer emptying before play stops. So perhaps more likely an internal 272 problem. Try a factory reset, check cables and connections.
That’s curious. Just to clarify you are playing iRadio, then the NAS starts and then iRadio stops?
What are you playing when the 272 ‘hangs’? Spotify, Tidal, local files? My 272 is 100% reliable with local files and Spotify (although hardly used now). Tidal is not as stable. Random stops, won’t start, music selection issues, etc, etc.
I don’t have Audirvana, what’s it’s role here? Are you playing NAS files through Audivana and then ‘casting’ to the 272?
Thank you, I’ll give that a go. I’ll double-check what the buffer is doing too. I assume if it drops down to nothing that would indicate a loss of network connection?
Yes, so for example, on the weekends I had the 272 set to come on as an alarm to play iRadio at 09:00. The NAS (synology disk station) was set on a shedule so that it powers off at 00:00 then back on 09:00. Once the NAS booted up that would then cause the iRadio playback to stop. It didn’t change the source to UPnP but it just made iRadio stop, and pressing play on the remote would reconnect it.
When it hangs, it is either playing iRadio or streaming from the NAS via UPnP which is running Audrvana to access Qobuz. It’s really odd because both can work flawlessly for hours or intermittently stop. With Audirvana sometimes the app on the phone indicates that it can’t find the disk station briefly and/or the playback status on the app goes out of sync with what the 272 is doing.
I’m not a network engineer but it seems like some something is triggering it to stop, I haven’t done anything apart from plug the 272 into a switch, could it be something to do with automatic IP addresses?
I am now wondering if it’s when something else connects to my home network, like the NAS, it’s upsetting the connection with the 272? It might explain the seemingly random nature as there are all sorts of things connected, ring doorbells, various phones, laptop, Dave the robot vacuum cleaner etc. I know that power cycling the 272 causes it to reinitialize the connection, could that be it?
I have a 272 on 4.8 firmware, and only use UPNP files pulled from a local NAS.
And this does happen to me. Power cycling fixes it, but you can fix it without doing that. Press centre button on remote to reload network folder connection, it will hang and not load, but wait and do it a few more times and it will come back after about 1 minute.
Not sure if this will work when streaming radio.
This definitely sounds like a similar issue. I am just wondering if there’s a more permanent fix. As ChrisSU suggested I’ll try a factory reset, cables I’ve already checked and rechecked then if that doesn’t solve it I’ll see if assigning static IPs on my home network solves it and report back.
I think you’re on the right track. Something to do with how Audivana is interacting with the 272.
In my system when using Bubble UPnP (which is effectively doing a similar job) having an old or existing or previously playing UPnP playlist can upset things when trying to play something else.
Eg. You play something via UPnP, the playlist is still in the 272’s memory and then the next day, use iradio but when the NAS comes back on it says hang on 272 we have something in the playlist.
Strictly speaking I think you mean play queue rather than playlist, but yes, you might as well give it a try. I wouldn’t have thought this could be a problem when using regular Naim UPnP etc. but when you use unofficial workarounds such as Bubble perhaps there can be unintended consequences.
I’m using Audirvana as the control app for the Audirvana Studio application that runs on the NAS, regardless, the built-in internet radio on the NAC 272 itself is also intermittently stopping so I don’t suspect it’s an issue with Audirvana per say. I’m not sure how I would delete a queue for the iRadio? There isn’t anything queued up in Audirvana when I hit stop it just stops playing the playlist but I will explore this, thank you.
Thanks for all the replies so far, typically, now I want the fault to manifest so I can double-check the buffer level and try some of the suggested fixes it is flawlessly playing iRadio the whole morning.
Now I think about it, I’ve done this to resolve another playback issue, a few weeks ago the app went completely out of sync with the 272, as in it was showing a track playing that wasn’t and the controls were unresponsive. Clearing the queue and also clearing the cache on the Audirvana mobile app fixed that particular issue.
I found the issue would trigger when playing a queue then trying to play another queue too quickly. So this seems an internal buffer issue.
The fix was to select the input (ethernet) and then hit the middle/centre button on remote to reload that input. It would hang/waiting. Hit back button, then centre button again to reload it. Do that a few times.