Streaming from computer to Preamp/Streamer getting numerous breakups/blackouts.

[crazyfingers]

I'm having significanty increased problems with connectivity between by computer and my NAD C658 preamp/streamer and the separate Bose Soundtouch streamer that's o tp of the NAD. I get breakups and disconnects. What's frustrating is that my telephone tells me I have a strong signal at the NAD but the NAD diagnostics screen says that I have a very weak signal.

The NAD uses BluOS controlled on the Windows notebook. The NAD also does Airplay. I also have a Bose Soundtouch adaptor that is also a streamer that connects to the NAD in any of the RCA ins.

Particularly on rainy days on all three streaming methods I get breakups. This happens when I use the BluOS Controller send to the NAD, or if I use iTunes to play to the NAD using Airplay or stream to the separate Bose adaptor.

BLuOS and Airplay would use the NAD wifi connection but the Bose Adaptor has it's own Wifi receiver.

My computer shows that I have all of the signal bars to the router but the NAD is farther away from the router which is on the other side of the house and kinda needs to stay where it is.

We do have a Wifi Extender and that's on the floor above and about 15 feet out from the stand that holds the NAD. The NAD is connected to the Extender. And while I'm a novice at the, it appears to me that devices on the extender are still on the same network as devices connected directly to the router.

it's not that there are millions of people are streaming from the router at the same time.

I don't know what to make of the fact that my phone still gets 5 bars of signal when I place it back were the NAD's antennas are.

I am wondering if the components above the NAD including the CD player and Blu-Ray player and way on top the Carver Magnetic field Amp could be blocking the signal. I almost never have the CD or Blu-Ray turned on when I'm streaming from the computer but the Amp is always on on course.

Photo

Would moving the NAD to the top shelf where the DVDs are stored and moving the Amp off to the side likely solve my connectivity problem? Doing that means I'll need to find something to raise the turntable higher because the RCA cable won't reach the NAD if it's on the top shelf.

Also a different possibility I'm thinking about is that the Carver Magnetic Field Power Amp, which is about 40 years old, is starting to send static to the speakers more than before. Could that be the cause of all this? While I have had occasional connectivity issues, the static from the Amp only started a few weeks ago and that's when my streaming connectivity issues also greatly increased.

 

[MrBoat]

I'm having significanty increased problems with connectivity between by computer and my NAD C658 preamp/streamer and the separate Bose Soundtouch streamer that's o tp of the NAD. I get breakups and disconnects. What's frustrating is that my telephone tells me I have a strong signal at the NAD but the NAD diagnostics screen says that I have a very weak signal.

The NAD uses BluOS controlled on the Windows notebook. The NAD also does Airplay. I also have a Bose Soundtouch adaptor that is also a streamer that connects to the NAD in any of the RCA ins.

Particularly on rainy days on all three streaming methods I get breakups. This happens when I use the BluOS Controller send to the NAD, or if I use iTunes to play to the NAD using Airplay or stream to the separate Bose adaptor.

BLuOS and Airplay would use the NAD wifi connection but the Bose Adaptor has it's own Wifi receiver.

My computer shows that I have all of the signal bars to the router but the NAD is farther away from the router which is on the other side of the house and kinda needs to stay where it is.

We do have a Wifi Extender and that's on the floor above and about 15 feet out from the stand that holds the NAD. The NAD is connected to the Extender. And while I'm a novice at the, it appears to me that devices on the extender are still on the same network as devices connected directly to the router.

it's not that there are millions of people are streaming from the router at the same time.

I don't know what to make of the fact that my phone still gets 5 bars of signal when I place it back were the NAD's antennas are.

I am wondering if the components above the NAD including the CD player and Blu-Ray player and way on top the Carver Magnetic field Amp could be blocking the signal. I almost never have the CD or Blu-Ray turned on when I'm streaming from the computer but the Amp is always on on course.

Photo

Would moving the NAD to the top shelf where the DVDs are stored and moving the Amp off to the side likely solve my connectivity problem? Doing that means I'll need to find something to raise the turntable higher because the RCA cable won't reach the NAD if it's on the top shelf.

Also a different possibility I'm thinking about is that the Carver Magnetic Field Power Amp, which is about 40 years old, is starting to send static to the speakers more than before. Could that be the cause of all this? While I have had occasional connectivity issues, the static from the Amp only started a few weeks ago and that's when my streaming connectivity issues also greatly increased.

To me, that seems like a lot to go thru just to listen to music. I have my PC directly to the AVR CD in. I have a lot of FLAC files stored on it too, which was great when hurricane Irma took the internet down for a number of weeks. Between that, the turntable and onboard CD player, I didn't have to do without at all.

I'd rather eat bugs than involve my phone in anything other than bluetooth when away from home, and even then, I get most of my music from the car CD system.

 

[Trebdp83]

What is being referred to here concerning the phone? Cell signal bars or wifi signal strength?

How is internet getting into the home? Bad signal on rainy days seems like old cable exposed to weather. But, just guessing.

The best router sending strong signals to every device in the home can do nothing with a weak and choppy signal coming into the home when trying to stream anything.

When incoming signals are compromised, it’s disc and download playback time. It seems there is an amp issue here as well.

 

[TLS Guy]

I'm having significanty increased problems with connectivity between by computer and my NAD C658 preamp/streamer and the separate Bose Soundtouch streamer that's o tp of the NAD. I get breakups and disconnects. What's frustrating is that my telephone tells me I have a strong signal at the NAD but the NAD diagnostics screen says that I have a very weak signal.

The NAD uses BluOS controlled on the Windows notebook. The NAD also does Airplay. I also have a Bose Soundtouch adaptor that is also a streamer that connects to the NAD in any of the RCA ins.

Particularly on rainy days on all three streaming methods I get breakups. This happens when I use the BluOS Controller send to the NAD, or if I use iTunes to play to the NAD using Airplay or stream to the separate Bose adaptor.

BLuOS and Airplay would use the NAD wifi connection but the Bose Adaptor has it's own Wifi receiver.

My computer shows that I have all of the signal bars to the router but the NAD is farther away from the router which is on the other side of the house and kinda needs to stay where it is.

We do have a Wifi Extender and that's on the floor above and about 15 feet out from the stand that holds the NAD. The NAD is connected to the Extender. And while I'm a novice at the, it appears to me that devices on the extender are still on the same network as devices connected directly to the router.

it's not that there are millions of people are streaming from the router at the same time.

I don't know what to make of the fact that my phone still gets 5 bars of signal when I place it back were the NAD's antennas are.

I am wondering if the components above the NAD including the CD player and Blu-Ray player and way on top the Carver Magnetic field Amp could be blocking the signal. I almost never have the CD or Blu-Ray turned on when I'm streaming from the computer but the Amp is always on on course.

Photo

Would moving the NAD to the top shelf where the DVDs are stored and moving the Amp off to the side likely solve my connectivity problem? Doing that means I'll need to find something to raise the turntable higher because the RCA cable won't reach the NAD if it's on the top shelf.

Also a different possibility I'm thinking about is that the Carver Magnetic Field Power Amp, which is about 40 years old, is starting to send static to the speakers more than before. Could that be the cause of all this? While I have had occasional connectivity issues, the static from the Amp only started a few weeks ago and that's when my streaming connectivity issues also greatly increased.

View attachment 63924

I agree with Mr Boat. That is a Frankenstein system and will be plagued with issues.

 

[crazyfingers]

OK I'm not being clear. Our home has your standard Xfinity cable internet and of course we have a router to send Wifi around the house. I've noticed that on rainy days the Wifi from my router to any device in the home is a little weaker than on sunny days. And I have the most dropouts/disconnects playing music from my computer's music library to the NAD on rainy days. Just as my computer tends to report a weaker signal to the router on rainy days.

I'm not using my phone to play music. I referenced the phone only because I'm puzzled that the NAD reports a weak connection to the router of our home wifi while my phone shows a strong signal even when I put the phone next to where the NAD antenna are. It puzzles me that the NAD would be reporting a weak signal to the router when my phone at the same physical location reports a strong signal. I recall that the NAD reported a strong signal when I first put it where it is but then when I filled above it seemed to go down.

I don't understand why it's a Frankenstein system. I'm just saying that I have three wifi options for playing music from my computer, across the router to the NAD. I can use either the BlueOS controller App, or I can use iTunes to send the music via Airplay or use iTunes to send to the Bose Soundtouch. All three wifi options tend ot have dropouts/disconnects on bad weather days.

I wish I could just send the music by a physical wire to the preamp but it's 20 feet of wire at a minimum. When I tried it last, if I connect via a simple 3.5 headphone jack on the computer's docker to the RCA inputs on preamp I got a buzz, or at least I did with my old ADCOM preamp.I suppose it's worth trying again with the NAD. The computer and the stereo are on different circuit breakers. The other input I have on the preamp is USB for playing music on a stick. I have not tried running a 20 foot USB cable from the computer to the preamp. Looking at the NAD manual:

USB
• Connect to this USB port USB mass storage devices formatted as
FAT32, NTFS or Linux ext4. The connected USB device appears as a
Local Source (USB) in the BluOS App.
• Access and playback music stored in the connected USB device by
selecting “USB” from the BluOS App.

I don't think that that means that can connect the NAD to the computer via USB and control it though the BluOS application. It doesn't sound like it. It sounds like I'd have to keep a complete separate copy of my library on the USB stick and still control the NAD by the BlueOS controller all via wifi from my computer.

I'm going to rearrange the stereo components and put the NAD on top and move the Amp to see if that improves the wifi signal.

By the way, today is a sunny day and I'm not having any issues.

 

[crazyfingers]

Adding, The NAD preamp also has Optical input. But I don't know how I'd get optical output from my computer.

 

[lovinthehd]

The correlation of bad weather seems to point to a problem with the line coming into the house like Treb said. I had similar before, isp service guy said there were problems with the line connection from the main lines to the house that he was able to repair. In that case my wifi network around the house was fine on its own, but not with stuff coming in from the outside so much.....can you just stream on your network without issue, i.e. without an outside streaming source,, just your own files?

 

[TLS Guy]

OK I'm not being clear. Our home has your standard Xfinity cable internet and of course we have a router to send Wifi around the house. I've noticed that on rainy days the Wifi from my router to any device in the home is a little weaker than on sunny days. And I have the most dropouts/disconnects playing music from my computer's music library to the NAD on rainy days. Just as my computer tends to report a weaker signal to the router on rainy days.

I'm not using my phone to play music. I referenced the phone only because I'm puzzled that the NAD reports a weak connection to the router of our home wifi while my phone shows a strong signal even when I put the phone next to where the NAD antenna are. It puzzles me that the NAD would be reporting a weak signal to the router when my phone at the same physical location reports a strong signal. I recall that the NAD reported a strong signal when I first put it where it is but then when I filled above it seemed to go down.

I don't understand why it's a Frankenstein system. I'm just saying that I have three wifi options for playing music from my computer, across the router to the NAD. I can use either the BlueOS controller App, or I can use iTunes to send the music via Airplay or use iTunes to send to the Bose Soundtouch. All three wifi options tend ot have dropouts/disconnects on bad weather days.

I wish I could just send the music by a physical wire to the preamp but it's 20 feet of wire at a minimum. When I tried it last, if I connect via a simple 3.5 headphone jack on the computer's docker to the RCA inputs on preamp I got a buzz, or at least I did with my old ADCOM preamp.I suppose it's worth trying again with the NAD. The computer and the stereo are on different circuit breakers. The other input I have on the preamp is USB for playing music on a stick. I have not tried running a 20 foot USB cable from the computer to the preamp. Looking at the NAD manual:

USB
• Connect to this USB port USB mass storage devices formatted as
FAT32, NTFS or Linux ext4. The connected USB device appears as a
Local Source (USB) in the BluOS App.
• Access and playback music stored in the connected USB device by
selecting “USB” from the BluOS App.

I don't think that that means that can connect the NAD to the computer via USB and control it though the BluOS application. It doesn't sound like it. It sounds like I'd have to keep a complete separate copy of my library on the USB stick and still control the NAD by the BlueOS controller all via wifi from my computer.

I'm going to rearrange the stereo components and put the NAD on top and move the Amp to see if that improves the wifi signal.

By the way, today is a sunny day and I'm not having any issues.

Have you actually checked your signal strength around the home in db? Mesh type routers are best so you can get even coverage. Non mobile devices are best connected with Ethernet cables and Wi-Fi reserved for mobile devices.

Se how much your signal drops between sunny and rainy days. You may well have a damaged cable. I made them lay mine in conduit. You seem to have a lot of units strung together. You really need to have units connect to amplification and not daisy chained, like you at least suggest yours are.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

… I'm puzzled that the NAD reports a weak connection to the router of our home wifi while my phone shows a strong signal even when I put the phone next to where the NAD antenna are…

Could there be something wrong with the NAD?

BTW, I stream music from my Phone everyday to any AVR/AVP in my house and it works 100% of the time.

So it should not matter HOW you stream music WiFi - from PC or Phone or Tablet.

 

[Trebdp83]

I never did get under the house to run ethernet everywhere. I spent a few bucks on a good WiFi 6/AX router and everything just works and Mesh nodes aren’t needed here. But, many others benefit from them.

Wireless devices need to be out in the open. Smothering antennas in cabinets with other items all around them will not help matters. The NAD in this case would do better on top of the unit full of LPs. It supports WiFi 5/AC and will want to work over 5GHz but that has more issues going through walls and furniture and won’t go as far as 2.4GHz.

The Bose device doesn’t seem needed here. The NAD can stream from services using the bluOS app for Smart Phones. The iTunes Remote app for Smart Phones can select songs from the computers iTunes files and have the computer Airplay them to the NAD over the network as well. Either way, no need to actually be at the computer at all. But, none of this will work well with poor internet signals and spotty in home signals because of device placement.

 

[crazyfingers]

The correlation of bad weather seems to point to a problem with the line coming into the house like Treb said. I had similar before, isp service guy said there were problems with the line connection from the main lines to the house that he was able to repair. In that case my wifi network around the house was fine on its own, but not with stuff coming in from the outside so much.....can you just stream on your network without issue, i.e. without an outside streaming source,, just your own files?

That's right. I'm not streaming from outside. This is all about what comes from and stays inside my house. It's about playing my music library on my notebook through the router to the NAD using any of the three options that I have.

Option 1: Notebook using BluOS Controller software. Computer/BlueOS Software> Router> NAD

Option 2: Notebook using iTunes. Notebook iTunes set to Airplay> Router> NAD

Option 3: Notebook using iTunes, Notebook iTunes > Router> Bose Soundtouch> NAD

 

[lovinthehd]

That's right. I'm not streaming from outside. This is all about what comes from and stays inside my house. It's about playing my music library on my notebook through the router to the NAD using any of the three options that I have.

Option 1: Notebook using BluOS Controller software. Computer/BlueOS Software> Router> NAD

Option 2: Notebook using iTunes. Notebook iTunes set to Airplay> Router> NAD

Option 3: Notebook using iTunes, Notebook iTunes > Router> Bose Soundtouch> NAD

Then I start to suspect router....does restarting router make any difference?

 

[crazyfingers]

Have you actually checked your signal strength around the home in db? Mesh type routers are best so you can get even coverage. Non mobile devices are best connected with Ethernet cables and Wi-Fi reserved for mobile devices.

Se how much your signal drops between sunny and rainy days. You may well have a damaged cable. I made them lay mine in conduit. You seem to have a lot of units strung together. You really need to have units connect to amplification and not daisy chained, like you at least suggest yours are.

I don't have a device that I know of other than my phone or tablet to check the wifi signal around the house.

I don't really have a lot of units strung together. I just have multiple options as noted above. There isn't significant daisy chaining except that to use Wifi I need to go though the router.

 

[crazyfingers]

Could there be something wrong with the NAD?

BTW, I stream music from my Phone everyday to any AVR/AVP in my house and it works 100% of the time.

So it should not matter HOW you stream music WiFi - from PC or Phone or Tablet.

It could be the NAD. But I mentioned having similar breakups when I go through the Bose Soundtouch. It has its own Wifi receiver and DAC and sends the signal to the NAD Line-in as analog.

 

[crazyfingers]

I never did get under the house to run ethernet everywhere. I spent a few bucks on a good WiFi 6/AX router and everything just works and Mesh nodes aren’t needed here. But, many others benefit from them.

Wireless devices need to be out in the open. Smothering antennas in cabinets with other items all around them will not help matters. The NAD in this case would do better on top of the unit full of LPs. It supports WiFi 5/AC and will want to work over 5GHz but that has more issues going through walls and furniture and won’t go as far as 2.4GHz.

The Bose device doesn’t seem needed here. The NAD can stream from services using the bluOS app for Smart Phones. The iTunes Remote app for Smart Phones can select songs from the computers iTunes files and have the computer Airplay them to the NAD over the network as well. Either way, no need to actually be at the computer at all. But, none of this will work well with poor internet signals and spotty in home signals because of device placement.
View attachment 63963
View attachment 63965

That's right. The NAD does not need the Bose Soundtouch. The NAD will use BluOS or Airplay. I got the Bose when I was using my now retired 35 year old all-analog ADCOM preamp. I mention the Bose because I get breakups/dropouts on that unit also. Since it has its own Wifi receiver and DAC and sends the signal to the NAD Line-in as analog, it suggests that the problem may not be the NAD but my setup.

 

[crazyfingers]

I've put the NAD on the top shelf and put the Amp way off to the left. The Bose is on the shelf below. I keep the Bose attached because it uses a separate wifi receiver than the NAD and it's useful for that reason.

I guess time will tell if this arrangement is better.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow.

 

[crazyfingers]

Then I start to suspect router....does restarting router make any difference?

Its a pretty good router. A Netgear Nighthawk X4S AC2600 Smart WiFi Router Model R7800 for a large house even though we have a medium size house.

But a little old.

I haven't restarted it to check this. It's a good suggestion. I lose wifi in the house around once every few months and I turn the modem and the router off and on then.

 

[crazyfingers]

Since rearranging my music library Index is snappier on the BloOS software. I really don't understand why but it appears that the library Index is kept on the NAD and not on the computer within the BluOS Controller software. When the music is really struggling the library Index is slow to display and when the NAD disconnects my music library does not display. It's strange.

And to be clear, my actual music library is on my computer. It's the Library Index that the NAD/BluOS uses that appears to reside on the NAD.

 

[crazyfingers]

After much struggling, I was finally able to get the computer to understand that I have a 3.5 AUX line plugged into the headphone jack. I don't know what was up with Windows. Anyway, I have a long wire and plugged it into an RCA adaptor for the line-in on the NAD. The gain is really low. I've adjusted it in Windows so that it will max when iTunes is playing. It works. No buzz but I can't get the volume like I do over the 3 wifi methods. Perhaps I need a better cable?

But I also couldn't get the volume when I plugged my FIIO straight into the adaptor with only about 3 feet of length.

However, I'm not terribly keen on having my computer sounds going through the stereo. I don't wants "Doings" when I press a wrong button going though the stereo.

At the moment The NAD/BluOS is still being zippy.

 

[highfigh]

To me, that seems like a lot to go thru just to listen to music. I have my PC directly to the AVR CD in. I have a lot of FLAC files stored on it too, which was great when hurricane Irma took the internet down for a number of weeks. Between that, the turntable and onboard CD player, I didn't have to do without at all.

I'd rather eat bugs than involve my phone in anything other than bluetooth when away from home, and even then, I get most of my music from the car CD system.

The internet has nothing to do with being able to play music that's stored locally. Does your AVR have an ethernet port? If it does, why not use DLNA to play your FLAC files?