Problem with AirPlay on Bartok

Hi Guys!

I have a problem with AirPlay, it plays with constant interruptions, with the same ~1 second interval - this is if the Bartok is connected to the network from Linksys WET610N wifi bridge. Streaming a file of any size goes smoothly.
If I connect with a wire from provider router, the AirPlay works fine.

The reason for using this Bridge is not to pull long wires and isolation from the rest of the home network (something like ER, but through the air), LPS->bridge->Bartok - very simple.

I would add that I like the sound with a bridge more than from a router from another room, but this is an another topic for discussion ))

All my network equipment are internet provider router (Sercomm GPON) -> Linksys E2700 configured as AP and this bridge WET610N connected to Bartok

All the settings that I found:

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Firstly, let me just say (and please don’t take this personally), spending Bartók kind of money on a DAC, and then connecting it over a .11n Wireless Bridge is absolutely bonkers :man_facepalming:t2:

IMHO, whatever sound “improvement” from “isolation” you’re hearing is more likely to come from expectation bias and your imagination; inside the Bartok, it doesn’t care whether the packet comes from a wired or a wireless connection, it’s all just TCP packets that need to be reassembled into PCM/DSD streams. If you really think you need galvanic isolation, please use a pair of fiber media converters (discussed in any one of the numerous threads on dcs.community).

That being said, this is an interesting networking problem (that likely has nothing at all to do with the Bartok :smiley:).

Do you mean a normal Mosaic UPnP stream works fine?

Have you tried the various other WMM Access mode settings, like “Video” for example?

The problem with WMM settings (Block Acknowledgements) is that it relies on perfect negotiated compatibility between the AP and the Client - in your case, the E2700 and the WET610N.

I don’t know for a fact, but I won’t be surprised if there’s some incompatibility there, and lots of wireless frames are being retransmitted over the air interface. It’ll work, but throughput will suffer, and sensitive protocols like Airplay will likely have problems. In fact, your mention of “interruptions… 1 second interval” is maybe a clue;

Airplay relies on RTSP (subset) for audio streaming, and every 1 second it sends out a “Sync” packet for clock synchronisation - it would seem like maybe that synchronisation is not working properly over your current setup/configuration. :thinking:

Hi Anup, glad you intervened ))

Do you think I need to buy Melсo switch for my Bartok? ))

But above you write that there is no difference, these are just data packets. Then I see no problem in using this WiFi Bridge.
When I wrote about some sound improvements, I understood that I would get such a reaction. But in this topic, my question is more technical.

In any case, it is convenient to use WiFi Bridge. My system is in another room and I do not need to lay a 20 meter ethernet cable across the floor to Bartok. The Bridge has settings to reduce the power level of his receiver, it has a simple 100 Mbit port without indicators, it only works to receive data packets over the air and send it further along 2m wire to my Bartok. And it also responds perfectly to the Farad Super 3 linear power supply which I can plug into the power distributor for my audio system - is a separate power line on thick copper wire from the Fujikura.

Moreover, I had 2 Farad LPSs, EtherRegen and 10 MHz w/clock on the 1 week test. Using ER instead of this Bridge (in both cases they were powered by a power supply from Farad) I did not find much difference. I heard the tangible differences only when I connected to ER the external w/clock powered by another Farad S3.

But these are just packages, right? )) I’m not looking for an explanation for this phenomenon, but just listening. And if I hear significant improvements, then I use them at home. I remember the time when everyone used usb and said that it was just data, then asynchronous usb appeared, then they thought about galvanic isolation, even an optical usb appeared and all the same audiophiles all over the world still catch the difference. But since then, USB has really gotten a lot better.

If I wanted to follow a simple way, I would buy a CD player)))

Yes, DSD, HiRes, Tidal, radio - all works fine.

I tried Background and Voice, but I can try the rest Video and Best Effort…

I would not want to spend money in the near future for ER, since this will entail the purchase of an external w/clock :grin:

I will try to exclude the E2700 AP from the chain and enable Wi-Fi on the provider’s router.

If you have any other ideas, please don’t hesitate, just keep in mind that it is quite difficult for me to answer in detail, in the style of Leo Tolstoy “War and Peace”, since English is not my native language. :roll_eyes:

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True, except for the significant latency and jitter in the packet flow from .11n - not anything the Stream board on the Bartok can’t handle, but I expect over the fullness of time, you will see inconsistent streaming experience and things not working properly occasionally. I had (actually I still have!) a Linksys WET54G .11g bridge that I used with a Printer years ago, it was very flaky, always going up and down. :persevere:

Make sense I guess, but maybe consider a .11ax (or ac) Mesh instead?

Maybe just one, try turning OFF LDPC - let TCP at layer 3 do it’s job of any necessary error-correction/retransmit, rather than the AP-Client having to negotiate the error handling at the PHY layer as well. :thinking:

Your English is fine :slight_smile:

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I have been using bridge for several months and there are no problems with streaming. I didn’t find any difference in stability after a direct connection from a router. Except for AirPlay, when I wanted to test AM Lossless))

This could be a solution, but with the exception of AirPlay, everything is working at the moment and I would not want to invest additional money in improving my home network.
Maybe the next will be ER (for my peace of mind), but the questions of delivering packets to ER and 20m of wire to it will also remain.

I will try to carry out more experiments and report here.

Google and I work together))

Сhanging few bridge settings didn’t help.

I went to E2700 and switched from 5GHz to 2.4GHz (I only had 5GHz enabled) and AirPlay started working.

Then I turned on Wi-Fi on the provider’s router and turned off the E2700. AirPlay also worked at 2.4GHz, but at 5GHz, the bridge did not connect to the router at all.

Now it remains to compare sound difference at 2.4GHz and 5GHz on Bartok, ahaha)))

Or enable both bands and use 2.4GHz for bridge only.

If the bridge is dual-band, how can explain the incorrect AirPlay playback at 5GHz?

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The only way to really know what’s going on is to monitor the .11 management and control frames over the wireless interface with something like Wireshark in monitor-mode (on MacOS or Linux because Windows doesn’t support monitor mode).

Even then, you might not be able to change/fix it anyway :wink:

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