entering the code isn’t giving me anything
sorry, I’ve made a mistake, the chipset in your dongle is not what i thought about , it is rtl 8188cus chip, i had also one adapter with this chips and cannot play 24/96 music… so my suggestion is to get another new adapter (prefer one with an antenna )
i have just tried my solution on this 8188CUS wireless adapter, it play 24/96 much better than default setting, if you want give it a try, just follow this procedure, first make sure you have turned on the wmm option on your router,then ssh to your volumio :
sudo su
echo "options 8192cu rtw_ht_enable=0 rtw_wmm_enable=1" >> /etc/modprobe.d/8192cu.confand reboot
try it and tell me what is the difference when you play 24/96
I have an LogiLink WL0084B based on Ralink RT5370. This one only allows streaming Webradio. Streaming Flac from the NAS doesn’t work.
Now I ordered an CSL 300Mbit USB WLAN (via amazon) based on Ralink RT5572. This one allows to stream Hi-Res Flac 192.
I tried it this morning on the way out the door and it seems to have improved a good bit. Wasn’t able to listen to a full song because I had to leave. However, I did notice an improvement right away.
What do you all have you playback settings at? It doesn’t seem to matter if I use 10%, 20%, or 30%. Same with the amount of buffer. I’ve double the default and it doesn’t seem to do much. But I haven’t messed with this after running the code above.
Also note that I’m trying to stream only cd quality aiff files. Haven’t even tried anything over that yet.
I got the powerline adapters last night (thanks to amazon same day shipping) and they didn’t improve the playback of cd quality aiff files. Maybe a bit but still lots of cutouts. Testing the wifi network with a MacBook pro and then the same test done with the powerline adapter and I get the same speeds. So I think my wifi is strong. Needless to say I think the powerline adapters are going back. They were super simple to setup and worked well. Just not any better than my already fast wifi connection.
Gerry - are you going to use a powered usb hub?
1: i didn’t touch the playback setting , just default
2: i think which format of your music is not the key point, what really import is whether the wifi transmit speed could satisfy the music play speed, i can flawless play one song with 24/96 in wave format ,its size is 130MB and about 4minitues, so i think a stable 54mbps wireless connection is absolutely enough for just music play
So I feel like something else has to be going wrong here if I can’t even stream 16 bit audio. Any code I can use while it’s playing back to see what is going on? Something that would show network traffic in real time maybe?
And then run the same command while streaming with airplay using the same track from the same nas just coming from the computer.
Ben
Can you post a network drawing of your setup and where the Airport Extreme fits in ?
Do you have a conventional Router too ? Is it Wireless ?
You should be able to ping from point to point on your network to identify if your network infrastructure is OK.
Example
Ping from Mac Mini to Airport Extreme
Ping from Mac Mini to RPi
Ping from Airport Extreme to RPI
Not able to draw but I can hopefully explain. It’s a rather simple network.
Cable Modem --> Airport Extreme (usb drive is attached to Airport)
Mac Mini is connected via wifi
- Connect iTunes to a library on the NAS and play a track - WORKS
- Play same file to rpi over wifi via airplay - WORKS
Raspberry rpi is connected via wifi
-Has no problem playing from NAS when it is hardwired to router
-Lots of cutouts when playing from NAS over wifi. Doesn’t matter what the playback settings are set at.
I’ll do the ping tests tonight and see what I get. The airport extreme is the only router I have. I’m not sure how I can ping from the router to the rpi.
Thanks!
Ben
I think you may have too many wireless segments in your system for the case you cannot get good streaming.
What do you mean by this ?
e.g.
What is your music controller, are you using Volumio to select the music you want to play ? On what device ? mac-mini, pad, phone ?
Where is the NAS USB drive mounted ? On the Pi ? On the mac-mini ?
Post the part number of the NAS Drive, USB version, Speed could be a significant factor in this scenario.
I also need to know why you want to drive the RPi when as you state
You probably have a good reason but I just need to know it.
I will wait for your answers but something I have a gut feeling for is that you hard wire (powerline or cable) the mac-mini to the Airport extreme it might do the job 
Kevin
Hey Kevin,
The NAS I’m using is a NAS only by definition. It’s a simple usb 2.0 external harddrive connected to the airport extreme which basically turns it into a NAS. I’m able to mount the drive in the WEBUI of volumio. I have tried both a powered and unpowered external harddrive.
It doesn’t matter if I access volumio’s webui from computer, phone, or ipad. If the rpi is getting the music from the NAS is cuts out every few seconds.
I’m not sure how the mac mini hardwired to the router would solve anything. It doesn’t need to be on for what I’m trying to do. Play music through the webui of volumio from a NAS drive over wifi. At least point I don’t care about high bit rate tracks. Just 16 bits a 44.1.
I talk about playing over airplay only to let you all know that airplay works just fine. Even if the mac mini is pulling the music from the NAS and streaming it to the rpi.
I hope this makes sense.
Ben
Sorry to push you on this but the spec of your USB Drive is important in this scenario.
USB 2 devices can be one of 2 Speeds
- FULL (12Mbits/s)
- HIGH (480Mbits/s)
The audio network path is critical. A mount to RPI is only an Index (so like a hyperlink) to the Audio file.
I suspect (no physical evidence) (but I will start another post) because I believe the fundamentals of Airplay and DLNA are VERY VERY different. Stick with airplay apps on your computer, phone & iPad for now. Basically DLNA is much more encompassing and will have a lot more handshaking comms attached to it (this is only a guess too btw).
In the DNLA world there is a lot of send and receive handshaking going on so your USB + 2 x wireless connections will accumulate the comms traffic.
Better you see a future post am i am planning.
In Rock We Trust 
Kevin
Thanks for the help/explaining Kevin. I didn’t think I was using DLNA this way. I thought that was something that would have to be turned on and indexed and connected to a NAS that supported it.
Hard drive I’m using that is attached to the airport extreme:
vantecusa.com/gl/product/view_detail/390
I also tried a powered lacie drive that is also 480mbps for usb
I think you are right that you are not using DNLA in this scenario.
We will need someone from Volumio team to maybe explain how playback from a nas mount works. Maybe wireless mounting is not the intention 
I must admit that I had never considered mounting a drive wirelessly, just doesn’t seem right to mount something that doesn’t have a physical connection.
Call me old fashioned 
No, the WLAN Dongle is directly plugged into one of the USB Ports.
The PI is one of the newer V2.0 Model B.
Hi Ben,
I’ve just tested a USB Drive in my Cisco EA4500 Router. I now understand what you are trying to do.
-I mounted the usb drive + Router as a NAS Mount in Volumio
-has quick success with 16 bit 44.1 kHz no worries.
What version of Airport Extreme are you using, I’d like to read the manual a bit 
Hey Kevin,
I can’t recall the actual version of the extreme. It is the one prior to the current. It’s flatter and doesn’t have the new ac type speeds. I’ll confirm tonight when I get home from work.
Ben
I have the 4th generation .
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirPort_Extreme
The only difference between the 4th and 5th is the range. And I’m 100% sure it isn’t the range as I’ve tried it in the same room.
Ben
Some first guessing going on here so please don’t take it as gospel.
Situation 1 : Playing using Volumio Interface from Mounted NAS Drive
This scenario is a Music Server and Player scenario. Maybe that this is not “streaming” as such, it’s just playing. The Volumio has a link to the file you want to play and when you hit play it starts “playing” the track. Whether it can play it or not will depend on your systems total comms speeds (read & write perfomance at the end of the day). In you situation you have
Rpi USB + EDI max + Wireless Comms + Airport Extreme + Airport Extreme USB + USB Drive I/F + Disk R/W.
Maybe this is just to much for the comms protocols to execute in time 
Situation 2 : Playback through Airplay
Airplay was original designed to stream audio around the house. Video came later. The comms protocol was probably designed to keep 2 way comms down to minimum. That is you select your track, hit play. I would imagine the Controller (e.g. your pad) sends the instructions and the Airplay function will open up a direct comms stream between the Server (in your case the NAS Drive) and the Renderer (In this case your volumio shairport receiver). Once the track has been decided everything else gets out of the way. The Music is sent in packets on one way comms.
I think I read somewhere that Airplay also uses a 2 second buffer so this will help too. 
Situation 3 : DLNA
I have more experience of this so I can layout this scenario with at least some factual knowledge of the DLNA/UPnP standard and practice on some kit.
You select a track on your controller and hit play. The controller sends the track info to the Server. The server and the renderer decides if it can play this type of audio file at the required bit rate (e.g. AIF). This is done by a UPnP Service called Connection Manager, the Server and Renderer both have this service running.
Let’s go for the simple case that they both can play AIF files. The data is transferred in what is called an “Out of Transfer Protocol”. This means that there is no other comms going on while the packets of data are being transferred.
There is a UPnP Service called AVTransport which will allow the classic controls to break in (e.g. Stop, Pause, Volume etc.)
J River is a DNLA Server so you could try this with your DNLA Volumio Renderer to complete the jigsaw.
We need someone from Volumio team to comment on Situation 1. They will know how the Server and Player works from a comms point of view.
Kevin