Pioneer N50/N30 AIFF Issues

[yosefphan]

New poster here. Is anyone else having issues with AIFF on the Pioneer N50/N30? I have an N30 with updated firmware (1.021) using the coax out to a Hegel HD25 and bypassing the internal DAC. The N30 connects to a WD Mybooklive running Twonky server v7. I have a pretty extensive selection of 44 and 24 bit AIFF and have run into "Unspecified File Error" when trying to play AIFF both in 16 and 24 bits on a periodic basis. The most recent was Led Zeppelin I from HDTracks. I downloaded I, II & III and have no issues with II or III. HDTracks confirmed that there was no difference in the file format. When converted to ALAC or FLAC, it plays fine, but not in AIFF. Also, when placed on a UBS thumb drive and played through the USB port, it renders the same error (which would seem to eliminate any issues with the NAS/Twonky).

[Cebolla]

Never seen that problem with AIFF files on my N-50, though admittedly have never really used them apart from testing (my music is mostly FLAC).

 

I do know that the N-50 doesn't support the little endian AIFF-C with the sowt codec version (standard AIFF is big endian) used by OS X, eg as produced by iTunes on a Mac. However the error displayed by the N-50 is 'file format not supported'.

 

Do the same specific files cause your problem regardless of the playlist they are in or can it be random?

[yosefphan]

Thanks for replying. I believe the exact error is "Unspecified Error" as opposed to what I wrote as "Unspecified File Error." Unfortunately, it happens regardless of being in a playlist and renders the same error.

[Cebolla]

May still be worth checking if those files are AIFF-C/sowt, as opposed to standard big endian AIFF, though it's a long shot since the error message is different. You could also try Pioneer support (hopefully you'll be able to upload a sample file on their support site).

[yosefphan]

What's the best way to determine if it's AIFF-C? It doesn't show any compression, but I can't confirm it isn't that file type.

 

Thanks again.

[Cebolla]

With a Windows machine you could try the gspot codec reading application. I can't say on a Mac, may be from within iTunes (right click, then get info)?

 

AIFF-C when used with the sowt codec isn't actually compressed, BTW.

 

Just had another thought. Could it be a problem with the Pioneer not being able to read AIFF file metadata properly, especially any embedded album art?

[Cebolla]

What's the best way to determine if it's AIFF-C? It doesn't show any compression, but I can't confirm it isn't that file type.

 

Thanks again.

Forgot about MediaInfo and it's probably better for simple audio file lookup than Gspot as it's still being supported. Also, it's available on Mac & Linux platforms as well as Windows, see:

MediaInfo

[Patatorz]

Hello, I used to have this issue in the past on my Ayon NW-T and LUMIN and aiff bought in Qobuz. My library was mainly composed of aiff. I only had problems with aiff bought in Qobuz and no problem with the ones I ripped from my CDs.

qobuz never admitted that it could come from them but it seems that the way they managed their aiff is not the usual way (Minimserver 0.72 and Qobuz files detection problem). So perhaps,you need also to,have a look around your server.

the workaround I found was to convert another time in aiff (batches) with dbpoweramp the Qobuz files. After that it was perfect.

 

hope it could help

[jtm]

Probably not related to your AIFF issues, but you may want to update your Pioneer with the latest firmware 1.038 as well:

 

http://www.pioneer.eu/files/support/N50/NAP12Main_1038.zip

 

 

Ver (Release ID) 1.038

Change of specification

The timing of Auto Power Off is changed from 30m in to 15min.

The improvement of Internet Radio operation.

 

If the firmware version of product is Ver.1.020 or older, configuration is reset to the factory default setting by updating (ver. 1.038). Please see the Operating Instructions for details of the factory default setting.

 

Ver (Release ID) 1.022

Improvement of connectivity with NAS as Music Server.

[yosefphan]

Cebolla - Thanks, will try that this weekend and report back.

 

Patatorz - I tried this initially and it created the same errors (used dbpoweramp).

 

jtm - Probably not an issue, but am curious why the US pioneer site is so far behind the eu one in firmware. Last release was in May for 1.021. I doubt there would be any issue using the eu firmware, but it does beg the question on the lag.

 

Thanks all, will report back on the mediainfo.

[Cebolla]

Probably not an issue, but am curious why the US pioneer site is so far behind the eu one in firmware. Last release was in May for 1.021. I doubt there would be any issue using the eu firmware, but it does beg the question on the lag.

Pionner US has now caught up with the European and Japanese sites, with version 1.038 of the firmware. The US site always seems to lag, sometimes for months. May be worth someone checking with a binary file comparison utility to see if the same versioned files from the various sites are actually exactly the same.

[Carcajou]

Bonjour

 

My Pioneer N50 is at firmware 1.038 and is fed music exclusively via Network - It will play flawlessly all my AIFF files BUT the ones I have downloaded from Qobuz - If I play an AIFF file downloaded from Qobuz - the N50 displays the the album information, the album picture and the track duration - but won't play. I have downloaded again the files from Qobuz in Flac.. and they work ok.

 

Carcajou

[Cebolla]

Hi Carcajou,

 

Have you checked the Qobuz AIFF files on another player?

Does the N-50 display an error message?

[Audio_ELF]

I can't recall off the top of my head how to check this... But possibly some of the AIFF files are true AIFF and some are AIFF-C in sowt format (one is created by modern Intel Macs and the former by older Power PC Macs). It's often difficult to check because both can use the same .aiff extension.

 

Eloise

[Carcajou]

Bonjour Cebolla,

 

The Pioneer N50 does not display any error message with Qobuz sourced AIFF files it won't play - it just sit there (in the status as mentionned above) - I have not personnally tried other renderers with the files but a friend of mine download a lot from Qobuz in AIFF for its Mac Mini to USB DAC installation and all his downloads plays flawlessly.

 

Carcajou

[Patatorz]

Concerning aiff and Qobuz, see my post above.

What kind of server do you use ?

[Carcajou]

Patatorz,

 

The N-50 is a DLNA renderer to a JRiver MC 19 DLNA Server. JRiver MC 19 will play the Qobuz AIFF file on my Lenovo laptop with no problems - but the Pioneer N-50 won't play them via Network or USB Key...

 

Carcajou

[Patatorz]

Ok and if you try to just re-encode the qobuz AIFF files with dBpoweramp for example : would the N50 able to play through network ?

[Carcajou]

Patatorz, un grand merci,

 

I have used JRiver MC 19 conversion tool to convert a Qobuz sourced 24/48 AIFF album (Les soeurs Labèque - Gershwin) to AIFF again and now the Pioneer N50 plays the AIFF file correctly. Thank you so much for this simple solution.

 

Carcajou

[Patatorz]

You are welcome. But I'm not sure it is a suitable solution when you have an extended collection coming from Qobuz.

You should also request some support from Qobuz on this topic. They should provide files fitting to the specifications. It was also the case with Miniserver...

[Carcajou]

Patatorz,

 

Actually when I download from HDTracks or Qobuz - I use the WAV file format - the two albums I downloaded from Qobuz in AIFF were on an exception basis to test the Pioneer N50 AIFF compatibility after the release of Firmware 1.020 or 1.021... My music files are almost 99% WAV files in my library.

 

Carcajou

[Patatorz]

So no real difficulty for you :-)

[Cebolla]

I can't recall off the top of my head how to check this... But possibly some of the AIFF files are true AIFF and some are AIFF-C in sowt format (one is created by modern Intel Macs and the former by older Power PC Macs). It's often difficult to check because both can use the same .aiff extension.

 

Eloise

Eloise, the Pioneer streamer doesn't recognise the AIFF-C format at all (it displays an appropriate error message) as I indicated earlier to the OP, so it's unlikely that these Qobuz AIFFs are in the AIFF-C/sowt format. The OP had a seemingly unrelated problem with some AIFF files obtained from HDTracks.

 

Quick test for those with a hex editor is to look at the file's header (known as 'FORM'). It will contain either 'AIFF' or 'AIFC' as one of its field values. The rest of the data is divided into sections known as chunks. The 'COMM' chunk contains the codec used to build the file as one of its field values, which will be set to 'sowt' for AIFF-C/sowt (note the codec field is not used by COMM chunk in the true AIFF type format).

 

If hex editors aren't your thing, then a less clunky way to lookup audio file info is by using MediaInfo (see post #7). Will indicate big endian for true AIFF and little endian for AIFF-C (with sowt as the codec for AIFF-C/sowt).

 

John

[Audio_ELF]

Eloise, the Pioneer streamer doesn't recognise the AIFF-C format at all (it displays an appropriate error message) as I indicated earlier to the OP

Ooops ... I really should read all the earlier posts :-$

[Cebolla]

No worries, been there done that!