Praise for SoTM Support

[5-pot-fan]

SMS-200 and Squeezelite

I want to compliment SoTM support on the work they have put in on my system, to get my DAC (Furutech ADL-GT40a) working properly with Squeezelite.

This cannot be the most popular DAC in use, nor one of the most expensive, yet they have spent over 4 hours checking and testing their software (v.4.56) directly on my system and it now works with Squeezelite without stuttering.

My problems were apparently 2-fold: Squeezelite began stuttering after upgrading to v4.5 and onwards (as others will testify), and also I could not make any changes to config settings to try to counter this. I had never tried to make any changes previously because up to v4.22 it just worked with the defaults.

It seems to me that SoTM had resolved the stuttering by the time they released v4.56 because once they cured my config-updating issue Squeezelite went straight back to working properly. I think my specific issue was with SoTM's settings for my DAC - it just was not  writing to it properly. Now, you might think that if this was their issue they should have resolved it anyway, but my take is that they worked hard for just one user, without my harassing them, and within 3 weeks of first notification. In my 40+ years of dealing with suppliers in the IT and tech world this is unprecedented and should be applauded.

I bought the sms-200 in part because of previous good feedback about SoTM support, and I am glad that I did, and so I can recommend them to any other potential buyers.

The bonus is that v4.56 sounds better to me than v4.22! YMMV of course....

Lastly, I am in no way associated with SoTM or any dealer.

[Solstice380]

Glad to hear that you got things sorted out!  Unfortunately, there are still many with issues that they have not been corrected.  Check this thread:

 

I’ve had issues with HQPlayer NAA since 4.22, which is what the US distributor put on it after it decided to corrupt its own card.  Notified Crux Audio right away and never got a reply.  Others with Squeezlite, etc., have had issues - some resolved, others not.  We’ve experienced issues with the activity light.  I’ve had verified card burns (2) not even start the 200.  I’ve also had versions in 4.5.x series that wouldn’t open the HQP NAA.  I can’t agree that the support has been terrific.  

[89reksal]

1 hour ago, 5-pot-fan said:

It seems to me that SoTM had resolved the stuttering by the time they released v4.56 because once they cured my config-updating issue Squeezelite went straight back to working properly.

Thanks for your report. Just to be clear, are you saying once SOtM support cured your config-updating issue, Squeezelite now worked on default settings as it did prior to 4.5... upgrades? Stuttering completely gone now?

 

I'm also having issues with Squeezelite stuttering and am very interested in any more details you'd be willing to share on specific steps that were taken to correct this stuttering.

[5-pot-fan]

Replying to lasker98:

Once the DAC/sms-200 issue was resolved, the support tech (May??) changed the DAC settings as follows-  Sample format=24_3(from my DAC parameters); DSD mode =DOP; max sample rate = 192000 (from my DAC parameters); buffer time = 320; internal buffer = 16348; period count =32

I let the music play for 5 minutes which it did without stuttering, and then I let the poor techie go home - (gone 6pm on a Friday for them). The music has been playing all day without a hitch.

Over the next few days I will also test MPD, although this had been playing OK, and then fiddle with the Squeezelite settings a bit. If I find any issues I will report back to SoTM, but at present do not expect any that I do not cause myself!

Hope this helps, but I am happy to offer any other info if requested.

[ronfint]

1 hour ago, Solstice380 said:

I’ve had issues with HQPlayer NAA since 4.22, which is what the US distributor put on it after it decided to corrupt its own card.  Notified Crux Audio right away and never got a reply.  Others with Squeezlite, etc., have had issues - some resolved, others not.  We’ve experienced issues with the activity light.  I’ve had verified card burns (2) not even start the 200.  I’ve also had versions in 4.5.x series that wouldn’t open the HQP NAA.  I can’t agree that the support has been terrific.  

 

This is really too bad. I finally have a server that can support HQPlayer, and I'd like to try it if SOtM can get the NAA app working correctly.

 

Have you tried contacting May Park directly?

[5-pot-fan]

Re HQPlayer

I have also tried to get HQPlayer to work, but do not understand how it should work (I do not have a Roon subscription). I have installed HQPlayer Desktop on a separate server - do I need an additional control point of some kind in order to tell the other 2 parts how to work together?

HQPlayer would be interesting to play with so I can learn something about upsampling etc, so if anyone has some setup advice I would be happy to try it out.

Until then LMS and MPD will keep me happy for a few weeks.

 

[89reksal]

11 minutes ago, 5-pot-fan said:

Hope this helps, but I am happy to offer any other info if requested.

Yes, thank you. I'll give 4.56 a try over the weekend with those settings and see how it goes.

 

One comment, it seems the new settings you have are far different from the settings that are working for me with 4.22, Buffer Time = 30, Period Count = 4, Internal Buffer has no value entered. My understanding is that Squeezelite defaults are Buffer Size/Time = 40 and Period Count = 4. That's quite the difference from what you have now. I wonder why yours have to be so far off from the defaults to get it working now?

[5-pot-fan]

My suspicion is that the old defaults (as in 4.22) may not work well in Squeezelite now. Those defaults did also work for me, until I upgraded to 4.5x, after which things stuttered and I was unable to write any different settings to the sms-200.

Do remember to look at the DAC information you get in the config window - this will give you pointers for some of the settings (eg sample format), but buffer size etc may need guessing at first.

Over the weekend I will do some messing around, and will post back any useful findings.

[Solstice380]

4 hours ago, ronfint said:

Have you tried contacting May Park directly?

 

My bad that I haven’t gone direct to May.  I will do so.  Thanks for prodding me to do it.  Is it just may @sotm.com?

[ronfint]

17 minutes ago, Solstice380 said:

 

My bad that I haven’t gone direct to May.  I will do so.  Thanks for prodding me to do it.  Is it just may @sotm.com?

 

[email protected]

[5-pot-fan]

May can be contacted at

[email protected]

Remember their time difference, and it is likely to take 2 to 5 working days for you to get an initial reply - at least that's what happened for me.

[tedwoods]

NAA has been flawless for me  in 4.56 , through the Amanero/Lampi or Xmos/Holo Spring.

[Solstice380]

2 hours ago, tedwoods said:

NAA has been flawless for me  in 4.56 , through the Amanero/Lampi or Xmos/Holo Spring.

 

That’s good to hear.  It may be something specific to my dCS DAC as this issue started for me with 4.22.  I had hoped one of the recent updates would clear it up.  This morning I tried the forced upgrade to 4.5.6 from by burned 4.5.6 card as 5-pot-pan did without success on the pops and ticks.  All other function seemed to be OK.  Good response, HQP NAA functional right away, just occasional light activity not full blast blinking when not playing.  But still the pops and ticks.   I do need to contact them for some help.  Thanks to all for the help and info!

[89reksal]

I tried upgrading from 4.22 to 4.56 again after reading 5-pot-fan had success with Squeezelite. Unfortunately no success for me. Used a newly burned sd card, no problems downloading and burning the card. Same issues with stuttering as all prior attempts, no matter what config settings I used. Also the activity light flashes pretty much non-stop, even when not playing any music. Switched back to my sd card with 4.22 and everything just works normally again.

 

Clearly there's still big issues with this update, at least for Squeezelite.

[5-pot-fan]

Hi

50 minutes ago, lasker98 said:

I tried upgrading from 4.22 to 4.56 again after reading 5-pot-fan had success with Squeezelite. Unfortunately no success for me. Used a newly burned sd card, no problems downloading and burning the card. Same issues with stuttering as all prior attempts, no matter what config settings I used. Also the activity light flashes pretty much non-stop, even when not playing any music. Switched back to my sd card with 4.22 and everything just works normally again.

 

Clearly there's still big issues with this update, at least for Squeezelite.

Just a couple of queries, though probably these have already been checked:

Is your DAC a fairly popular one, which other users have similar problem using with Squeezelite?

SoTM recommends that IPv6 be turned off for Squeezelite. I did not find this obvious but the flag in System Settings shows "Disable" when it is disabled (according to SoTM).

BTW, my activity light flashes all the time even in v4.22!

 

 

[89reksal]

I'm connecting sms-200 Neo to Schiit Eitr usb to spdif converter. I've had the sms-200 Neo for 3 or 4 months now. It came with 4.22 installed and I've had no issues ever making a connection to the Eitr or any issues of any kind other than some operator error type issues at the beginning.

 

I've tried each update from 4.5 until this current 4.56 and have always had the stuttering, although this 4.56 probably has the least amount, but still not listenable. I've had zero issues whenever I've gone back to my 4.22 card. Everything works perfectly, all connections made properly.

 

I have no, or very little activity light flashing with 4.22, whether playing music or idle. 4.56 had constant flashing even when idle. That alone tells me there's something not right. I'm assuming SOtM didn't change it's operation from being an activity light to some other kind of indication. If my computer hard drive activity light is flashing or on constantly, something is definitely going on. If it was on all the time, I would know I have an issue. Same logic with the sms-200. I'm assuming it's on in 4.56 because there's activity and there must be a lot of activity for it to be constant, even at idle. The Schiit Eitr is connecting to my Bryston dac which has a maximum input of 24-96 so it's not as if there's a high amount of network traffic.

 

I can't remember if I had IPv6 disabled with 4.56.  It's disabled in my 4.22.

 

Another interesting thing with 4.56 was that I noticed pretty much the same frequency of stuttering even using the initial default settings that came up when I first tried playing music with 4.56. It was 40, 4, 4096. I tried your suggested settings and multiple other settings in between and I'd say there wasn't a huge difference with any of them as far as frequency of stuttering. The different settings didn't seem to affect the activity light at all. It always seemed to be on almost constantly.

 

Thanks for your help 5-pot-fan.

 

 

[5-pot-fan]

LED flashing...

I noticed today that the network LED on my sms-200 flashes a lot (perhaps on 70%/off 30%) when I have the Eunhasu main screen showing, BUT when I open any of the config pages this activity dies down to less than 1 flash per second. This goes for the Roon config, Squeezelite config, MPD config, system settings system config and library config pages.  Shairport, NAA, Librespot, Minimserver and Bubbleupnp server are uninstalled.

The Eunhasu main screen can be seen behind the config screens, so it has not been shunted away, so I suspect that the led flashing may be due to where the program is currently focused - maybe waiting for screen input?

This observation holds for whether a file is playing or not, and irrespective of the type/size of file (though mine vary between 150kbps and 4096kbps - no DSD or real hi-res).

I have also tried uploading a little 150k .png file in place of the default background - no difference there either.

Can anyone else confirm my observations?

 

[Philippe Bill]

I have a problem with the SmS-200 + Roon duo
after a long standby period:
- SmS-200 is no longer present in Roon Zones
- the SmS-200 is no longer visible via a network scan
- a reboot of the SmS-200 is necessary

 

with exactly the same hardware, I never have this problem in UPnP (MinimServer)

 

only short-term solution: switch to UPnP before stanby
(and back to Roon after switch on)

 

Thanks for your help

[jp11801]

Hi my SOtM crapped out last night. I came home to no light on the front panel and checked the power supply connection and all good there. When I press the on button it lights up but goes dark when I take my finger off.

 

I burned three cards and can't it to fire up. Any thoughts from from people with experience would be greatly appreciated. I really like the sound but am bummed that for some the unit can be temperamental.

[Philippe Bill]

On 4/14/2020 at 12:42 PM, Philippe Bill said:

I have a problem with the SmS-200 + Roon duo....

SOtM responds quickly by email,
the solution is an upgrade to V4.81
thank you SOtM !

[Solstice380]

On 4/14/2020 at 6:51 PM, jp11801 said:

Any thoughts from from people with experience would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hi @jp11801.  It sounds like it won't get past the POST to power on and start the OS, so some bit of internal hardware is either disconnected or has failed.  Or a wild possibility may be the power supply you are using is going bad and not providing the minimum voltage necessary.  Have you contacted SOtM?

[jp11801]

I just heard back from SOtM and they are trying to troubleshoot with me. 

 

I am using the sbooster supply so that shouldn't be an issue. Oddly the unit does get warm when the power is connected. I fear it may need to go back to Korea 😞

 

it sounded awesome while it was up and running so I will sorely miss it if it needs to be physically repaired