Yamaha rx v775 & spotify connect - glitchy playback

[spotachris]

Hi all,

I've got spotify connect functioning with my Yamaha amp, songs will start flawlessly however after a few seconds of playback I'm getting 1 second or so pauses in the playback, which continues if  keep listening. My internet connection should be up to the task, I can stream at "extreme" bit rate from my phone on the same network.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is there anyway to troubleshoot this? Can I reduce the bit rate that the amp streams at? 

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks, Chris

[user-removed]

I have just purchased a Yamaha RX-S600D and have the same problem. Spotify Connect worked first time when I installed the receiver. But the stream has glitches every now and again. I have tested streaming Spotify from iPad, iPhone and iMac to the same receiver using Airplay and no issues at all. I don't know the quality of the stream that Airplay uses however it is meant to be the full quality of the originating stream.

My conclusion is that the problem is with the new Connect firmware in the Yamaha because Spotify is streaming perfectly everywhere else in my house. I plan to make a support call to Yamaha and the dealer where I purchased the box.

[KiwiKel]

Same problem with a Yamaha V475.    It also is not network related as I can use Spotify Connect to my tablet from my phone no problems but seems to be a delay with the Yamaha unit.   I have a support call in with Yamaha but I got the 'Your the only one' answer first time.

[Joe]

Just wanted to clear up a misconception. Unlike airplay, connect does not stream music between devices. Once you start a playlist playing on a connected device, you can turn off the original device and the music continues to play as the device you connected to is streaming the music. In the case of the Yamaha, the music is coming direct from the spotify servers so any quality issues are down to an issue with the receiver, internet quality or possibly a server issue.

[user-removed]

I also got the 'your the only one' answer from Yamaha support. My audio quality improved a lot when I reconfigured my ISP router to a bridge and installed my own router/ firewall. However, the glitches still occur and I have ended up not subscribing to Spotify and will probably try to return the Yamaha.

What a pity no one at Spotify or Yamaha seems to be able to fix these sort of problems. Perhaps it is the ISP network? But we need some diagnosis tools for isolating where the problem is occurring.

[KiwiKel]

My ISP should not be the prob, as I said my Phone and Tablet both work fine and I can use Spotify Connect on my phone to the tablet without a problemn which means my network is up to the task (I have very quick cable).  Yamaha seems to be the issue but they dont seem to be doing anything about it, may also return my unit if they dont pull their finger out.

[spotachris]

I've also raised a support call with Yamaha, they recommended I do a factory reset which I did. However I still get freezes in the payback, particularly at the start of songs.

To me this is a buffering issue with the way Spotify connect is working in this device. I also have cable which is pretty fast but a little spikey, with any sort of buffering payback should be fine as shown with Spotify on android or Pandora on the yamaha.

[spjenk]

I also just purchased the RX-600D and have the same problem with glitchy playback. Considering I have high speed cable internet this looks like an issue with Yamaha / Spotify Connect. I performed all firmware updates straight out of the box. 

Raised a case with Yamaha also. 

Did you get a response from your support call?

[user-removed]

I got responses from both Spotify and Yamaha. The challenge with this sort of problem is that the symptom can be generated from multiple causes. I have made a couple of changes to my configuration that has resulted in a reduction in the number and severity of the audio pausing/stuttering.

Response form Spotify Support:

The most useful bit of information I got from Spotify support was that Connect on the Yamaha uses exactly the same servers and protocols as Spotfiy on the iPad. This is important information that allows you to do effective A:B testing. I was able to immediately switch the stream from the Yamaha to the iPad by using the Connect audio control on the iPad. By having the Yamaha selected as the Airplay destination on the iPad this even will switch the stream from direct to Yamaha to streaming from iPad to Yamaha with a single selection on the Connect menu.

Connect stream: Spotify Servers ->> Yamaha (managed by iPad Spotify App)
Airplay stream: Spotify Servers ->> iPad Spotfiy App ->> Airplay ->> Yamaha

Every time I did this A:B test the Airplay stream functioned perfectly without any glitches even though the Connect stream was stuttering and pausing.

This testing leads me to conclude that Spotify is not the problem. Some of the pausing occurrences could be glitches at Spotify or issues with my ISP but these would be no more that is normal for a streaming services. None of the current streaming services are perfect after all.

Response from Yamaha:

1. Yamaha first asked me to reset the receiver, reload the firmware etc etc. none of this made any difference. However, I ended up changing my ISP router to Bridge mode and configuring my own router to act as the firewall. My router is an Apple Time Capsule which basically has an AirPort Extreme inside. This improved the performance of the audio significantly. Basically it went from unusable to usable but still very irritating. The Time Capsule is not the best router to be using and could still be the source of some of the audio glitches. For example it doesn't properly support UPNP to my knowledge.

2. Yamaha asked me to test the Net Radio source. This was to prove the network interface on the Yamaha and my local network. Net Radio did not work at all. I could not connect to the vTuner service. Sometimes I could get the vTuner directly to display but the radio streams always failed. I have another Pioneer receiver with vTuner on the same network and it works perfectly. When I looked at the network parameters on the Yamaha I noticed that the DNS was set to 192.168.0.1 which is the same as my router address. My router proxies this address to the DNS set by my ISP. Having read that the DNS could be a problem I therefore decided to reconfigure the DNS on the Yamaha to point to Googles DNS 8.8.8.8. Low and behold vTuner worked perfectly. I then went back and set the DNS on the Yamaha to the ISP's DNS and it also worked. My conclusion is that the Yamaha has a bug when dealing with a proxies DNS address. For some reason it doesn't like the DNS being set to the Default Router address.

This change dramatically reduced the instances of Spotfiy Connect glitches when streaming directly to the Yamaha.

CONCLUSION:

1. The ISP router can cause problems. Changing it resulted in an improvement.
2. Yamaha has a bug with handling proxied DNS addresses.
3. Glitches still occur but are now bearable.
4. Yamaha are working on a fix for this according to third or fourth hand feedback I received but I received no acknowledgement of this from Yamaha.
5. Use the iPad Spotify App to prove the glitches not caused by Spotify, your network or the ISP network.

A bit long winded but I hope useful to some of you having the same problems.
Thanks,

[KiwiKel]

I was told by Spotify support that the V475 was not supported?   Yamaha claims it is?

Yamaha have got me to test Pandora and Internet Radio, which works perfectly.     Strange thing is sometimes spotify switches the amp on randomly when I am not even near it?

As stated before my Phone and Tablet work fine on my network even using spotify connect between them.

One (annoying solution) I've found is to pause the track for a few seconds then it plays fine so it appears to be a buffering problem.

I will look at the DNS server changes and report back when I get a chance.

[KiwiKel]

Ok,

Have some progress!  It appears my issues are DNS related also.   By changing the 2nd DNS to 8.8.8.8 I seem to have corrected a lot of problems, I don't get any stutter during tracks just sometimes at the start when I have changed from one track to another manually.   But it is at least usable.    Hopefully the can get a fix into place in the next release.   Many thanks to the poster who took the time to write outlining what they had learnt!

[user-removed]

Hi, I just wanted to clarify that the fixes I discussed here DO NOT COMPLETELY fix the audio quality problems associated with Spotify Connect and the Yamaha receivers. The symptoms are reduced to a nearly acceptable level. It is great if others can also improve their experience to almost acceptable levels.

In my case I am getting long periods of excellent quality interspersed with periods of crap audio quality. I won't extend my Premium subscription under these circumstances since I bought the Yamaha specifically for Spotify Connect. I have decided to keep the Yamaha for now however since there is an outside chance that Yamaha will issue a firmware upgrade to address the many issues with this version of their receiver (RX-S600D). 

[spjenk]

Thank you for the detailed response!

Manually setting the IP details and changing the second DNS to 8.8.8.8 has made a good improvement but as you indicate I still get glitchy playback, just less often. Before it would happen consantly, now it is less often but adhoc (some good songs, some bad). 

[spotachris]

Thanks currawong for your detailed response!

I can't believe dns changes were the cause but this has no doubt drastically improved things on my end!

[andrepintorj]

I would say that this is a buffering problem in Yamaha's firmware. I own a RX-V675 receiver and I was getting a very glitchy playback when using Google's DNS. You may ask, why, since it seems to have helped so many people? Simple... I'm located in Brazil and Google's DNS service is in USA. If I use a local DNS, the playback has only a few glitches. Why then?

My assumption: The issue is very low buffer on Yamaha's firmwares. The playback issue becomes then DNS related due to Spotify's Content Delivery Network that works just fine if the receiver streams from nearer servers: lower latency. So adjusting your DNS makes your Yamaha's connect to the nearest server less sensitive to jitter/delays/latency...

I would like Spotify's engineer to talk to Yamaha's engineers so that it gets fixed on future Yamaha's firmware releases.

[user-removed]

I think that is exactly what is happening. I am now going to test back on my local ISP DNS to see if Spotify has improved the server addresses it has been propagating to my ISP's DNS!

I still think the Yamaha has a bad bug when your firewall/router proxies the DNS address to the router address. It seems to get totally confused in that situation. What crappy firmware - very disappointing when I have always thought of Yamaha as having excellent quality. Software is a different world to hardware...

[user-removed]

Hi, my RX-S600 received a firmware update back on 31/7/2014 - Version 1.11. Of course no one from Yamaha alerted me to this fact. Today I just stumbled across it while setting some options on the Yamaha iPad app. Anyway, after about 30 minutes of testing 🙂 it seems to be working! Solid as a rock - not a single stutter or pause. I have thought it was fixed in the past only to find the performance deteriorated after a little while. So I'll wait a few days before being confident it is all fixed.

Has anyone else tested Spotify Connect with the latest firmware?

[user-removed]

Hmmm. After more than 2 months of stable sound playback the stuttering has returned. Only on the Yamaha with Connect. Not on any other device running Spotify and not on Spotify streamed to the Yamaha using AirPlay.

Oh well. Premium subscription cancelled yet again.

Some support from Yamaha and/or Spotify would be nice but not expected.

[spjenk]

I gave up on getting it to work via the Yamaha. Went to JB HI-HI and boughta $49 Chromecast, plugged it in and worked without any issues. 

Cancelled Spotify subscription and subcribed to Google Music. 

Happy customer (of Chromecast!). 

[mikeltxo]

I have the same problem with Spotify Premium&Yamaha 475 . The amp has internet pq is Able to Play On Internet radios . He removed the DHCP ( DHCP not working on connecting , but if connecting an internet ) and he Let 's FIX IP and the Same Data Connection That cojia WHEN I WAS in dhcp and yes Connects an Internet But No sale in Listing connect . ..

He been able to see on your list fast Time 1 only , but I have not gotten a return Able to Connect Ser. I you could say you have you settings ?

DHCP ON or not?
In the configuration of the router 's MAC and IP meteis in your quick list Reservation?
Steps That conectaros para dais ? Poneis amp spotify in airplay and Abris and seleccionais Schedule ? Must Be Doing in some particular order ? He At one think that the application of paragraph Be yamaha ios spotify crashing scam ...

The versions I have son

firmware 1.26
iOS 8.1
1.9 spotify

Thank you very much for your help I 'm going crazy trying and trying again ... And I Like It Doubt whether is why having hardware or software problem

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@KiwiKel wrote:

I was told by Spotify support that the V475 was not supported?   Yamaha claims it is?

Yamaha have got me to test Pandora and Internet Radio, which works perfectly.     Strange thing is sometimes spotify switches the amp on randomly when I am not even near it?

As stated before my Phone and Tablet work fine on my network even using spotify connect between them.

One (annoying solution) I've found is to pause the track for a few seconds then it plays fine so it appears to be a buffering problem.

I will look at the DNS server changes and report back when I get a chance.

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I hope Your Help , Thousand Thanks ! :)