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

[currawong]

My Yamaha download site shows firmware 1.21 for the V475. Perhaps your country has a different firmware number for different language support? I have a S600D with yet another firmware version which was released 31/1/2014 - the same date as 1.21 for the V475. This firmware fixed a lot of bugs in Spotify Connect even though the release notes stated nothing about any fixes for Spotify. I would not be surprised if your firmware still has bugs. Yamaha firmware seems to be a great disappointment. A company like Apple will come along one day and disrupt the audio market with good software and good support. Here's hoping!

[currawong]

Yamaha has just released a firmware update -

RX-S600D Firmware Update Version 1.13

Yamaha is pleased to offer the following firmware update to ensure the best possible performance and latest features for your AV receiver.

This firmware
1. Improves connectivity of network music streaming services

Could be good news 🙂 I've just upgraded to Premium Spotify to test it out.

[currawong]

Pretty disappointed. Didn't even last a few hours before going bad again. Bad sound quality. Is all streaming audio this bad? I don't think so. Just Yamaha and Spotify Connect.

[spotachris]

With the Google dns and this firmware in place things seem to be working now. I get one studder when it first starts but it then plays fine from there. Seems like it pauses a little longer to get enough of a buffer going.

[currawong]

Good to hear. I have become hyper critical on this so my judgement is perhaps a little clouded now 🙂

[teqteq]

Unfortunately explicitly setting the DNS to my ISP (TPG) DNS hasn't helped with my HTR-4066.  It seems marginally better (possibly).  I have no idea why a DNS issue would cause intermittent audio streaming issues though.  It should only do the DNS look-up at the beginning of the stream shouldn't it?  If it's continually having to do DNS look-ups then surely there's a client issue in the firmware?

[currawong]

My rational was that there were problems with the Spotify CDN and the different DNS's were pointing to different caching servers some of which either had problems or in fact did not have the specific music I wanted to stream cached. The lack of buffering, and/or bugs, in the Yamaha Spotify Connect software then exacerbated the problems,

[teqteq]

The router should have the ISP DNS from DHCP in most cases anyway so should be using local routes.

I'm wondering if maybe the Spotify client on the Yamaha receiver is doing numerous DNS look-ups constantly, rather than holding a persistent connection. That might explain why the problem improves but doesnt disappear when using hard-coded DNS entries. It reduces the DNS lookup latency, with the router bypassed (as far as DNS forwarding).

But, regardles, HURRY UP AND FIX THIS SPOTIFY QND YAMAHA!!!! Ridiculous.

[teqteq]

So, an interesting development.

I switched to a new internet plan, but still on the same ISP, and all of a sudden my problems were gone!

I was on a TPG NBN 12/1mbps Unlimited plan, and switched to a TPG NBN 50/20mbps 500GB plan.

At first I thought it was maybe just the speed difference, but I've since used the Bandwidth Control on my router to limit it to well below the previous internet speed, and it's working very well still.  I'm thinking maybe the internet traffic on the unlimited plan was prioritised below the non-unlimited plan?  

I was using a Netcomm NF7 when I first saw the problem improve, and am now seeing the same improvement with the TP-Link TD-W9980 with bandwidth control applied.

I did try QoS to set the Yamaha to Priority 1 on the Netcomm NF7 when I was having problems before, so I don't believe it was an internal QoS issue.

This doesn't detract from the fact that something is still wrong with the firmware in these receivers, because every other device I use Spotify on had no issues whatsoever, but interesting that it has seemingly improved with just a plan change.

[currawong]

Back in September 2015 Yamaha released another firmware update to try and fix their audio quality bug with Spotify Connect.

It worked for about 2 months!!! Today it started to stutter and play up again.

I now have a Pioneer wireless speaker to directly compare with. It is playing from Spotify Connect without any issue whatsoever.

http://download.yamaha.com/search/detail/?site=au.yamaha.com&language=en&category_id1=16445&category...

RX-S600D Firmware Update Version 1.15

Yamaha is pleased to offer the following firmware update to ensure the best possible performance and latest features for your AV receiver.

This firmware
1. Improves connectivity of network music streaming services

Registered Date : 10/9/2015
Language : English
Size : 14.64 MB

Very disappointed yet again...

[madgiusti]

Hi all,

I purchased a Yamaha R-N301 in September 2015 and am having the same issue with Spotify (not very impressed), Pandora works flawlessly. The only reason I am still a premium member is cause I can stream Spotify to my PC and direct the audio to Line In on the Yamaha, it's a bit of a pain because I have to have the PC on, plus any system sounds/notifications are heard through the speakers:( I tried setting DNS to google but was just as bad, I then tried setting DNS to my ISP which seemed to make it better, but as I am typing this I am getting drop outs of 20-30 seconds and then 1-2 seconds of music, what a CROCK! Can't cope with it, turned it off:( I usually only get a 1-2 second drop out randomly every 1-3 songs.

I am located in Australia, from some posts it appears others are too, is anyone located outside of Australia having this problem??

Has anyone done packet sniffing to see what is happening? I was going to pickup a hub and use WireShark to monitor the traffic, then maybe place a support call to Yamaha and see what they have to say?? I'm guessing I'll get the "You are the only one" response! I thought I was the only one until I found this thread.

BTW, I am running latest firmware for the R-N301. My Internet connection is rock solid ADSL2 at 13-15 Mbps down with 20ms latency and just under 1 Mps up to local servers. NBN not available yet. Does anyone know where Spotify servers are located in Oz???

One other thing I have noticed when doing a speedtest.net during the download test no dropouts occur, but during the upload test I always get 3-4 dropouts, which again points to DNS lookups (or some other outbound data) being the likely cause of the dropouts. This could explain why teqteq no longer has the problem, changing from 1 Mbps to 20 Mbps outbound speed.

Anyway hopefully Yamaha fix this issue, but as it has been ongoing since 2014 I would not hold my breath.

[currawong]

Take a look at Twitter @spotifycares. The same issue is being discussed there.

[currawong]

I am now convinced it is a software bug in Yamaha's Spotify Connect code.

I have been playing music on the Pioneer with no issue at any time. I have conducted A-B tests between the Pioneer and the Yamaha and the stream always stutters and pauses on the Yamaha but never on the Pioneer. This is without stopping the music - simply switching the destination for Spotify Connect.

Also, when I stream to the Pioneer the music starts immediately. With the Yamaha there is a long pause while it buffers the stream. That indicates that Yamaha has tried to fix the problem by increasing the buffer size for the stream rather than fixing the bug in their code. This would be because they incorrectly believe the issues is in the internet.

[spotachris]

I get a bit of a studder at the start and then it seems OK. Am on Telstra cable in Australia, which I think may be part of the problem. It seems worse during peek times such as evenings.

[currawong]

I'm on Optus Cable. For the last 2 months it has worked perfectly - still with the same stutter as you experience at the beginning. And then WHAM - it is unusable since Jan 1st. What happened on Jan 1 other than Spotify had a big service outage?

What I cannot understand is why my Pioneer wireless speakers work perfectly all the time and the high grade Yamaha doesn't!! Both playing exactly the same Spotify Connect music on the same network.

[madgiusti]

I am also on Telstra, but ADSL2, although currawong is on Optus. What is your upload speed spotachris??

I was curious as to how Spotify worked, so I did some quick research and was surprised to find out that it actually uses P2P, very similar to BitTorrent, which might explain why upload speed is important, the device needs to find peers that hold the next part of the song. You may get stutters at the begining as the first 15 seconds of each song is from Spotify servers, but the song should still play flawlessly, regardless. According to this article https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/cctp-797-fall2013/archives/557 Spotify "uses its own proprietary streaming protocol to achieve such a seamless experience". If that is the case, then wouldn't Yamaha purchase/license the code from Spotify to run in the device? I guess it would depend on wrapper code to work properly with it.

I believe there is also error checking, DRM and encryption to deal with.

[spotachris]

I get about 20Mb/s down and 1Mb/s up.  The up seems more flakey than the down though.  I have less issues streaming Netflix HD than Spotify on the Yamaha.

[KiwiKel]

I have Telstra 'Ultrafast' Cable, runds at 100Mb/s.   I now also have a Yamaha N301 (much newer than my vx475) which I bought thinking the problem may be fixed.   It is not.    I still get stutters but I also noticed that they are worse during peak times and I may be imagining it, but worse with songs that are less well known.   Yamaha are useless, they just try to palm the problem off.   I have 0 problems with Netflix HD and that is pumping a lot more data over the network.    Does anyone in Australia have Spotify working correctly on a Yamaha unit, no stutters?

I may email them and point out a lot of us are having this problem and if they still try to palm it off may point out that the units are sold as Spotify compatible and that we are protected as consumers so if they cant fix the units they will have to refund.    I only use the units with spotify.

[currawong]

Solved! For me at least...

I have finally discovered the source of the problem, at least on my Optus Cable network. Since Jan 1st the cable modem was showing negative 'Power 'Level' for Channels 2-8. I had reported to Optus but was told no problems with my connection. Today everything is working perfectly. If you look at the attached screen shot you will see that the Power Levels are all positive for Channels 1-8. I rang Optus to ask what had happened and they informed me that there had been 'significant congestion' in my area that had now been fixed. I suspect in fixing this congestion issue they have also corrected the power levels in the cable network. I have had Spotify-Yamaha sound quality issues since early 2014. This is the first time I have a specific reason for the issue that makes sense.

I suggest two things:

1. Check your cable modems DOCSIS status values for Power Level and Signal to Noise Levels. They should be similar to those in the screenshot I believe. At least they shouldn't be negative as they were for me.

2. Don't buy a Yamaha receiver if you want to use Spotify Connect. I believe the implementation of Spotify Connect in those receivers is flawed. I had no stuttering issues with a Pioneer Wireless speaker running Spotify Connect even on the faulty cable network. 

[madgiusti]

That's great currawong, I hope it stays good for you. I'm thinking that the Yamaha only has a very small amount of memory for buffering, so having very low latency and a very fast connection (particularly outbound speed) is required. If this is the case, then I doubt that Yamaha can do anthing about it unless they replace hardware:(

KiwiKel, what upload speeds do you get on speedtest.net and what ping times?? I submitted an inquiry on Yamaha's website last Friday, have not heard anything yet.