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Post by pete on Jun 25, 2023 10:43:02 GMT
Earlier this year I spent a very enjoyable day with Oli. I had visited him to have a listen to his Ekta speakers, and, as said before, I came away in awe of their wonderful clean revealing sound and ability to convey emotion of the music so wonderfully.
During the day I was also mightily impressed with the Aqvox and Aria. I had been considering moving away from a CD player to a streamer and this combo really impressed. So much so that I started to look for a second hand Aqvox Mk2, which proved to be more than challenging, as most were in Europe and most sellers in Europe were not interested in the hassle selling to the UK.
So when Oli was thinking of selling his Aqvox and Aria he kindly contacted me and offered them.
I was looking forward to getting them into me system with my new Revelator 851s.
On reflection I feel that it is funny how often, on this forum, we talk about the faff of vinyl, I was about to discover a whole new area of faff. My IT background was to be useful, all be it as an amateur now, as my IT degree was in the dim and distant past, when computers were things which filled rooms, and the first portable Apple Macintosh 512 was designed to be transported in a basket on the front of a bicycle from what I remember.
The Aria 2, beautiful as it is, just wouldn’t do its thing. I had discovered its app runs on an iPad, which I don’t have, but not on an iPhone, which I do. So first problem, easily solved, was to get a cheap, secondhand Android phone just to use as a remote. This I did and installed the software, and nothing happened. The phone and Aria just would not communicate, in fact, the Aria app could not find the Aria server.
Checked all were connected correctly to the Internet via wi-fi and hard wired server, nothing. Oli had given me the email of someone at Aria, I contacted him, and was so pleased at how helpful he was, offering to go into the server remotely. But I needed to get a VGA monitor so I could set up the remote access. Next thing to find!! Monitor borrowed I set it all up and left it connected, just looking forward to wonderful music. I was contacted by Julio who said he had set up a few things in the server and all should be good. Amazing service I thought, on a machine well out of warrantee, and certainly not with original owner, and he wanted no payment either.
Back to the app, and …. at this point you want me to say sublime music flowed from the 851s, however, it did not. The app still could not find the server!! What the hell I thought, and I set off to explore what was going on the in the server’s software. Julio had said that sometimes, to get a connection, flick the phone on to airplane mode and out of it, how weird. I did this, and after about 20 goes it recognised the server and I got about 10 seconds of a track and then nothing.
To cut a long story short, and after another hour of investigation of settings I felt the firewall set up maybe the cause. Strange I though, it was working perfectly at Oli’s, but I guess he had a different network and router etc. This is where my lack of day to day IT-ing held me up. I was reluctant to just change the settings incase I buggered something else up. I should have just taken photos of settings and gone for it, but took the next best option. Encouraged my neighbour in with the promise of a couple of beers!
John is not just any neighbour. His job with Microsoft software sales and development gave me some confidence as the Aria 2 is based on a Windows home server. My thinking, if he couldn’t do it he would know someone who could. After 30 minutes he was still scratching his head, so I mentioned my thoughts over the Firewall, in he went, changed a few settings and there was a connection between app and server. It was done. music returned and what music it was. All that detail, flow and enjoyment I had experienced at Oli’s was now there in my living room, with the added LF punch that the 851s bring. I started investigating his music files that he had kindly left in place. All was great, and then I thought, time to add some of my own CDs…….
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Post by pete on Jun 25, 2023 11:29:50 GMT
The Aria has a built in CD drive for ripping. Promotional material goes into great detail of how easy it is to rip a CD to the internal drive and all metadata is picked up and populated. And it is, and it does. As Bigman80 has said in a previous thread, the whole operation takes 5 or 6 minutes. So I started adding some favourite CDs and removing some of Oli’s Spice Girls rips…. only kidding there!! The process is very easy, but a bit noisy, so I was doing it when not listening the the system. After about a month of adding CDs very successfully, it happened! I guessed what it was that caused it. It must have been the server just thought the CD was so great it wanted to keep it for a longer time, it wouldn’t eject the CD, bugger, or words to that effect! At least the new Wedding Present album was on the drive for me to enjoy. It was a pleasant surprise, when I turned on the next day the Aria had clearly decided it had enjoyed ’24 songs’ enough and returned it to me. Over the next few days I ripped the odd CD, but next time I did three, one after the other, it decided not to give me the third back, not even the next day. So I tried all the usual things, in no particular order. Swearing, taking the top off the Aria, turning it upside down, gently tapping the drive, checking nothing was obviously disconnected or damaged. Oli told me he had never had a problem with ripping, he helpfully suggested poking a pokey thing into the little CD release hole on the front of the machine to do a forced release. All turned off I gingerly tried this to discover the hole on the outside of the Aria did not match with the hole on the CD drive. Bugger! I contacted Julio, no reply, then a reply to say he was on a trip and not ignoring me. How kind to let me know, brilliant company. I needed a new plan! Online I discovered sometimes, if you press the eject button continuously on start up, the drive will eject. Yep, sometimes, but not this time. Back into the server I thought and try an eject from windows. VGA monitor borrowed again and set up I was into the server and ejecting from Windows, nothing. Having a look around the system I discovered the system thought there were no problems on the drive, and it had no CD in it, clearly something not correct here. I also took note of the CD drive make and model from an information window. Something was up with the drive for sure. Like many of us I have had experience of CD players becoming obsolete when drives become obsolete, I was feeling a bit despondent. An online search for the Teac drive showed it was no longer available, there were some second hand ones in US, but who knows how good they would be, had to be worth a shot though if nothing else was available. I found the replacement drive TEAC had introduced for sale in the UK so I contacted the company to see if they felt it was compatible. An almost instant reply told me they only dealt business to business and offered no help at all. Where next? Throughout this process of getting the server back working at its best just a little comment or a short email from someone offering help or encouragement has really helped. The joy of this forum is that it has many people who will do just that. I thought to my self, who may be able to give me a little advice on compatibility and thought of misterc . Tony, who no doubt was really busy was back to me in an instant. He knew the drive and suggested I contact the company I had already been turned down by, as I wasn’t a business. I contacted him and again in no time he was back with the suggestion I contact Teac direct and just change the drive if it was playing up. Again, really helpful advice. I sent the email to their European headquarters in Germany. Within an hour I had a reply. Not just any reply, but this person had spent a good amount of time giving me a really detailed reply over about a page of A4 about this drive and its replacement and compatibility. He went on to explain that because of the type of drive almost any SATA drive would work, including those from competitor companies. Those would be more easy to get hold of. Brilliant, getting somewhere now. I opened up the Aria again and removed the drive. I could see that I would need to carefully remove the bezel from this drive and fit it to the replacement drive for it to look factory. While the drive was out I poked in the pokey thing and did a force eject. I had my CD back. Drive back in and the CD ejected and loaded without fault, but I know there is a fault there. For £20 of course I will follow Tony’s advice and replace the CD drive. So why have I posted this? Few reasons really. But mostly it is to say, that when something in our systems, or in life generally is not going as intended, when we have a problem, it is great to reach out for help and guidance. Even if the person responding cannot solve our problem for us they often give us the encouragement and advice to help us solve part of it and move towards a solution. To all of us on here and elsewhere I would say keep offering advice and solutions, you may not realise how much help and encouragement you give just for the sake of a minute of your time. Very philosophical for me!! |
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Post by bencat on Jun 25, 2023 12:28:00 GMT
Nice to read your write up and sorry that your ownership has been so fraught . With regard to the initial issue not sure which version of Windows you are using but if the App is on your PC in the Update and Security settings and the Firewall there is a little blue line saying allow an App to access the internet . This links you to the control box for this and on the right there is small button to change settings . Once this is pressed in the box you can see a list of all the Apps . A quick scroll down and find the App for the Aria whatever it is called then on the right tick both boxes and under the box tick okay . This will ensure that the app can both communicate and be communicated with .
Your second issue is as you say a little bit of a find a replacement and put a new one in . try and find a CD ROM drive with the same front dimensions as your current one so that when you remove it the new drive will just fit as the old one did .
I fully agree that the various people on her like Oli , Tony , Alan and others are often great people to consult with and they all offer their advice and time to try and help . While I have much less technical knowledge and much less mechanical skills than all of them when I have something I can help with I try to do that even if it means a road trip to help . We all need each other sometimes and only if you can do what you can will others be prepared to help you .
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Post by pete on Jun 25, 2023 12:37:59 GMT
Nice to read your write up and sorry that your ownership has been so fraught . With regard to the initial issue not sure which version of Windows you are using but if the App is on your PC in the Update and Security settings and the Firewall there is a little blue line saying allow an App to access the internet . This links you to the control box for this and on the right there is small button to change settings . Once this is pressed in the box you can see a list of all the Apps . A quick scroll down and find the App for the Aria whatever it is called then on the right tick both boxes and under the box tick okay . This will ensure that the app can both communicate and be communicated with . Your second issue is as you say a little bit of a find a replacement and put a new one in . try and find a CD ROM drive with the same front dimensions as your current one so that when you remove it the new drive will just fit as the old one did . I fully agree that the various people on her like Oli , Tony , Alan and others are often great people to consult with and they all offer their advice and time to try and help . While I have much less technical knowledge and much less mechanical skills than all of them when I have something I can help with I try to do that even if it means a road trip to help . We all need each other sometimes and only if you can do what you can will others be prepared to help you . Thanks for the advice. I’ll check that out next time I have the vga monitor. It is running Windows Home Server 2011 I think. |
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optical
Moderator
BIG STAR
Be Excellent To Eachother
Posts: 1,560 
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Post by optical on Jun 25, 2023 12:53:47 GMT
Hope you can find a permanent solution, you have my sympathies.
I'm fairly technically adept, pc's, servers, firewalls, network keys, DLNA, P2P etc etc....
The faff of setting them up and then hoping it all stays stable whilst relying on your local internet to stay solid and connected whilst being stable to your phone (if using as a remote at the same time) is way too much to go wrong for me, always has been.
For me, a streamer with an SSD, controlled via an in hand remote is all I'll ever use.
It also guarantees that SQ is always at its best, no dropouts, network issues and I can listen to all my music with the internet literally turned off if need be.
Sorry, not 'gloating' or telling anyone what they should or shouldn't be doing but the amount of times I see people press 'play' and nothing happens is just ridiculous to me, if that's how it was for me I'd be back to CD in no time 🤣
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Post by pete on Jun 25, 2023 13:01:51 GMT
Hope you can find a permanent solution, you have my sympathies. I'm fairly technically adept, pc's, servers, firewalls, network keys, DLNA, P2P etc etc.... The faff of setting them up and then hoping it all stays stable whilst relying on your local internet to stay solid and connected whilst being stable to your phone (if using as a remote at the same time) is way too much to go wrong for me, always has been. For me, a streamer with an SSD, controlled via an in hand remote is all I'll ever use. It also guarantees that SQ is always at its best, no dropouts, network issues and I can listen to all my music with the internet literally turned off if need be. Sorry, not 'gloating' or telling anyone what they should or shouldn't be doing but the amount of times I see people press 'play' and nothing happens is just ridiculous to me, if that's how it was for me I'd be back to CD in no time 🤣 Yep. Agree. I have fired up the CD player a few times in the past couple of weeks. But good as it is it sounds nothing like the Aria and Aqvox. It is a fabulous pairing which I am over the moon with. I guess I am used to having stuff that ‘plays up’ a little running a Vintage camper as well! |
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optical
Moderator
BIG STAR
Be Excellent To Eachother
Posts: 1,560
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Post by optical on Jun 25, 2023 13:20:08 GMT
Hope you can find a permanent solution, you have my sympathies. I'm fairly technically adept, pc's, servers, firewalls, network keys, DLNA, P2P etc etc.... The faff of setting them up and then hoping it all stays stable whilst relying on your local internet to stay solid and connected whilst being stable to your phone (if using as a remote at the same time) is way too much to go wrong for me, always has been. For me, a streamer with an SSD, controlled via an in hand remote is all I'll ever use. It also guarantees that SQ is always at its best, no dropouts, network issues and I can listen to all my music with the internet literally turned off if need be. Sorry, not 'gloating' or telling anyone what they should or shouldn't be doing but the amount of times I see people press 'play' and nothing happens is just ridiculous to me, if that's how it was for me I'd be back to CD in no time 🤣 Yep. Agree. I have fired up the CD player a few times in the past couple of weeks. But good as it is it sounds nothing like the Aria and Aqvox. It is a fabulous pairing which I am over the moon with. I guess I am used to having stuff that ‘plays up’ a little running a Vintage camper as well! Yeah I understand your position totally. Does your cd player have a digital out so you can at least utilise the virtues of the Aqvox in the mean time? I reckon you'd be 85% of the way there with a half decent player.... There's some areas of life I don't mind a bit of faffing/tweaking every no and then but digital playback should not be one of them in my opinion. Trouble is internet providers and manufacturers of digital products (steamers etc) will tell us they're prefect, they are not and realistically, most aren't any better than they were 10/15 years ago even, most are worse actually. Same with nearly everything though, cost cutting and poor skills/knowledge level of designers etc trying to implement the 'latest technology' without knowing how to implement it usefully. Okay, rant over. 😂 |
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Post by bencat on Jun 25, 2023 13:45:40 GMT
As someone who has been using digital streaming since the original Logitech Squeezebox Touch I have a fair number of years doing this . Firstly let me state up front I have never signed up to to a streaming music service such as Tidal or Quboz so this is not what I am talking about . My Library consists of ripped cd,s I own and have been stored on various Hard Drives both SATA and SSD . For at least ten years my music server has been a Raspberry Pi 4 loaded with Logitech Media Server . This has only recently been replaced with a LIV Zen with 8 TB hard drive running Vortexbox which is again a distro using LMS . In all those years I have to say things have fun very well done issues with LMS updates but always sorted within the same day . Every system in the house is wire linked to this and no drop occur . Unless I am listening to Radio Paradise or other Internet stations it does not need to be internet connected and can run on my own internal network . It sounds great and has been pretty hassle free for years . I do agree that I often visit others who use streaming services or Roon and they do seem to have issues . I maintain they do not have to .
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Post by pete on Jun 25, 2023 14:09:16 GMT
Yep. Agree. I have fired up the CD player a few times in the past couple of weeks. But good as it is it sounds nothing like the Aria and Aqvox. It is a fabulous pairing which I am over the moon with. I guess I am used to having stuff that ‘plays up’ a little running a Vintage camper as well! Yeah I understand your position totally. Does your cd player have a digital out so you can at least utilise the virtues of the Aqvox in the mean time? I reckon you'd be 85% of the way there with a half decent player.... There's some areas of life I don't mind a bit of faffing/tweaking every no and then but digital playback should not be one of them in my opinion. Trouble is internet providers and manufacturers of digital products (steamers etc) will tell us they're prefect, they are not and realistically, most aren't any better than they were 10/15 years ago even, most are worse actually. Same with nearly everything though, cost cutting and poor skills/knowledge level of designers etc trying to implement the 'latest technology' without knowing how to implement it usefully. Okay, rant over. 😂 CD does not have a digital out sadly. I am not streaming but just using the server to play files that have been ripped or downloaded. One of the things that attracted me to the Aria was its quality of build and sound. It has been playing files with such fidelity that I have not been using vinyl anywhere near as much. It is very definitively a high end server that can deliver music to multiple rooms in the house if wanted. I’m not doing that so the only Internet connection is between the app and server to choose tracks to play. It also connects to the Internet to access metadata. The connection between app and server is now spot on. I’ll swap out the CD drive and I’m sure all will be good with that as well. Think I’ll be looking to sell my CD player soon and maybe get a simple CD transport. Or maybe just use the server. |
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Bigman80
Grandmaster
AA Founding Member & Bigbottle Audio Creator
Posts: 16,088
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Post by Bigman80 on Jun 25, 2023 23:11:19 GMT
I am really sorry you've had such a rocky start with the Aria. Its undoubtedly a top-class streamer. The sound quality really is superb, and when the cd ripper is doing its thing, its so easy to blaze through ripping a couple of dozen cds that it's worth the effort just for that feature.
Im really pleased youve felt supported on this little diversion to audio heaven. This forum may be small, but we have some highly qualified guys here who are very generous with their time and knowledge.
Well done, everyone.
Hopefully, you'll be ripping discs again. In no time!
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