[patmania]

I want to raise a concern about my recently bought WR-1. Coming from a Node (gen1) it disappoints me to find out that the WR-1 does not play gapless. Now, i mostly use internet radio and Spotify connect, so it's not a huge deal for me, but it makes the platform much less interesting for people who are using hifi-quality services or files and want to listen to albums in stead of playlists.

It's really a device issue. Not a network / speed issue. For example BubbleUpnp lists the WR-1 grayed out on the gapless playback setting. It's just not implemented. And i registered for a Qobuz trial and are getting the same behaviour from the Omnia app.

I hope this can be addressed in a firmware update, because gapless playback is a feature which has been resolved years ago already and would be a big step-up for the platform if you ask me.

[rustydoglim]

It is on the to-do list of the App and module supplier. Unfortunately there are other things such as various new hi-res format from streaming providers with higher priority.

[Mike-48]

As someone burned by this defect twice (by PS Audio, then Classé), I keep an eye open about gapless issues. I find it incredible that any manufacturer is still selling devices with this bug. Disappointing, to say the least. It seems to show a total disregard for music itself.

In what world is supporting some extreme high-res format more important than playing music is it was intended?

What is going on when modules that are DBD* are STILL being sold, used, and sent to customers in products that claim to be "high end"? This problem was solved more than a decade ago. It shouldn't exist.

And of course, any reviews I could find of the WR-1 don't mention it. Par for the course at how derelict many reviewers are.

I am sad to see more evidence that love of audio and love of music not only differ, but in many cases are mutually exclusive.

* DBD = defective by design

[zappan]

Gapless is so solved problem that it is incredible there are new devices on the market not supporting gapless.

And it's free - Logitech Media Server (LMS) is gapless, open source, and works well. I run it on the RPi-based Nuprime Pi-9 as a part of the PiCorePlayer bundle as a server and a renderer. Innuos uses the same LMS platform for their commercial products... no need to reinvent the wheel if you don't have the resources.

[rustydoglim]

It is a software (application/firmware) issue, normally not "control" by device manufacturer.

Typically it is solved by system or application vendor so in the early days before online streaming, media server applications solve this by prefetching and caching.

Now that many people are using online streaming, the architecture changed, and the core module and applications are now provided by streaming services and stream module vendors.
Streaming module vendor's have their hands full implementing constantly changing APIs and formats from streaming service providers.
Online streaming apps at the source/application layer support gapless playback, so streaming module vendor's priority is to provide support for the services. When the source comes from DLNA, that's where we run into gapless playback problem. The App that access the DLNA source doesn't yet have the prefetching and caching (because it was designed to support streaming service API). 

So if you want gapless playback from your local hi-res music files, use media server on your PC and connect by USB audio.  Unfortunately you can't seamlessly have one App that does both. 

[Mike-48]

Rustydoglim,
I'm sorry to see that the Omni WR-1 has this issue. I think you would agree, what matters is the specification that the manufacturer gives to the firmware and chipset vendor. If gapless playback is part of that spec, it will be achieved.

I base that idea on this: Of 8 different streamers I've owned, 6 are capable of gapless playback, either from online services or from local files. This is when controlled by widely available apps. I still own three streamers (MSRP range $200-$2800), all of which provide gapless playback from either online services or local files, whether using DLNA or OpenHome client software or using Roon.

I'm often asked for recommendations. I've been searching for a recommendable streamer, one easy to use and not too costly. I am very sorry that this is not it. I do appreciate your being candid up front that the issue exists. I have had friends buy streamers with this problem and then have to return them. That does not help anyone. So kudos for that. I hope the WR-1 Mk. II will fix this!

[rustydoglim]

I am not sure you understand the issue here: there are two classes of streamers.
Users buy WR-1 for listening to online streaming sources, and through the streaming app, it is gapless. But if you also want to listen to gapless local music, you can either buy a linux server based  streamer, or wait until our app development partner provides gapless playback for DLNA.

Take the Omnia A300 for example, you could have best of both worlds:
For online streaming, use the app.
For local music, use music server software running on computer and connect via USB audio to A300, if you must have gapless local music playback. Otherwise the Omnia app can still stream from the music local DLNA server but it is not gapless (until the app addresses this issue in some future upgrade).

[zappan]

@rusty gapless is a feature end users absolutely demand in 2021, and they're not really interested in technicalities. If your software/app vendor isn't capable of providing that, you've got a big problem with your streaming products, and might want to consider an alternative vendor for that part.

For example, I bought the Pi-9 on your OEM offer, and loaded the PiCorePlayer onto it as a 'running-in-RAM' OS which runs Logitech Media Server (LMS) as a server and an accompanying Squeezelite renderer, and I got full gapless support for both local files and online streaming services. As LMS is an open source product, maybe that could be a way to go for your streaming products down the road. After all, the Innuos streamers are also based on the LMS solution, and they've been praised a lot. BluOS platform is also an option that has all that integrated nicely and is offered to be licensed by 3rd party vendors.

Anyhow, I'd be interested in getting one of the more advanced streamers you built, with your custom audio processing, but until it has a seamlessly integrated gapless support for both local files and online streaming services via one single interface, it's a roadblock for me, and most probably many users out there. You've got great hardware, but you will need to step up your game on the software side. I wish it to happen sooner rather than later.

[rustydoglim]

@rusty gapless is a feature end users absolutely demand in 2021, and they're not really interested in technicalities. If your software/app vendor isn't capable of providing that, you've got a big problem with your streaming products, and might want to consider an alternative vendor for that part.

Please read my post again about gapless.
The issue is the streaming client which is designed to handle Spotify etc is not designed to handle DLNA server in gapless mode (not yet, working on that). Other products that people used as examples are Linux based (which they implemented Spotify support through API on the server side).

Anyway, all these explanation is beyond the understanding of most users. Our supplier also supplies Harmon and many other big brands.
They are probably the only one left that can make long term commitment on the platform and provide a suite of modules and app.

Take a look at Qualcomm AllPlay. It used to be one of the supplier, and Qualcomm reportedly spent more than $100M on audio streaming and eventually shut down the project. Many large companies that used AllPlay also suffered huge losses.  And you think there are other supplier that can meet our long term requirement? There is none.  Sure, if we want to develop a gapless DLNA streamer, that's very easy. That's not our plan. We need a supplier with very deep pocket, with millions of users, with the ability to provide multiple chipsets that work with the app, with system integrators that can work with us to design various form factors and streamers.  And also scale from low cost module to high performance ones.

We know all the suppliers in the business .