Hi RustyGates,
I'm sorry to read you're having issues with your new 8c's. First with the firmware, and then with streaming.
The 8c's firmware is constantly being improved. Right now we're at release 2.4. You said that your brand new pair of 8c's was on 2.1 when you received them. I don't know how that's possible, because we update the firmware release we put on new speakers at pretty much the same time when the new release is made available to existing users. That means that the last new 8c's with 2.1 must have left our production line in December of last year. If you'd like me to check when your 8c's were produced, please PM me the serial numbers of your 8c's. For more info about firmware updates, please check this page on our website:
https://dutchdutch.com/pages/firmware
With respect to issues with streaming, those are usually caused by funny behavior of the ethernet switch. The thing that makes streaming to the 8c’s dependent on the switch, whereas other streaming devices might work fine on the same switch, is that all 8c’s in your system are so-called ‘masters’. You're not streaming to one device (streamer, all-in-one speaker, master in a master-slave setup), but to both 8c's individually. They both have their own DSP and audio clock and the 8c’s communicate with each other via the ethernet to perfectly synchronize their clocks. This was quite difficult to develop, but it works very well if your network performs to ethernet spec.
According to our developers, some switches have all sorts of power domain optimization running in the background, which may mess up time-sensitive communication on the network. Expensive 'hifi' switches more often than not cause issues. In more high-end conventional switches, the user can usually configure these settings themselves. But it’s generally more cost-effective, and surely easier, to just use a simple unmanaged switch from a reputable company.
We generally recommend the NetGear GS105 because it is widely available, not too expensive, and it just works. However, there are many others that work well on the market. If you’d like our developers to check your switch’s specs, please reach out to us at
[email protected]. Our developers will then look for red flags in your switch’s specs.
One or two pages back you were looking for information about the bottom panel of the 8c. You may have already found what you're looking for. If not, this will probably be useful:
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0759/1854/1137/files/Dutch-Dutch-8c-bottom-plate.pdf?v=1689596206
Martijn