JBL SDP 58 vs Monoprice Monolith HTP-1 Considerations and Purchase Advice

[cputoaster]

Additional JBL SDP 55/58 Disadvantages:
-Ticking noise every 10 seconds from an Apple TV 4k over Dante.
-Sharp squeal when using an Nvidia Shield.
-VERY LOUD snaps that repeat over and over when the display gets turned off and triggers a Nintendo Switch getting turned off.
-Dolby Volume has been simplified/removed and is presets only.

This is with a unit where the seller had the 8k and Dante board service on a JBL SDP 55.

At this point I'd consider Dante a moot point after trying another adaptor from Avio that is on the way. Currently using Amphenol AES adaptors to convert from Dante. Already tried two different network switches. Already tried different clock leaders. Already tried different HDMI cables. Already updated the firmware on the JBL and reset the settings on the TV.

If that new adaptor doesn't work I'm open to other suggestions but will update things here in case anyone else wonders whether dante works on the SDP 55 and SDP 58 well enough to enjoy without pops and clicks and screeching and loud snaps.

My suspicion is that few people use Dante and if they do the little ticks are either ignored because the source material plays over them, or it's luck of the draw on the Dante board fix which isn't very reassuring.

I think something is wrong with the setup. My SDP-55 (with the usual fixed Dante / XLR boards) works very well with an NVidia Shield and playing from a MacBook via Dante without any squeals or snaps. I did have problems before I bought and correctly configured an appropriate network switch. I also have Dirac presets for movies, music listening, and background music that work well for those 3 scenarios with a volume target, custom curve and different listening measurement points.

 

[stevenswall]

I think something is wrong with the setup. My SDP-55 (with the usual fixed Dante / XLR boards) works very well with an NVidia Shield and playing from a MacBook via Dante without any squeals or snaps. I did have problems before I bought and correctly configured an appropriate network switch. I also have Dirac presets for movies, music listening, and background music that work well for those 3 scenarios with a volume target, custom curve and different listening measurement points.

What else do you have hooked up and what brand of switch are you using? I tried two unmanaged Netgear ones and a Microtik.

Do you use some of the analog inputs at the same time?

For me right now it's a Shield, Apple TV, and Switched into the LG C9 OLED, then eARC to the JBL unit, Dante to an 8 port Netgear switch, to AES adapters from Amphenol, and AES/EBU cables to the Genelec speakers some over a CAT 6 snake.

For analog it's XLR to a rear pair of Kali IN5 monitors.

 

[Littletycoon]

It is not advised to do Dante/Aes with unmanaged switches. Things like energy efficient modes, Jumbo frames, lack of QoS , lack of igmp snooping on many unmanaged switches do not combine well with Dante/AES. I'm myself in the process of finding out switch requirements for Dante/Ravenna. That is a bit complicated as information on the internet is a bit fragmented. Now that i think of it, maybe i should as chat gpt

 

[stevenswall]

It is not advised to do Dante/Aes with unmanaged switches. Things like energy efficient modes, Jumbo frames, lack of QoS , lack of igmp snooping on many unmanaged switches do not combine well with Dante/AES. I'm myself in the process of finding out switch requirements for Dante/Ravenna. That is a bit complicated as information on the internet is a bit fragmentated. Now that i think of it, maybe i should as chat gpt

Huh, I thought the point was to have the Dante devices figure things out in a simple way with an unmanaged switch. Their documentation does mention EEE which isn't present on the Netgear switches from what I can see. Curious what most people use to get ~8 PoE Dante dongles going. (Many seem to just run to an amp or two with one connection.)

Let us know what you find out!

 

[cputoaster]

It works well for me with a Netgear GS308EP-100PES, the important part is to disable the power saving stuff in the web management and have a dedicated vlan for dante. I have an NVidia Shield TV connected for ATMOS movie viewing, also using a lot of direct casting from Google Home devices. Apart from that a PS3 and sometimes my Macbook Pro M1, all works fine. Viewing device is a Panasonic PT-AE2000 projector. LCR connected via Audinate Dante -> AES3 converters, rest XLR. As I had one of the earlier SDP-55, I had a "general repair" made, I think they swapped out the XLR and Dante boards.

 

[stevenswall]

It works well for me with a Netgear GS308EP-100PES, the important part is to disable the power saving stuff in the web management and have a dedicated vlan for dante. I have an NVidia Shield TV connected for ATMOS movie viewing, also using a lot of direct casting from Google Home devices. Apart from that a PS3 and sometimes my Macbook Pro M1, all works fine. Viewing device is a Panasonic PT-AE2000 projector. LCR connected via Audinate Dante -> AES3 converters, rest XLR. As I had one of the earlier SDP-55, I had a "general repair" made, I think they swapped out the XLR and Dante boards.

Thanks. I've ordered that from Amazon and it will be here tomorrow. You don't have a router for it right? Or do you with the Vlan you mentioned? I swear Dante should not require a router, But I do have one I could hook up somewhere.

What happens with the PS3 and MacBook Pro?

Mine should have these swapped out XLR and Dante boards.

Thanks in advance if this works, if not I think it's something with the unit If you are using the same AES over XLR adapters and switch.

Just Seems incredible that issues with the switch would cause such crazy noises that would be carried digitally and not rejected. There's got to be a way for them to have things fail more gracefully.

 

[cputoaster]

Thanks. I've ordered that from Amazon and it will be here tomorrow. You don't have a router for it right? Or do you with the Vlan you mentioned? I swear Dante should not require a router, But I do have one I could hook up somewhere.

Nope. Just a switch. The VLAN is the very brute force one, where I just have 4 ports of the switch in one separate Dante network and the other 4 ports in my standard in-house network.

What happens with the PS3 and MacBook Pro?

They work fine. Just not using them that often, I only use the PS3 as a CD / Bluray / DVD player and the Macbook for other strange stuff.

Mine should have these swapped out XLR and Dante boards.

Thanks in advance if this works, if not I think it's something with the unit If you are using the same AES over XLR adapters and switch.

Just Seems incredible that issues with the switch would cause such crazy noises that would be carried digitally and not rejected. There's got to be a way for them to have things fail more gracefully.

I think it's just Dante. I also had problems first because I did not realize how it is optimized for real-time professional audio. There are no ways in the protocol to go slightly non-realtime with more resilience to small network drops and delays like you will always have with a normal throughput-optimized, energy efficient and auto-everything IT network.

I guess you know this one already, but posting it here anyway: https://my.audinate.com/sites/default/files/PDF/dante-network-blacklisted-eee-switches-audinate.pdf

Think of the evil noises as a sign of quality of your setup to try to interpret digital artifacts in the analog space ;-). At least as long as that equipment won't break (Genelec won't). I did test some signals that I created digitally and clearly are not physically possible to transform into air movements. On purpose. It would be a hard call to say from when you want to start considering it "not sound".

 

[stevenswall]

Think of the evil noises as a sign of quality of your setup to try to interpret digital artifacts in the analog space ;-). At least as long as that equipment won't break (Genelec won't). I did test some signals that I created digitally and clearly are not physically possible to transform into air movements. On purpose. It would be a hard call to say from when you want to start considering it "not sound".

Something changed with the switch you recommended, so there's a little progress! Now it's two sharp scratchy sounds when I start playing music. I've made sure EEE is off and put everything on a dedicated VLAN (nothing else runs on this.)

Could I get your settings for these things?

QOS Mode: 802.1P DSC
Broadcast Filtering: Off

IGMP Snooping: On
Block Unknown Multicast Address: Off
Validate IGMPv3 IP Header: Off

They are all at the defaults, but I wonder if some of them need to be changed, but if I set them the same as yours I can start playing with different clock leaders.

Do you have the JBL as the clock leader?

Do you enable or disable Unicast Delay requests? This is from an AES adaptor..

 

[stevenswall]

GS308EPP on Amazon has the same issues (soft tick noises every several seconds when audio is playing from an Apple TV, sharp sound briefly playing audio from an Nvidia Shield, crazy sounds that go on for a minute or two from the Switch.)

Clock leader JBL SDP 55,
QOS Mode: 802.1P DSC (ticking) Port Based (ticking)
Broadcast Filtering: Off (ticking) On (ticking)

IGMP Snooping: On (ticking) off (ticking)
Block Unknown Multicast Address: Off (ticking) on (ticking)
Validate IGMPv3 IP Header: Off (ticking On (ticking)

Time to change to a Cisco switch and assume Netgear is a no-go?

At this point I'd be happy if Audinate sold a preconfigured switch for even $500 if I knew that would work and that was an expected cost... Or if JBL made a unit that could differentiate between properly encoded HDMI audio and reject things that weren't encoded correctly to solve the horrible switch noises, or had a guide for what worked to get rid of the tick noises as Audinate isn't helpful with a troubleshooting tree and different clock leaders and network switches and settings don't seem to matter. We need a whitelist, not an incomplete blacklist.

Tried contacting a couple of installers to do a troubleshooting visit and set up Control4 to simplify some CEC stuff but haven't had any luck.

 

[Littletycoon]

GS308EPP on Amazon has the same issues (soft tick noises every several seconds when audio is playing from an Apple TV, sharp sound briefly playing audio from an Nvidia Shield, crazy sounds that go on for a minute or two from the Switch.)

Clock leader JBL SDP 55,
QOS Mode: 802.1P DSC (ticking) Port Based (ticking)
Broadcast Filtering: Off (ticking) On (ticking)

IGMP Snooping: On (ticking) off (ticking)
Block Unknown Multicast Address: Off (ticking) on (ticking)
Validate IGMPv3 IP Header: Off (ticking On (ticking)

Time to change to a Cisco switch and assume Netgear is a no-go?

At this point I'd be happy if Audinate sold a preconfigured switch for even $500 if I knew that would work and that was an expected cost... Or if JBL made a unit that could differentiate between properly encoded HDMI audio and reject things that weren't encoded correctly to solve the horrible switch noises, or had a guide for what worked to get rid of the tick noises as Audinate isn't helpful with a troubleshooting tree and different clock leaders and network switches and settings don't seem to matter. We need a whitelist, not an incomplete blacklist.

Tried contacting a couple of installers to do a troubleshooting visit and set up Control4 to simplify some CEC stuff but haven't had any luck.

It is only indirect based upon a different protocol (Ravenna): Ravenna, it seems to be those Netgear 308 switches have ptp issues. Since both Dante and Ravenna use ptp(v2) in a way (Ravenna much stricter in my perception) the ticking may be related to that, but i'm guessing, indeed you're a bit on your own when issues arise.

There seems to be seamless Netgear AV switches with Dante support Netgear (they claim) with pricing starting seemingly around 550-600 usd.

 

[stevenswall]

There seems to be seamless Netgear AV switches with Dante support Netgear (they claim) with pricing starting seemingly around 550-600 usd.

Breaks the promise of consumer over the counter networking device working. Imagine using this for a live application and not being able to run to the nearest walmart/bestbuy/staples to get different wires and a network switch for a quick fix.

What switch do you use for Ravenna?

 

[cputoaster]

GS308EPP on Amazon has the same issues (soft tick noises every several seconds when audio is playing from an Apple TV, sharp sound briefly playing audio from an Nvidia Shield, crazy sounds that go on for a minute or two from the Switch.)

Clock leader JBL SDP 55,
QOS Mode: 802.1P DSC (ticking) Port Based (ticking)
Broadcast Filtering: Off (ticking) On (ticking)

IGMP Snooping: On (ticking) off (ticking)
Block Unknown Multicast Address: Off (ticking) on (ticking)
Validate IGMPv3 IP Header: Off (ticking On (ticking)

Time to change to a Cisco switch and assume Netgear is a no-go?

At this point I'd be happy if Audinate sold a preconfigured switch for even $500 if I knew that would work and that was an expected cost... Or if JBL made a unit that could differentiate between properly encoded HDMI audio and reject things that weren't encoded correctly to solve the horrible switch noises, or had a guide for what worked to get rid of the tick noises as Audinate isn't helpful with a troubleshooting tree and different clock leaders and network switches and settings don't seem to matter. We need a whitelist, not an incomplete blacklist.

Tried contacting a couple of installers to do a troubleshooting visit and set up Control4 to simplify some CEC stuff but haven't had any luck.

GS308EP-100PES Firmware: V1.0.1.1
IGMP Snooping enabled for IT LAN, not for Dante LAN

Works fine for me, so the switch is probably not the problem.

Screenshots attached. "sumo" is the MacBook that is normally not on the network, just now for using the tools.

Cheers,
Andres

 

[rkrkrk]

How does one know if they need the XLR board swapped on SDP-55?

 

[Dougey_Jones]

This thread is making me not want to buy an SDP-58.. Are these mostly Dante issues? If I plan to use it with just an XBOX X and PC as sources and use the standard XLR outputs and no Dante am I going to run into these probs?

 

[JRiggs]

This thread is making me not want to buy an SDP-58.. Are these mostly Dante issues? If I plan to use it with just an XBOX X and PC as sources and use the standard XLR outputs and no Dante am I going to run into these probs?

No, you shouldn't run into issues. I have had one running daily since April 2022 without issue. All HDMI and XLR connections. Sources are Apple TV4K, PlayStation, Panasonic DB-UB9000. Video signals to a Sony 77A80J. Mix of Buckeye and Parasound amplifiers. Firmware is mature. No noise what so ever. It's also a fantastic Roon endpoint.

 

[kacos]

This thread is making me not want to buy an SDP-58.. Are these mostly Dante issues? If I plan to use it with just an XBOX X and PC as sources and use the standard XLR outputs and no Dante am I going to run into these probs?

Aside from the known Dante issues, they work just fine (I have both the SDR-35 & SDR-55).

 

[Dougey_Jones]

No, you shouldn't run into issues. I have had one running daily since April 2022 without issue. All HDMI and XLR connections. Sources are Apple TV4K, PlayStation, Panasonic DB-UB9000. Video signals to a Sony 77A80J. Mix of Buckeye and Parasound amplifiers. Firmware is mature. No noise what so ever. It's also a fantastic Roon endpoint.

Weird question but, do you happen to know if the SDP-55/58 has a balance control for stereo on the remote?

 

[kacos]

Weird question but, do you happen to know if the SDP-55/58 has a balance control for stereo on the remote?

Not in the remote, but it has in the web config:

 

[cputoaster]

This thread is making me not want to buy an SDP-58.. Are these mostly Dante issues? If I plan to use it with just an XBOX X and PC as sources and use the standard XLR outputs and no Dante am I going to run into these probs?

Also, Dante works fine for most (e.g. me), with JBL supporting and fixing HW problems if you have very early versions (like I had). It's one of the USPs and allows a whole new world of possibilities, especially because of the option to mix analog and digital, ethernet, RCA and XLR with Dirac doing the level and delay calbration as a bonus of the actual room correction. There is a reason this is used by custom installers. But it does need some knowledge to understand the requirments and limits of the different integrated systems.

 

[stevenswall]

Aside from the known Dante issues, they work just fine (I have both the SDR-35 & SDR-55).

I've completed troubleshooting with Harman and in addition to the Dante issues there are issues with the XLR connections. Here's what was tried:

-Replacing HDMI cables.
-Different XLR cables.
-Unplugging Dante connection from the JBL unit.
-Using Spotify connect to eliminate HDMI sources as the issue.
-Updating firmware.
-Factory Resetting the unit.
-Factory resetting the TV.
-Unplugging all HDMI cables.

UPDATE: Dante has to be disabled to stop the noises. This is with Dante unplugged but not disabled, and there are crackling sounds coming from Kali monitors connected over XLR.

This is on an open box unit that had the following:
-8K HDMI board
-XLR ground fix
-Dante board fix (replacement)

I think I'll get an HTP1 for the equal loudness feature since I value that more than the Chromecast on this, and Dante still needs a fix.