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[Professor Jud]

      With MC 17 and a 32-bit Win XP Pro OS, I've had good luck downloading 16-44.1 offerings from HDtracks with their Java client.  But recently I upgraded to a new OS, Windows 7 Enterprise at 64-bits, and to MC18, and now have had only trouble in downloading 16-44.1 files from HDtracks.  Even though all my "old" 16-44.1 files play via MC18 on my new 64-bit system (I've moved from ASIO4ALL to WASAPI-Event Style to address my Music Streamer II DAC via USB), two new downloads I have purchased from HDtracks had annoying and constant sonic "blips."  I tried converting these FLAC files to WAV, but the annoying "blips" remained.

Upon encountering this the first time (Chesky's lovely "4 Generations of Miles"), I complained to Support at HDtracks, and the people there worked with me closely to fix the issue.  At HDtracks' suggestion, I tried downloading the files anew with JRiver's "HDtracks downloader," but the problem persisted.  Only by going to the 24-96 version of these files could I get a clean copy without the constant "blips."   

Two days ago I tried another 16-44.1 download from HDtracks (the Nash Ensemble playing two sextets by Beethoven).  I used JRiver's HDtracks downloader.  But upon playing back the file, the same annoying "blips" occurred. 

Has anyone else had this problem?  There's no 24-96 version of the Beethoven sextets offered by HDtracks.  How can I get this music to play on MC 18?  I tried resetting the WASAPI buffering from 100 milliseconds to 250, but the problem persisted. 

Is it my fault or HDtracks'?

[Matt]

Could you mail me one of the files that has blips so we can test it ourselves?  It'll help us figure out if it's baked into the file or a playback issue.

I'm matt at jriver dot com.

Thanks.

(ps. I might not be able to follow-up until early next week)

[Matt]

Thanks for the sample file Jud.  Also, it was nice to meet at Newport.  I learned today that you're an art history professor.  Wow!

As for the blips, I'm not sure.  When I play the Nash Ensemble file you sent, it sounds good. 

If I turn it way up on headphones, there are occasional artifacts (like a tiny tick around 1:14 and 1:16).  This is quite subtle.

How pronounced are the blips you are hearing?  What track position has the most pronounced blip?

[Professor Jud]

Matt,

Many thanks indeed for the help with my problem.  But there are some developments.

I've found out today that the annoying "blips" I hear in MC 18 when playing back 16-44.1 files from HDTracks is NOT confined to downloads from HDTracks.  It seems that *all* my 16-44.1 files have the same problem, even those I have ripped direct from CDs in MC 17 some months ago.  Forgive me for misrepresenting this issue!  I've been using MC 18 for so short a time that I did not discover this until now. (Frankly, since downloading MC 18 a couple weeks ago, I have been playing my 24-96 files almost exclusively----and they play without any problem on my office Dell laptop.) 

So I went to the home entertainment center in the living room, and fired up the big computer dedicated to audio (an i5-3570K/Win 7 Pro OS at 64 bits):  it has MC 18 installed and I found that it has no problem whatever playing 16-44 files of any stripe!  I should have done this experiment before I wrote to the MC 18 Board last week.  My excuse?  The computer is utterly new (a couple weeks old) and I have hardly had any time to listen.

So the problem is confined to playing back 16-44 files on my the Dell Latitude laptop in my office audio system (it has a dual core Intel chip and a newly installed Win 7 Enterprise OS running at 64 bits).  Apparently the constant "blips" which mar the 16-44 play back in MC 18 on this machine are "in" the machine.  Anything to do?  Reinstall the latest version of MC 18 on it?

Thanks,  Jud the Prof

[Skogkatt]

I had a similar problem when I configured my computer (i7-3770 - 16GB): during SW setup (drivers, utilities, MC) there were constant blips with ASIO at the minimum latency (more sensitive to
external influences) but these blips weren't there before the installation of some utilities supplied by the motherboard manufacturer.
It was pretty easy to discover which one was causing the problem: the overclock and temperature monitoring utility was checking at regular intervals both the CPU temperature and fan speed.
Avoiding to load automatically such utility at startup was enough to solve the issue.

Although your configuration might differ a lot from mine, it might be worth to kill any unnecessary process during reproduction. A simple and quick test could be done using Fidelizer (google it) at its various settings
as it allows, in a non permanent way, to stop all the processes not required for audio reproduction.

[JimH]

So I went to the home entertainment center in the living room, and fired up the big computer dedicated to audio (an i5-3570K/Win 7 Pro OS at 64 bits):  it has MC 18 installed and I found that it has no problem whatever playing 16-44 files of any stripe!  I should have done this experiment before I wrote to the MC 18 Board last week.  My excuse?  The computer is utterly new (a couple weeks old) and I have hardly had any time to listen.

So the problem is confined to playing back 16-44 files on my the Dell Latitude laptop in my office audio system (it has a dual core Intel chip and a newly installed Win 7 Enterprise OS running at 64 bits).  Apparently the constant "blips" which mar the 16-44 play back in MC 18 on this machine are "in" the machine.  Anything to do?  Reinstall the latest version of MC 18 on it?

Reinstalling would have no effect.  You've proven that it's not the player.  It is either another piece of software misbehaving or a driver or other hardware problem.

The "Weird Problems" thread has a list of problems that might be helpful.  See the wiki for a link.

I would start uninstalling software, beginning with the virus checker.

[Matt]

I would also try different USB ports or even a USB hub.

I recently upgrade to Windows 8 and my Proton USB DAC started making hardware level ticks occasionally, after years of the same hardware working fine on Windows 7.  Software-side buffering and output modes in Media Center were irrelevant.

I tried different USB ports on the same controller and it didn't help.

Then I enabled my USB 3 controller and switched to it and the problem went away.

I once added a USB hub and had it fix a similar issue.

Sometimes USB is a little mysterious.