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Author Topic: Hearing a loud pop at the beginning of each file when playing an album  (Read 2597 times)

Sky King

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Hi,

I have run into an issue that I can't seem to figure out how to correct.  I downloaded an album in DSD format, Shelby Lynne's 'Just A Little Lovin', from Acoustic Sounds.  When I play the album in it's entirety starting from track 1, at the transition of one track to the next I get quite a loud pop from the speakers.  When I select and play tracks individually and/or at random, there are no pops or transients heard from the speakers.  Other DSD downloads from this and other sites don't have these annoying pops.  I am using a Lumin streaming player to play back the files if that matters.

Does anyone have any idea what I can do to correct this?  Thanks much for the help!
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52girl52

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I am using a Lumin streaming player to play back the files if that matters.

Is this really a JRiver software problem? At first glance I would say you need to be somewhere else? Maybe Lumin Streaming player forum. Sorry if I missed something in you note.
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Sky King

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I am not sure where the problem lies.  It could be the hardware (Lumin), it could be the software (JRiver) or it could even be the download I suppose.

I didn't know there was a Lumin Streaming player forum and I will look for it and see if there is any info I can use.  Thanks for the info!
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Hilton

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Hi,

I have run into an issue that I can't seem to figure out how to correct.  I downloaded an album in DSD format, Shelby Lynne's 'Just A Little Lovin', from Acoustic Sounds.  When I play the album in it's entirety starting from track 1, at the transition of one track to the next I get quite a loud pop from the speakers.  When I select and play tracks individually and/or at random, there are no pops or transients heard from the speakers.  Other DSD downloads from this and other sites don't have these annoying pops.  I am using a Lumin streaming player to play back the files if that matters.

Does anyone have any idea what I can do to correct this?  Thanks much for the help!

Assuming your using JRiver MC19 to bitstream DSD to your DAC.... You could try turning on "play silence at startup for hardware synchronization" under audio options.
You could also try adding a .1sec gapped fade under "track change" options.  This has been known to fix pops and clicks. (I think you'll need to turn off bitstreaming in MC19 though to do this and reencode to DSD in "output encoding" in the DSP studio.  I don't have a native DSD DAC so I cant tell you for sure.)
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Sky King

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Hiltonk,

Thanks for the thought.  I was able to resolve the issue by unclicking the "Bitstream DSD (requires DoPE compliant renderer) in the advanced portion of the DLNA Servers configuration screen.  I am not sure of any negative side effects of doing this however but maybe you know.  The Lumin renderer still seems to work ok without bitstreaming enabled.

I will try what you suggest later with the Bitstream DSD re-enabled.

Thanks again!

Update:  I spoke too soon and they pops/clicks have not been resolved after all.  I think they went away when I was down-converting by accident because, with Bitstream DSD set to off, I was getting 176k / 24bit audio.  I'll continue to look for a resolution.
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Sky King

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Assuming your using JRiver MC19 to bitstream DSD to your DAC.... You could try turning on "play silence at startup for hardware synchronization" under audio options.
You could also try adding a .1sec gapped fade under "track change" options.  This has been known to fix pops and clicks. (I think you'll need to turn off bitstreaming in MC19 though to do this and reencode to DSD in "output encoding" in the DSP studio.  I don't have a native DSD DAC so I cant tell you for sure.)

I cannot do this because the Lumin is not a local zone so I don't have access to those functions unless I've not got my ducks lined up. Am I missing another configuration setting?
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6233638

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Native DSD playback is notorious for these sorts of problems.
I'm not sure that it's a Media Center issue, but rather a renderer issue.
 
If converting to PCM avoids this problem, it would indicate that the Lumin is at fault.
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Sky King

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Roger that.  I am beginning to believe it is the player.

(Update)  Then I remembered that I have other DSD downloads from the same vendor that do not play back with pops/clicks at the transition from song to song so maybe it's not the Lumin being fully at fault.  I was able to eliminate the transition noise by disabling the "SetNext Support" option within the DLNA Controller Options menu.  Of course, disabling "SetNext" also prevents gapless albums from playing correctly.  I have one album with pops and several gapless albums so at this point it's choosing the lesser of two evils.

As the vendor indicated that there were issues with the download so I am waiting for an answer from them as well.

Thanks again and enjoy your weekend!
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6233638

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Are they DSF tracks by any chance?
If they were extracted from a SACD directly to DSF files, that would introduce this problem.
 
DSD behaves strangely, so even though it's a problem with the file it may not always happen 100% of the time.
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Sky King

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Yes they are DSF tracks but not ripped (at least not by me) from the SACD.  They were bought and paid for from one of the on-line download services.  So was the DSF albums that do work flawlessly.

Another interesting point is that if I move to individual tracks by selecting the next track rather than let one end and the next one begin, there are no transition pops.  Must be something having to do with stopping and starting the tracks.  Maybe the Lumin looses "lock" or something and has to resynchronize.  Just grasping at straws here.
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Sky King

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I believe JRiver MC may be partially at fault.  On the recommendation of the vendor of the files, I tried another server, in this instance Minimserver, and there were no pops or clicks when playing back the DSF files.
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JimH

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That could just be the format of the files delivered to the device.
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Sky King

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No worries Jim.  I wish I could legally send the files to someone at JRiver for analysis but I don't think I can.
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6233638

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You're probably fine to send them to logs[at]jriver[dot]com when you're sending them to a developer for troubleshooting a problem.
If it helps get to the root of whatever is causing this, it would be very helpful.
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