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Author Topic: sound skips and mini drop outs  (Read 4240 times)

Tonmeister

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sound skips and mini drop outs
« on: October 07, 2014, 11:49:18 am »

 :'( Hi, after investing in a new SACD player with DAC (Marantz SA8005) , A good Supra USB cable and a brand new Dell Inspiron laptop (mem 4Gb)running Win 8.1 and MC19, I cannot get rid of annoying sound blips happening maybe six or seven times during 24 bit and DSD playback on an album. I have adjusted the live playback latency to maximum 500 ms and before I start playback, I disable the internet connection, my virus program and malware/spyware program to see if that was causing a drain on the processor (2.16 Ghz). Is this a regular problem when using a PC to DAC via USB connection method?. I have many cds and I bought the SACD player rather than a Network Player because it would take me another lifetime to rip them all !! The sound quality is awesome and MC19 works a dream. I only wish I could get rid of these sound blips.
I will be very thankful for any help and advice 8)
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JimH

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Re: sound skips and mini drop outs
« Reply #1 on: October 07, 2014, 12:12:21 pm »

Please see the Audio Setup instructions on the wiki.

Try Direct Sound and both types of WASAPI (Event Style normal and disabled).

Try using MC's DSP Studio / Output Settings to set everything to one sample rate and bit rate.

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Tonmeister

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Re: sound skips and mini drop outs
« Reply #2 on: October 07, 2014, 01:32:21 pm »

Thanks but I am playing 24/44.1 , 96, 192 and .dsf files, how can I change them to a single setting, will that not effect thier actual playback?
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Tonmeister

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Re: sound skips and mini drop outs
« Reply #3 on: October 11, 2014, 01:18:27 pm »

I still get these tiny sound dropouts even after all the tweaking. Has anyone experienced this when using a USB pc to DAC connection?. It seems that when the PC processor is doing something, thats when it happens. Brand new Win 8 PC, brand new DAC, good quality USB cable. 
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mwillems

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Re: sound skips and mini drop outs
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2014, 06:58:52 pm »

Two thoughts: 

1) "live playback latency" is not the correct buffer setting for your problem.  It only affects loopback, not normal playback.  You want to adjust the buffer settings in the audio "device settings" in Options.  Try a high buffer there, and if that doesn't work, try a low one too (some DACs choke on too high buffers).
2) If you can't find buffer settings that will produce good results, try plugging the DAC into a different USB port (try a USB 2 port if you've been using USB 3 or vice versa).
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6233638

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Re: sound skips and mini drop outs
« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2014, 08:26:14 pm »

The PC may not be fast enough for DSD.
Run Help → Benchmark to get a JRmark score for your PC.

Generally a score of 2000 or greater is recommended for DSD playback, though you may be able to bitstream on a PC with a score below that.
Tools → Options → Audio → Settings → Bitstreaming: DSD will enable it.
 
To help with your drop-outs, check Tools → Options → Audio → Audio Device → Device Settings

With WASAPI, if you are having problems with the default setting of 100ms, you may find that your device either prefers a larger or smaller buffer size.
Try 250/500 first, and then something like 25ms if that does not improve things.
You may also want to try disabling event style if none of the latency options help.
 
For other output types there should be similar settings to adjust the buffer size.
Generally larger buffers are better, but some devices don't like it.
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iamimdoc

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Re: sound skips and mini drop outs
« Reply #6 on: December 29, 2014, 03:00:06 am »

Thanks

Is there a simple answer as to what jriver benchmark can be obtained on an I 3, 5, 7 processor or are there too many other variables to make this a meaningful question?
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mwillems

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Re: sound skips and mini drop outs
« Reply #7 on: December 29, 2014, 04:01:25 pm »

There are many other variables (hard drive, and ram are two), but I can confirm that I have a haswell i5 nuc which has a JRmark in the high 2000's, or low 3000's (depending on the day), a sandy bridge i7 (three years old) with an SSD that has a JR mark in the 4000's, and a new Haswell-refresh i7 with a JRmark in the high 5000's.  All of those machines have SSD's and moderately fast RAM.

Check out this thread: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=54396.200

Lots of different configurations with benchmarks attached.
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