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[Bigredmachine]

Downloaded the trial version last night.

Love the user interface - looks very promising.

Tried Foobar and had tremendous popping between high rez tracks and high rez to std rez tracks.  Did a lot of playing around and never beat it.

Tried Mediamonkey and had no popping issues.  Hate the interface and the sound is not equal to Foobar and JR MC.

So I tried the trial version quickly last night and quickly experienced the popping but more importantly experienced a "rebuffering" during playback.  A song would stop, pause and then start in again after about 10 seconds.  You could see the track title tell you it was buffering % by %.

So I went through searches here and the Wiki and am not sure how to set certain boxes in the audio section.  Should I use ASIO or WASAPI?  Which has higher resolution?

Do I need to set the playback sampling rates to something other than "no changes" to maximize audio quality output?

Do I need to set the buffer to something other than 6 seconds?

What is the relationship between song fadings and buffers?  What should I look for if one is up or down?

I'll bet these are easy fixes and then I can find out why the popping is occuring.  I've been dow the road of the Task manager and priorities, etc. and none of that changed the Foobar performance.  Dedicated W8 server with a 60 gb internal SSD and an external eSata drive.

[Arindelle]

Lets start with the popping. In Audio Devices settings try WASAPI first - normally it will be set to exclusive, beneath it check to disable event style ... does the "popping" stop?

Assuming you are not running a DLNA device, and if you are not using an external DAC, you probably should be using ASIO drivers supplied by your sound card manufacturer though. Make sure you have these drivers up to date and as well as any firmware.

[Bigredmachine]

I'll check those settings tonight.  External DAC with Amenaro Combo 384 chipset.

[mojave]

Hi Pete, welcome to Interact. I own a couple of amps I bought from you a while back (Hafler and DAC). 

I understand you are using HAL's MS-2 Music Server with an external hard drive.

If a DAC doesn't have a muting circuit, then there will be popping when the DAC changes sample rate. The DAC will change sample rate to match the audio when using both ASIO and WASAPI output. With DirectSound output, all audio is resampled to one sample rate. The quality of the resampler isn't the best. I believe MediaMonkey uses DirectSound output which is why you didn't have the issue.

To eliminate popping you can go to Tools > Options > Audio > DSP & Output Format and click Output Format. Then right click one of the Outputs in the Sample Rate area. Select Set all To . . . and choose a sample rate such as 96,000 Hz. This will use JRiver's 64-bit resampler for the best quality.

You can read more out ASIO vs WASAPI in the wiki:

Audio Output Modes

When JRiver first imports music into its library, it will analyze audio to determine peak levels, dynamic range, and set gain tags for use in volume leveling. This helps you playback songs from different albums at the same level so you won't have constantly adjust the volume during track changes. It works quite well. Anyway, the analyze audio process will increase CPU and disc activity and could cause buffering like you were experiencing.

If you still have buffering tonight, then we can check out some more things. Usually the message you received is due to not being able to pull data off the hard drive fast enough. It can happen in a network, but not usually when the hard drive is directly connected to the computer.

[Bigredmachine]

Can't wait to try this.  I did notice that there is a window that opens up and there are boxes to the left that I believe require you to check otherwise the settings do not take effect.  But for this window there is no "close" or "enter" button, just the upper right corner "x".  Is this how you makes those settings stick?

[mojave]

Are you talking about the Options box? There is an OK at the bottom of the window.

[kstuart]

You could also try checking the "Play from memory" checkbox.

[Bigredmachine]

The buffering issue is gone but I still have popping when the resolution level of adjoining songs is different.  44.1 to 44.1 there is no abnormalities.  Going from 44.1 to higher there is popping if I let it play out or if I skip to that track.

With Default Audio Device:
There are no pops for hi rez to hi rez if you let it play out and transition on its own.  There is also no popping when you skip from one high rez to the next high rez in the playlist.  If I stop and then start a high rez file it does pop when you hit play.

With Combo384 ASIO:

I get the error window on Playback problem for any material.  Not compatible?  Why would a 44.1 not be compatible with a driver able to play higher?

With Amenaro WASAPI driver:
Popped when I started the first song on the list which is 44.1.  It popped when it transitioned to the next track on its own which is 96/24.  The next track is 44.1 and it popped going into it.  So the pattern is changing resolutions are causing something to hiccup.

Kernel Streaming for Amenaro at 24 bit:
No popping from high rez to high rez.  Manually starting the first track from here, which is 44.1 gives a pop.  Fast-forwarding to the next track which is high rez also pops.  So the pattern remains.

Digital Output at Amenaro USB Driver Direct Sound:
All the same.

I have the sampling rates set to no change on all the items in the small window.  I have it playing from memory or not and it pops either way.

[JimH]

The popping on track change may be the DAC.  You can upsample everything by using DSP Studio/Output.

[Bigredmachine]

The popping on track change may be the DAC.  You can upsample everything by using DSP Studio/Output.

Tried that on all and just the 44.1 and below to be 96000 and I still get pops.

I'll go out and relook at the Task Manager priority settings.

[Bigredmachine]

I set the Priority to Real Time and still popping.  I set it to above normal. 

If you don't give the buffer time to load you have to wait to pause or stop a song for about 3 seconds.

[Bigredmachine]

Do I need a plugin on my music server to run an iPAD app to control JRiver from the iPAD?

[fitbrit]

Do I need a plugin on my music server to run an iPAD app to control JRiver from the iPAD?

No. JRemote is the best app on the iPad for JRiver control. It's written by a third party user, but it's the most popular app. It's not free, but well worth the price.

[mojave]

With Default Audio Device:
There are no pops for hi rez to hi rez if you let it play out and transition on its own.  There is also no popping when you skip from one high rez to the next high rez in the playlist.  If I stop and then start a high rez file it does pop when you hit play.

This is because the default audio device uses DirectSound and resamples all audio. It also proves that your DAC doesn't have a mute circuit when it changes sample rates. Many pro DACs don't have a mute circuit and some consumer DAC's don't either. The reason is does it on stop and starts is that the DAC will  reset itself to its default sample rate when nothing is playing. Then when the resampled music starts playing again the DAC has to switch sample rates and will pop.

I have the sampling rates set to no change on all the items in the small window.  I have it playing from memory or not and it pops either way.

Tried that on all and just the 44.1 and below to be 96000 and I still get pops.

If it works with the default audio device, but not with ASIO or WASAPI it almost seems like you haven't turned resampling on properly. Did you make sure the box next to Output Format is checked? Try right clicking the Output Format and choose Set all to 96,000 Hz.

I'll go out and relook at the Task Manager priority settings.

This has nothing to do with any popping and shouldn't be changed.

[Arindelle]

Seems like you are getting a lot of input already, but have you looked into the bit depth settings? Seems to be no mention of this above --

What DAC do you have?

Also, looked into the Amanero board -- sounds very cool for the price, but lots of DIY settings -- doesn't seem to have an asynchronous mode ? Anyway, saw a forum post where the people were using WASAPI with an output format of 24bits fixed.

Might be worth trying to connect directly to the DAC, bypassing the amanero for a little process of elimination?

[Bigredmachine]

I spoke on the phone with a fellow Audiophool who understood the logic of the software better than me.  So I did, as mentioned, set all the bit depths to what the dac could do.  I thought that was 384.  Wrong.  It's 192.  Once I did that the popping went away.  I also changed the player to not play from memory as the lag while the buffer was loading was slowing me down (I like to change tracks quickly if I get bored with it).

And the JRemote is very cool.  Worth the $10.  Now I need to tweak a little here and there and figure out what the format of Playlists are so I might be able to import mine and have them work!

Does anyone have a word or Notepad version of a Playlist I can see and compare to my .m3u formats to see if I can translate them over?

[JimH]

I set the Priority to Real Time

Don't change these settings.  The Windows defaults are the best.