I don’t have much to comment since I don’t know what is going on. To figure out a possible fix I would need to be able to reproduce the issue somehow…
@Jussi, Thanks… IMO at least this is better than not hearing anything from you for 11 days and leaving your customers in the dark, and that they are on their own as it’s not a concern for you.
Are you 100% sure the problem is even in HQPlayer? Does it happen when HQPlayer is playing the files on it’s own without Roon? If it happens only with Roon, problem could be as well on that side.
Or it could be in OS X, in most recent OS X update (two days ago) they fixed some USB audio problems. There are many problems in OS X with various DACs. If I leave Resonessence Labs HERUS connected to my iMac, it freezes on boot and never manages to boot up OS X. Or if I leave Schiit Loki connected to it, after few hours of idling OS X will crash to kernel panic. I’ve been sending crash logs to Apple, but so far they have not fixed those problems…
Have you tried with different, short, preferably a standard bulk ~$10 USB cable that has been certified for USB HiSpeed, for connecting the DAC? Many “audiophile” cables are problematic and cause problems at higher sampling rates due to transfer errors. This label tells about a certified cable:
Thanks for the help and things to try.
I have only tried HQP through Roon (as that’s all I care about) but I will build a playlist in HQP of various bitrates and let you know the outcome.
Also, I did update the OS X software yesterday morning and this was happening also after the update.
I am using a NAA (Sonicorbiter SE) using a USB Kimber Kable BASE Series to the Unison Research CD Due.
OK, I see that it is quite complex setup. I think it would be good to first try with HQPlayer alone and DAC connected directly to the Mac without NAA. If it works, then add Roon to the picture to check that things still work. And last add NAA. And if the last step creates a problem, you could then try playback from HQPlayer to NAA without Roon. This helps locating whereabouts the problem… Otherwise there are a bit too many variables to sort it out.
Since you are using NAA, it replaces the OS X CoreAudio stack which is not involved in that case.
I’ve seen some problem reports when playing through the SonicOrbiter SE as a NAA. Since it is essentially a CuBox-i, if you have spare a microSD card (4 GB is well enough), you could create alternative microSD using my image and try with it for comparison… The image is available here:
https://www.signalyst.eu/bins/naa/v3/images/
@Jussi, I took the NAA out of the picture and connected my MacMini directly to the DAC.
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In HQP only I created a playlist (16/44.1, 24/192, 16/44.1, 24/192, DSD64, 24/28) and not one problem.
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Started RoonServer with HQP still launched and created a playlist (16/44.1, 24/96, 16/44.1, 16/44.1), the first 16/44.1 track played fine then onto the 24/96 track produced no sound but time bar in Roon & HQP were both moving, once hit disconnect link playback with sound appeared. Onto the next 16/44.1 track, again no sound but time par moving, only this time disconnect link would not fix issue playback would start again with no sound but time moving in Roon & HQP. Pressed stop in HQP and play in Roon and the song started but with the same issues I’ve always be having.
I have now started playback from the beginning of a 16/44.1 (flac) album using Roon/HQP and it’s on the 2nd track and the issue has been there for both songs… Just tried the same but using only HQP and RoonServer has been quit and the same issue is now present and I’ve tried two different USB cables… changing the max bitrate down to 192000 solves it.
So this is an HQP issue IMO… again, if I turn off “Auto rate family” and have max bitrate at 384000 everything sounds/works correctly.
This issue shouldn’t be appearing anymore after 3.13.1… Unless the DAC fires back. HQPlayer log file may help locating the issue.
Howcome in (1) you said it works, and here you say it doesn’t even when the tracks are all using same sampling rate? Did you restart HQPlayer between the two cases here? Are you sure you have disabled Roon from accessing the same DAC?
I fail to see any logic behind this…
Or DAC firmware issue of having trouble changing sampling rates (clock source) fast… I think the solution is to just stick to that one rate that is working fine.
Because that is exactly what happened… Yes I restarted HQP and 100% positive I quit RoonServer… Everything was fine on first playback of only HQP and the 2nd time using only HQP which was after trying Roon/HQP had the issues… I only telling the order and my findings.[quote=“jussi_laako, post:67, topic:7614”]
Or DAC firmware issue of having trouble changing sampling rates (clock source) fast… I think the solution is to just stick to that one rate that is working fine.[/quote]
If this was the case would not the same occur in Audirvana+ at 352.8 upsampling? I haven’t tried A+ in many months. I’m installing now on my mini now and I’ll build a playlist of various bit rates (same as before) and see if this occurs.
@jussi_laako, I just installed Audirvana and it has the same issues at 352.8 and same as HQP max bitrate of 384 is fine as is auto rate family in A+ if I limit the max rate to 192.
Thanks for your help with trouble shooting this… I’m going to sent Unison Research an email telling them about this issue, what is the best way to explain it to them, if you don’t mind me asking?