Sorry
You access it from the speaker icon bottom right corner, then the cog shaped icon
Oh, I did find it, thanks, once you pointed me to look in audio device settings
The 32 bit suggestion gave me an idea, I have reduced the maximum sample rate from 192 to 96 kHz.
It seems to solve the problem, initially at least.
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@Newton_John ā very interesting!
Changing bit depth to 24-bit or 16-bit did not have any effect, for me.
But your suggested change to 96 kHz does greatly reduce (but for me, does not eliminate) the crackle/pop.
I wonder what that might suggestā¦ anyone with more knowledge than I willing to say?
[Also ā different can of worms ā but I think the 96 kHz rate sounds flat to me, as compared with 192 kHZ. Iām well aware that I might be imagining ā especially because I have never thought I heard a different between 44.1 and 96. And I canāt blind-test because the difference in crackle/pop gives it away].
Before I had a DAC that could handle DSD natively, I converted some (stereo) DSD tracks to PCM. First I tried 24/88kHz PCM files, and got OK results though indeed a little lifeless/flat. Then I tried 176kHz and liked that a whole lot better - though at double the storage cost of courseā¦
So yeah, Iād say youāre not alone in finding 88kHz conversions lackingā¦
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what are the HDMI specs on the AVR ā¦ is it set to V1.3/1.4/2.0 HDMI support? Maybe this is really a processor issue that Roonās output just happens to trigger issuesā¦not taking the blame from Roon but HDMI is a POS specs wise and sometimes I wonder how anything actually works on HDMI at all.
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Mmmmh, but before updating Rock to the last version, you donāt had the crackling?
Iāve only one endpoint which uses HDMI directly to my AV Pre and for this one, Iād reactivated the audio after the lasted update. So there seems a kernel update with some changes in audio.
What I would do:
- check multichannel flac files until 24/192
- let the support check your system
Normally I use the exaSound e68 for (multichannel) DSD, but will test now HDMI with them.
By the way: Which AVR are you using?
noted in the original post
Ah, donāt noticed this.
Iāve now tested a bit:
No crackling with my Emotiva XMC-1.
Normally my test files for multichannel with hdmi or SPDIF are dts files.
Also self ripped SACDs donāt have problems:
And another suggestion:
I donāt use for my system a bass management, because Iāve five large speakers an one sub, but different Dirac settings.
So it can be, that your Marantz add some crackling, while using DSPs.
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Eureka!
Increasing the buffer size from Default to 500 ms has eliminated (or reduced to unnoticeable) the crackle/pops for me (so far! ā fingers crossed):
I can reliably reproduce the introduction/elimination of the crackle/pop by varying buffer size between Default and 500 ms.
This is a pretty big relief. I have ~300 mch DSD albums (self-ripped from SACDs), and they are 90% of what I listen to, so this was feeling a bit nightmarish.
@Newton_John ā I wonder if this would help in your setup also. And thanks for all your help.
I am very interested in peopleās thoughts on what might be going on here. It seems like both reducing sample rate (reducing computational complexity of the DSDā>PCM conversion processā¦?) and increasing the buffer size (stabilizing the data stream for the conversion process to work onā¦?) have the effect of substantially reducing the noise.
Thanks again to all who offered suggestions.
@Paul_Bemelmans ā thanks for explaining your experience with sample rates, very helpful.
@Burkhardt_Petermann ā many thanks for taking the trouble to test this on your non-typical setup ā greatly appreciated!
Unfortunately, Iām not sure about exactly when the change occurred. What I am sure about is: (1) ~2-3 months ago: no crackling when playing mch DSD with my setup. (2) No playing of mch DSD by me for about 2-3 months. (3) Two days ago: crackling when playing mch DSD with what I believe is an unchanged setup on my end. (4) What has changed for sure in those 2-3 months: ROCK and Roon. But I canāt say for sure that there was no crackle/pop right before when ROCK/Roon changed, and crackle/pop only after they changed. Hope that made sense.
Thanks to your suggestion, I did check this. Multichannel native PCM (wav, aiff) through 192 kHZ plays with no crackle/pop, and is unaffected by buffer size changes.
By reactivated do you mean disable and then re-enable that endpointā¦?
@wizardofoz ā thanks for the HDMI idea. The Marant AV7704 Pre/Pro has HDMI 2.0. But that may not be the problem, given the buffer size findingā¦? Also, it seems to me the fact of native mch PCM 192 kHZ playing fine makes HDMI/PrePro lesss likely as the parts of the chain where the problem lies ā does that sound right?
Again, thanks to all who offered suggestions, and very interested in thoughts on whatās going on that causes sampling rate and buffer size adjustments to alleviate the problem.
[ @support, thereās still time for you to pitch in with thoughts on this 
]
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Folks, I donāt get it. @support, you were not able or willing to respond despite three requests from me to do so. But as soon as there is a solution that is offered thanks to the community, you mark this as solved?? I was waiting to see if the solution would hold up, and was not ready to mark it as solved yet. And I believe it is the OPās prerogative to decide whether an issue is solved or not ā is that not the case?
Support did NOT mark this as solved.
That is very often the action of a forum moderator.
Which was the case here by myself.
Threads are always viewable by Roon staff no matter the status.
Iām sure if support have anything to add they will do so.
Not that my opinion here matters, but this strikes me as over-zealous and over-officious moderation.
Many thanks for starting the thread @otinkyad - itās been a massive help to me.
Iām off now to experiment with different buffer sizes to see if I use 192 kHz again.
I hadnāt notice any drop in sound quality going down to 96kHz, but I wasnāt listening for that and was just focussing on the absence of pops and clicks.
Iāll be starting my own thread about channel swapping by the ROCK endpoint soon. Thatās my last Roon issue, then Iām good.
All the best. Regards, John
@Newton_John ā Iām curious whether youāve had any success with the buffer size ā would you be willing to share? (And I suppose knowing whether it worked for more than one person could be useful for others as well). Thanks.
Changing buffer size didnāt work for me so Iām sticking with reducing the sample rate to 96 kHz until I find a better solution.
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