Cracks in music in Roon not in Tidal

[Tom_den_Heijer]

@support
Hello,
I have a strange issue in Roon music, songs are "crackled"particulary the base, while if I use the TIDAL or HEOS app and stream (airplay) no cracks are heard. Particularly this is well heard in the song “closer” from the chainsmokers

Current setup:
Roon version 1.5 (build 334) stable (64 bit) on Ipad and Windows.
Core:
Roon 1.5 (334) stable on Dietpi
Bridge 1.0 (164) stable on a windows PC with a meridian explorer 2 USB DAC connected to a Marantz SR 7011 (also for airplay).

In Roon I have not enabled DSP, the meridian has “device volume”(also tried DSP volume).

So if I play a TIDAL song from Roon either through the meridian or using airplay I get a crackled bass. If i play the same song use TIDAL or HEOS app and streaming on Airplay it sounds great…

[anon55914447]

What file format are these tracks in?

Possibly related to:

Build 334: AAC 24bit conversion - audio artefacts [Resolved B339]

Build: 334 Core: On QNAP NAS Endpoint: Squeezebox Transporter Symptom: I’ve been listening to some of TIDAL’s AAC output which goes through Roon’s new 24bit conversion. There are some odd audio playback artefacts - at higher peak levels within the track it sounds like a sort of clipping is introduced - a highish frequency ‘crispy’, ‘speckly’ sound overlaying the track. FLAC is unaffected. I’ve tried somelocal mp3 as well and can’t detect any problems there.

[Tom_den_Heijer]

Yes it are TIDAL 44.1 AAC 24 bit files. No problems with FLAC until now. In the suggested thread no solution is given? I have not enabled DSP and things like that, too complicated for me …

[anon55914447]

Hi Tom, the solution for your setup is in that thread, but buried away a little:

Build 334: AAC 24bit conversion - audio artefacts [Resolved B339]

All — I touched base with our tech team today concerning the mentioned audio artifacts being heard during playback of AAC content from TIDAL via Roon. The team has asked if you could please use the instructions found here and update ffmpeg on your core machines. Once completed please verify what the experience is like. Looking forward to hearing your feedback! -Eric

[Tom_den_Heijer]

I do not really understand where I should put the ffmpeg. I have a dietpi running the roon core. I do not see a /data/codecs folder. Dietpi is a linux distro. Or do i need to replace the ffmpeg codec of the linux?

[anon55914447]

Ah, my apologies then Tom. It might be best to swing by the DietPi section of the forum and ask how best to either run an update that gets you the latest ffmpeg, or the location of the ffmpeg folder on the DietPi to manually copy the newer version across.

Either way, updating ffmpeg definitely resolves the issue.

[Tom_den_Heijer]

No problem thanx for your help. I just replaced the ffmpeg codec in /usr/bin with the one supplied in the thread and indeed no more crackles. Thx alot!