Distortion during playback for certain albums

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1

Hi,
I have the same issue with crackling and static type noise, plus intermittent ‘popping’

I have eliminated the equipment as I run a number of systems in our demo room and it’s the same on all products - Lumin, Nativ, EC Living (AirPlay)

It doesn’t happen when running Tidal directly just via Roon 1.5 latest version

It also only happens on certain albums added to ‘my collection’ even if you delete them from Tidal and then search again.

The distortion is not consistent between different albums but occurs in the same place on each play

I thought it might be a Core issue on the NAS although it wasn’t a problem with 1.4

Does 1.5 require greater NAS performance? Mine is a TS-251 Intel Celeron cpu j1800 @ 2.41ghz with 8gb ram, firmware 4.3.4.0644 build 20180710. Roon Core is installed on a SSD connected via USB

Thanks

2

According to the Roon FAQ the minimum requirements have always been an i3 processor. See:
https://kb.roonlabs.com/FAQ:_What_are_the_minimum_requirements%3F

I am not saying that is your issue, but, just answering your basic question. I personally use my NAS’ to backup music, as I prefer to run Roon on a PC with local file storage.

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Yes, I wonder if it’s time to invest in a new NAS.

I just didn’t want to have an outlay of approx 400.00 GBP and find it wasn’t the NAS

I thought the Qnap TS-251 was good enough? It was fine with 1.4

4

Your NAS is underspecified but I am not sure the issue is processor power. I would monitor the NAS performance to see if anything is red lining. Also look at memory utilisation. If nothing looks stressed it will be something else.

5

Thanks Henry, I’ll look into that.

It’s strange though that the distortion only occurs on some ‘saved’ albums and not all.

Internet radio also streams perfectly via Roon and I could have it running all day without a pop or crackle anywhere.

Odd but really frustrating

6

Hey @Richard_James — Thanks for reaching out! I moved your post over to it’s own thread so we can better track what you’re experiencing.

First, I’d like to echo the above statements about your NAS. Because this device uses a Celeron processor you may experience performance issues, particularly with larger libraries or DSP, or if you don’t use an SSD for your Roon database.

I don’t believe that the issues you’re experiencing are necessarily due to this, but we do like to give people a “heads up” when their system is under spec, since it can impact the product in a number of ways, and you may encounter some limitations going forward.

For the issue you’re experiencing, can you give me some more information about the content that you’re hearing this distortion with? We are currently working on a solution for distortion during AAC playback, and it sounds like that may be what you’re experiencing. If the distortion you’re hearing is when playing back AAC content, you can try upgrading FFMPEG as discussed in this thread.

Thanks!
Dylan

8

Thanks Dylan,

As one example - Leon Bridges Good Thing which is a flac file on Tidal

I had a look at the FFMPEG thread - is there a really simple explanation of how to update this on a qnap, my tech knowledge is very basic

9

Hey @Richard_James,

Can you share a screenshot of the signal path when playing this?

Thanks!
Dylan

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image
08E936D7-5857-4C46-B1D0-49F9066CA6B7.jpg2048×1536 420 KB

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Here is the signal path of an album that has no issues

image
BAEF9A9F-6541-43CF-A6BF-27FFE94D382E.jpg2048×1536 482 KB

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The ffmpeg bug does need sorting, but you could also pay for the lossless service in Tidal. Probably the best way to demo posh gear like Lumin!:wink:

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Hey @Richard_James,

Based on the information you’ve provided above, it sounds like you may be experiencing an issue we are currently working on a solution for regarding the playback of AAC files, though this typically effects all AAC file playback. Though we are working on a solution (which should be available pretty soon), some have found more immediate success by update FFMPEG, as discussed in this thread.

Thanks!
Dylan

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Actually I started with the more expensive version of Tidal, but I found that if you have a Dac that upscales then the benefits of a higher resolution input was minimal - others may disagree of course.

The Lumin now does DSD conversion as well as PCM upscaling so plenty to explore.

I also have the Lindemann Musicbook 25 DSD in the demo room which is better still with the basic version of Tidal although the combination of the Lumin M1 with Roon seems really good value as a one box solution - the amp in the Lumin is the biggest surprise

15

Thanks Dylan,

I’ll most likely sit tight and wait for the fix

I did look at the thread, but to implement on the Qnap seems a little more complicated

Maybe @crieke will work his magic first

Cheers

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AAC sounds just awful on my MOCK, sibilancy, no depth before this change to 24bit it sounded pretty good. it also freaks out my dac on switching from a fullres file on my Allo USBridge and Arcam Dac. I am using the latest ffmpeg to linked in the other threads related to this.

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Sadly there are still plenty of music only in AAC at the lossless level. :hushed:

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Hey @Richard_James,

Just reaching out to let you know we’ve just released an update that addresses this issue. Please update to build 339 and let us know if you have any issues.

You can read more about the update here:

We genuinely appreciate your patience here, Richard!

Kind regards,
Dylan

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Thanks Dylan,

I had been away for a couple of days, but back today with the update and everything is fine.

A big thank you to everyone at Roon that has put in the time to fix this issue

Cheers from the other side of the pond

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