DSD playback gives loud click between tracks

Thanks for the report, and the kind words @batmanunderoos!

I believe we have a PerfectWave II in our test lab, so we’ll take a look and see if we can reproduce this.

In the mean time, I’d like to know a little more about how you have the audio output configured. Can you take a look at the Audio tab in Settings and let us know your DACs settings under the little gears? Or maybe post a screenshot of what you’re seeing, like this:

Thanks!

Thanks for the reply! I’ll take a screenshot when I’m home tonight, but I can tell you it looks exactly like what you are showing, except the “Use Integer Mode if Supported” is checked.

Hi,
I also get these cracks/pops during track change. But not with all DSD albums.

I get cracks/pops e.g. with Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic (DSD 64)

System:

  • Roon Build 29
  • DAC: Denon DA-300USB
  • Win 8.1 64-Bit

Here are my settings:

Hi @freelancr – can you confirm you’re not hearing these clicks when using another player?

We’ve seen this come up a few times with certain files, so just want to make sure there’s not something unique to this media before we take a deeper look.

Thanks!

Hi - I am also having problems with DSD playback through dCS Vivaldi. I am running core on a MBP with output via USB to Vivaldi. All my DSD catalogue is in DoP format. I am using the dCS Upsampler Audio Device rather than the system output with the following settings:

Use Exclusive Mode - checked (although unchecking appears not to make any difference)
Use Integer Mode - not checked
Fixed volume - not checked
Max sample rate - disabled
Resync delay - 0ms
DSD Playback strategy; DSD over PCM (v1.0 DoP)
Max DSD sample rate (DoP) - disabled

I have been listened to “Roon Radio”, which keeps flipping between 16/44, 24/96, 24/192, DoP tracks etc. When it gets to a DoP track the dCS unit shows 24/176 (it usually shows "DSD for a DoP track) and the sound is a persistent click. The sound bar equalizer on Roon is flat, as if there is no output. The problem only exists on DoP tracks, which sound fine when streamed to the upsampler via the ethernet input (using Twonky). Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong?

@mike: yes I can confirm that. I don’t hear these clicks with Jriver.

Hey @freelancr, @Enduser,

I’d like to try this out with the same files you guys are using, so we can try to reproduce. Can you upload a song or two that you’re hearing clicks on to somewhere like Dropbox, then send me a PM with the link?

If you can’t upload them somewhere, just let me know and I’ll give you access to our file uploader. Thanks!

Ok – @freelancr sent me some media and I can reproduce this, guys. We’re looking into it.

Thanks for the report!

@freelancr, I reviewed your files today.

This one was tricky. The way the DSF file format specification is written (to my eyes), these files actually do have clicks in the audio.

When played through Roon, some DACs that I have here seem to filter them out, and some play them. Our DSD->PCM conversion plays them. This error wouldn’t be hard to filter for someone who was looking out for this sort of problem–the “clicks” manifest as 0000000000000 data in one of the channels at the very end of the track. Strings of 0’s like that are practically non-existent in legitimate DSD data.

I found one DAC that appears to filter them in Native mode, but not in DoP mode, even when given the same bits, too. Weird, but that suggests that they are filtering based on a bit-pattern and not as a signal processing step.

If I try to imagine what the person writing the code that generated these files was thinking, I think I can see where they read the specification differently than we have (or perhaps mis-read it). If I adjust our implementation to match that interpretation, the clicks disappear, but it leaves me feeling uneasy.

We are going to try rolling out this fix in the next release. If it causes ancillary damage, we will back out the “fix” and take another run at this.

Are these files the product of an ISO to DSF conversion?

If so, yet another reason why I would like to have direct SACD ISO support in Roon.

@brian, thanks for the insight. and yeah I should have mentioned as @music pointed out that these files are converted from a SACD ISO to dsf via the JRiver DSD Converter.

Thanks for the clarification!

[quote=“music, post:37, topic:1620”]
Are these files the product of an ISO to DSF conversion? If so, yet another reason why I would like to have direct SACD ISO support in Roon.[/quote]
It is the product of a bad conversion “program” not the conversion itself - a little searching on this is easily found. One software problem is not a good reason to use ISO, especially where there is another tool which does it properly - with embedded Metadata and not a sidecar file.

Clicks occur when people convert ISO straight to DSF with an older tool/program. If converted to DFF first then to DSF (using the ISO2DSF tool) then the clicks are solved.

BUT…If someone has just the DSF files and not the ISO or original SACD then the clicks will always be there.

ISO is an archive format and should be used as such.

@mike can we please get an update on the Roon end-of-track DSD clicking issue. I have this problem with a variety of DSD vendor files (e.g., Acoustic Sounds, Channel Classics). I find that JRiver (20.0.131) does not show this clicking behavior in DSD mode, so apparently there is a solution. Playing with the Roon crossfades and the resync delay has no effect. My system specs below. Thank you as always for your support :smile:

DAC:
Wyred 4 Sound DAC-2 DSD SE

Roon 1.1 Build 88 64-bit

Win 10 Pro v. 1511 build 10586.36

Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R

Processor
Intel i7 930 @2.8 GHz

Memory
16 GB PNY “Anarchy” DDR3 RAM

Storage
OS: 125 GB SSD
6 TB HGST Deskstar NAS

I noticed this clicking issue today when trying some DSD64 & DSD256 files today. My DAC only support up to DSD128 but even the PCM conversions from Roon of the DSD256 files I head popping. When pausing or between tracks loading I hear a whine, probably 10dB lower than the music volume and at about 8khz. Clicking/popping happens when starting a track, either as the first track or one of these tracks being next in the queue.
When using HQPlayer as a target there was no unexpected noise, regardless of Direct SDM, filter or pass through settings.

Mac mini 2012 i5 SSD 16GB
OS X 10.11.3
TEAC 501 DAC via USB
Roon 1.1

Hey @Jeremy_McNally – we have some changes coming soon in our 1.2 release that should make this better. We have a 501 in house and we just pulled it out and confirmed.

Let me know if you’re still having this issue once 1.2 is live, and if so we can take another look with the same files you’re using. Thanks!

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Is anyone still having this problem? I"m running the sonic transport as my core on the 1.2 release, with my music stored on a Synology NAS. Im then using the MicroRendu playing the music to a Shiit bifrost multibit. I only hear a click when I change from one album to a different album.

Hoping someone has a tip on something I could change to help get rid of the darn click!

Just wondering whether the click is from the speakers or from the DAC. Schiit’s multibit DACs make an audible click when switching resolution between tracks.

Was there ever a fix for this… I still have this issue. Playing dsd from my sever to direct stream with brifge.

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