I have electrical click sound from speakers with McIntosh C52 when using Roon[Solved]

I have a MacMini (2014) based music server paired by Curious USB cable with Mcintosh C52 Preamp/DAC. The music is stored on DAS connected to MacMini by USB 2.0 cable.
I was searching for the best music server software and tried Amarra, PureMusic3, JRiver MS 21 and turn comes to Roon.
But when using Roon playing flac, DSD files I faced artifact - electrical click sound from speakers:

  1. When I press Pause on a remote Roon (iPad Pro 9,7) and when doing this in remote screen mode from another Mac.
  2. When I skip forward (or backward) to the next (or previous) track on a remote.
    But when Roon is playing songs one by one and not pressing mention above pause, forward or backward buttons no artifact appears.
    I didnot have this problem with other software. I use exclusive mode. I was trying to change Resync Delay time but it did not help.
    What can be the problem and how to solve it?

Sorry about your issue with your Mcintosh C52. I am using Roon in a very similar fashion as you along with my Mcintosh C50 and my McIntosh MC7300 and it is truly perfect. And yes, I have tried all of the other server software you mentioned. I hope a solution to your problem is determined.

I looked at the forum here and I see that someone has already faced this problem also with the same situation like mine:


batmanunderoos
Ben NathanJun '15
I have a similar but possibly separate issue. I have a PS Audio PerfectWave II DAC connected to a Parasound Halo AC21 Amp. I have a Mac Mini connected directly to the DAC via USB, running Roon, which I use in client/server mode (the Mac Mini is the server, my Mac laptop is the client that I use to choose the music). The DAC is set to run at “native” sample rate. When using Roon, if I manually switch between songs (i.e., I start playing a song, find a new song, then start playing it instead), there is a “click” noise that comes from my DAC. If I change the sample rate to “nativeX” there is both a “click” and a short moment of static from the speakers. After that the song starts and sounds great. None of this occurs if I play an album and simply allow the songs to progress normally from one to the next. If it matters, I generally operate in Core Audio Exclusive Mode, although switching to other modes does not change this phenomenon. I also check the “Use Integer Mode If Supported” box but, again, unchecking it does not fix this issue. This is a PCM DAC (no DSD).

When I perform the same tests on the same setup in Tidal or iTunes, there is no clicking noise. I can literally start a song in Tidal, switch to a new song, and not hear the click, whereas if I do exactly the same test in Roon, with the same songs, I hear a click. Any thoughts on how to make the noise go away? I doubt it’s the case but I’m afraid I’m damaging something.

Thank you,
Ben

PS - I love the Roon product and am so grateful for all the thought and effort you’ve put into creating it and supporting it. Thank you so much for creating this excellent and excellent sounding mechanism for managing music and remotely controlling music servers.

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Hi Andrew,

I think the first thing that might be done here is to see if the problem persists under the new audio design in Roon 1.2. That is likely to be released very soon (as distinct from soon, sorry I can’t give a date because there is no fixed date).

If the clicks/artifacts persist in 1.2 then post again in this thread and the Support devs will investigate further.

Updated to version 1.2 problem solved!!! Thank You Roon. You are the best

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Thanks for the feedback @Andrew_Zakon. Glad your issue was resolved.

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