I'm hearing a brief BUZZ instead of music when something else happens in the OS

Hi,

For months now I’ve seen this problem and I’m just now asking about it because I’ve exhausted possible solutions I can think of.

My setup:

  • Roon 1.2 (build 142 64 bit)
  • Windows pro 10 build 14352 (problem has existed for months)
  • I’m a lifetime Roon customer
  • files are wav
  • files are on a synology NAS connected by ethernet cables
  • files are accessed by mounted drive or network share – didn’t make a difference
  • database is local to the machine, and the machine is a new i7-6700 desktop, though the same problem has existed on prior beefy laptop
  • playback is to local speakers connected to computer

I can play music fine, but then sometimes when I click another window to the foreground, or begin typing, I hear a 0.5 second BUZZ that sounds like digital distortion then the music keeps playing after the buzz.

It’s almost like the Roon process has a really low priority and gets stomped on by some context switching.

This buzz may occur once or 10 times during a song. Eventually I have to stop playing music as it’s too annoying.

Any ideas?

Thanks. I’d really like to use Roon again.

Am I correct inferring you’re running your speakers directly from your PC sound card and you’ve got that selected as your output in Roon? If that’s the case what you’re experiencing is likely to be electrical noise artefacts generated by the PC itself. Ideally you’d want to stream from the PC to an external device which in turn connects to a DAC.

Would you mind screendumping your audio setup and playback chain within Roon?

Hi Evan,

Yes, you’re understanding correctly. Hmm. Lemme re-jig things and try usb->dac->speakers instead. I’ll update when I have more info. Thanks for the tip!

Ok, that did the trick! Buzzing eliminated. Thanks again! :slight_smile:

Hi Brian,

You could also give Fidelizer a try. There is a free version available:

Fidelizer is discussed in this forum as well.

Cheers
NOA

Hi NOA,

Hmm, yeah. The buzzing’s gone but now there are occasional audio dropouts or stutters when something else is happening on the PC. I can see how Fidelizer would help. I may give it a try but I’m wary because I use this machine for lots of other stuff than just audio listening.

Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll give it a shot at some point.

cheers,

Brian

Hi Brian,

welcome. At least using the minimum stage of Fidelizer should not harm your other stuff at all, but might help with audio stutters. And if you can simply redo. Worth a try for sure.

Cheers
NOA

Good point NOA; I’ll check it out, thanks!

  • Are your OS and Roon database on a SSD or regular HDD?
  • How much RAM do you have installed?
  • Is Roon having to do any downsampling etc. to deal with your DACs supported sample rates?

Unless you’re got CPU or disk intensive stuff going on you shouldn’t be experiencing any dropouts, especially with the hardware you’re running.

For best results I’d recommend a standalone Linux based music server running Roon Server with music library held locally coupled with a lightweight Linux-based device like a ODROID-C1 with Roon Bridge installed and connected to your DAC via USB.

To answer your q’s:

  • OS & Roon DB on same SSD (samsung 950 pro nvme 512G)
  • 16 GB RAM
  • Roon not doing any downsampling. No hi-res music.

Thanks for the suggestion of the standalone linux box. Yes, I’m aware that’s a better option, but I’m not willing to build a dedicated machine for music at this point.

I’d look into network performance, gigabit connectivity to NAS and to PC?

Hi,

A couple other aspects of the situation I didn’t mention yet:

  • I tested copying music files from NAS to local SSD, No difference in dropout behavior.
  • Microsoft’s Groove Music exhibited the same dropout behavior as Roon.

Given the above, I think Fidelizer is the next thing for me to try.

Thanks for the tips.

I ran Roon Server on Win Server 2012 R2 and didn’t experience any dropout issues. Wonder what Windows has going on in the background, what’s task manager tell you iro CPU and memory utilisation. Firewall or AV software interfering with throughput?

Hmm. In my case, cpu is 1-10%, mem is 20%, no weird processes. I suppose if Windows Defender is scanning wav files for viruses every time Roon or Groove plays something that would be a problem. I’ll investigate Defender as a possible culprit when I have more time.

Cheers.