Latest Roon build | Random small popping sounds moving DSP volume, and when selecting play & pause functions

[grizaudio (Stephen)]

@Marin_Weigel

Waiting a couple of microseconds at the max for a zero-crossing to occur would eliminate these more or less severe instant sample to sample signal jumps.

Whatever needs to be “tweaked” I would be all for…
The play/pause thing is really not ideal, it makes the software feel clumsy/unfinished.

[Marin_Weigel (Bram Stoker's Cappuccino)]

@grizaudio

… the pops don’t always occur …

Yes of course, in cases where the command execution by Roon falls between close enough sample values or onto a zero-crossing point just by chance.

There are also recordings, somehow mastered with a DC offset, which causes pops even during silence.

[grizaudio (Stephen)]

Interesting, have you addressed this issue before with Roon Support?

As you have, this user has also complained about sample rate pops.

Loud Pop on my speaker when switching songs

It seems your issue is related to sampling changes… I experience similar low level pop noises using DSP volume and the play/pause function. It seems others do to. Although this is not “sample” change, I wonder if its related some how. It would be great if Roon support would comment?

[Marin_Weigel (Bram Stoker's Cappuccino)]

No, since my issue with this is not annoying me enough to bother.

I’d much rather like some nice fading out/in when skipping tracks, and that’s what I voted for, but Roon has communicated less than being interest in it, because this would result in a major RAAT recode; and I think it would get the bit-perfect squad all puffed-up due to this involving DSP.

And I think, Roon tries to avoid any RAAT recoding anyways, because that would probably cause a plethora of issues with all their Roon ready partners’ firmwares…

[grizaudio (Stephen)]

Well hopefully they can do something to address the issue.

[jamie]

Hey @grizaudio, I just saw your post in another thread related to popping noises in Roon where you said you had resolved your issue with a resync change in the advanced settings for your device.

Loud Pop on my speaker when switching songs

Yep, the delay works perfectly for synchronising Roon playback start times/with Motu DAC sync/clocking times. I like to keep my sampling rates native. My active setup uses a liberal dose of DSP for crossovers and room correction so this “delay” method is the ticket to minimise CPU demand!.. Appreciated… I really should poke around in settings more often. I just notice an issue though. With this setting engaged, Roon radio doesn’t automatically transition into playback. The thumbs up and down …

Are you good to go now?

[grizaudio (Stephen)]

No unfortunately the popping (PP, PFT) on volume and play pause is not addressed with this change.

That change simply addressed a playback timing difference on Dac clock sync, which is great.

The volume and DSP Play/pause noise is still there randomly.

Marin has described it best above in this thread.

[grizaudio (Stephen)]

@support,

I’m curious whether Roon has made any comments concerning audible pops between track skips and volume routing pops/pffts. Searching the forum, it seems other users also experience this phenomenon with Roon.

In my system, I have tried addressing the issue with track delays etc, different servers, network connections, endpoints but the popping randomly occurs on track skips and volume ramping.

As I run an active speaker setup, and convolution filters for crossover, my ability to test without convolution is limited. However it seems many users are experiencing the popping sounds, with no DSP engaged.

The best explanation I could see on the issue was this:

Latest Roon build | Random small popping sounds moving DSP volume, and when selecting play & pause functions

Are you absolutely sure about that? What’s in-between RPi and Motu? I’ve unfortunately not got any improvements to offer, just an observation, which I’d be thankful to get a comment on from @support. I’ve extensively used two DACs, and intermittently two others on loan, throughout the past ~2 1/2 years and regardless of SW/FW version, interconnections and setup there’s always been more or less strong tics and pops when starting/stopping, ffwd/skipping, or using DSP volume during playback. M…

The above link is my original post on my issue.

---

Related threads, with users reporting popping on track skips and volume ramping.

Latest Roon build | Random small popping sounds moving DSP volume, and when selecting play & pause functions

Hey @grizaudio, I just saw your post in another thread related to popping noises in Roon where you said you had resolved your issue with a resync change in the advanced settings for your device. Are you good to go now?

Pops when switching songs or stopping music

Hi @Peter_Bagger, Thank you for looking into this issue further with Gato support and happy to hear they have a new firmware in the works that helps with this reported issue!

Loud Pop on my speaker when switching songs

Yep, the delay works perfectly for synchronising Roon playback start times/with Motu DAC sync/clocking times. I like to keep my sampling rates native. My active setup uses a liberal dose of DSP for crossovers and room correction so this “delay” method is the ticket to minimise CPU demand!.. Appreciated… I really should poke around in settings more often. I just notice an issue though. With this setting engaged, Roon radio doesn’t automatically transition into playback. The thumbs up and down …

Pops (clicks) on C658 when skipping MQA tracks

Roon Core Machine HP EliteBook 820, WIN10, I7, 8GB Networking Gear & Setup Details Amplifi HD, endpoint and core on WIFI Connected Audio Devices NAD C658 Number of Tracks in Library 120 albums on tidal (1480 tracks) - no locally stored files Description of Issue I browsed the forum and came across an old issue similar to my experience: (Click and pops when changing songs). That case is marked is closed with the remark it seems fixed. My issue is; when skipping from one MQA tr…

Pop on Sonos Connect Output When Skipping Track

I have latest version of Roon 1.3 streaming to an older Sonos ZonePlayer (now called CONNECT). SPDIF output goes to an AnthemAV receiver. If I jump to the next track by hitting the FF radio button, there’s a pop at the beginning of the next track. I have tried an A/B comparison using the latest sonos app on an iphone (EVERYTHING ELSE IS THE SAME IN THIS TEST) with the same album/tracks and there’s no pop when jumping ahead to the next track. I’ve tried multiple albums (all 16 bit/44.1Khz) with t…

DSD playback gives loud click between tracks

In the interests of additional data…I’m only getting very faint pops when tracks naturally begin (ie, not when skipping tracks manually). Tested with both DSD bitstreaming and with Roon converting to PCM first - same faint pops. For me, the faint pops take place 1 second into the new track. There’s silence for 1 second, then faint pop, then music plays. Interestingly, I notice that when skipping tracks manually, the track doesn’t play that initial 1 second silence…it hops straight through it …

I was hoping someone from Roon technical might chime in on this.

[grizaudio (Stephen)]

I still get ‘random’ pops between tracks. Anyone else experience this?

I have tried Ropiee as endpoint, Rock, and Ubuntu/Bridge.

Curious to know if other users get pops between track skips, and small clicking on fast volume changes.

I have tried:

• Many different end points, Ropiee, Ubuntu/Bridge, Direct to Rock
  (Next I will try Windows (Loathe) - to see if this helps)
• Inserting a 4 sec delay for sampling rate changes, this is not the issue, as the pop can occur between tracks on the same album/sampling rates
• Head room 1.5db just for good measure
• Removed DSP volume, reverting to DAC volume

System has changed a little, but core hardware the same.

Roon Core Machine

NUC running Roon Rock, i5, 8gb

Networking Gear & Setup Details

Orbi

Connected Audio Devices

NUC Rock > Motu Ulttralite MK5 > 2x Stereo Purifi amps > Active speaker setup.

Number of Tracks in Library

28,000 ish

Convolution Filters (Below Digital 0db threshold)

This is not a clipping issue, providing convolution to confirm for support
-1.5db of headroom reduction is also applied inside Roon atm.
So signals are sitting about minimum 2.5db below digital max.

Low

High

[grizaudio (Stephen)]

@Marin_Weigel

No, since my issue with this is not annoying me enough to bother.

I’d much rather like some nice fading out/in when skipping tracks, and that’s what I voted for, but Roon has communicated less than being interest in it, because this would result in a major RAAT recode; and I think it would get the bit-perfect squad all puffed-up due to this involving DSP.

And I think, Roon tries to avoid any RAAT recoding anyways, because that would probably cause a plethora of issues with all their Roon ready partners’ firmwares…

Hi Marin, are you by any chance still experiencing pops between track skips and clicks on volume ramping?

[Marin_Weigel (Bram Stoker's Cappuccino)]

You bet!
Depending on song played, they’re more or less prominent…

[grizaudio (Stephen)]

Same here, pop strength/loudness varies, and its random.
I’ll have stints of listening where I experience no issue, and other listening sessions with regular pops atm.

I even removed DSP volume control today, reverting the DAC volume, and added headroom control of -1.5db (Even tough I know my convolution filters are below digital 0db limits) but that hasn’t helped.

[grizaudio (Stephen)]

@noris, It would be great to get some feedback.

With the amount of threads covering this topic, the issue appears to be impacting a number of users on this forum.

I wonder how many users like Marin are experiencing the issue without posting.

[Marin_Weigel (Bram Stoker's Cappuccino)]

From what I’ve read in different threads, RAAT is coded such that currently there’s no way of implementing fading in or out or just zero crossing detection when fast forwarding or skipping or doing volume adjustments.

RAAT recoding could fix that, but would in turn be a nightmare for all Roon Ready device manufacturers needing firmware adjustments and customer updates.

I’m afraid, we’ll never see that happening - something that LMS/Daphile/Volumio/… all handle easily…

[grizaudio (Stephen)]

Thanks Marin,

I very much appreciate you sharing your experience.

So I checked your avatar, it appears you are running Windows.
Since you are experiencing issues on Win11, and I’m using Linux based OS (Rock, Ropieee) this issue appears to be present across different OS platforms.

I might quickly try My Win11 machine but I suspect based on your experience this will not address the RAAT issue.

Keen for Roon support to jump in.

[grizaudio (Stephen)]

@support, @noris, some assistance would be appreciated.
Initial complaints made some months ago now, with essentially zero support.

Observation is:
Three different PC’s tested.
Pi4(Ropieee), NUC i5 S4(Rock, USB direct to DAC), i7 Windows PC(Bridge connect to Rock).
No different, issue observed on all platforms and PC’s.

Observation
Pops on pause, track skip, clicking/popping on volume slider… Bloody annoying.
Running an active system, pops can get quite loud @ near -10db approaching 0db. Looking for a software fix.

Currently Testing Now
Windows installed with Roon software acting as server/bridge > USB connection to dac

[CrystalGipsy (Resisting the flow!)]

Never get pops on any of my zones with DSP, I don’t use DSP volume though. Convolution filter and Volume levelling used on my main Naim Uniti Atom. Nor had it on any of my pis when using convolution for headphone listening.

[grizaudio (Stephen)]

That’s great. Well done.