Loud Pop on my speaker when switching songs

[Prasenjit_Biswas]

Roon Core Machine

I am getting this loud pop when changing songs in my setup(not every time). I have never had these issues before.
The signal stack is Windows 11 Home desktop(Dell XPS 8930: Processor Intel(R) Core™ i7-8700 CPU @ 3.20GHz, 3192 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s), Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 48.0 GB) running Roon Core,

Networking Gear & Setup Details

Bluesound Node 2i(set as sound zone in my desktop roon software and connecting over wireless over a Orbi mesh router),

Connected Audio Devices

Bluesound Node 2i(set as sound zone in my desktop roon software and connecting over wireless), Ayre Codex DAC, VAC Sigma 170 IQ Integrated, Harbeth 30.2 XD bookshelf speaker and Rel T7i sub.

Number of Tracks in Library

16795 tracks…

Description of Issue

Before subscribing to Roon, I use to run the Bluesound desktop app(and I still do at times), to the same stack…no pops, no issues. No DSP in place inside Roon…I would appreciate some help on this.
TIA
Jit

[Michael_Harris]

Could be your DAC switching between bit rates.
Does it only happen when the bit rate changes?

You could try setting Roon output to a max of 16/44 and see if that makes a difference

[Prasenjit_Biswas]

Michael, Thank you so much for your quick reply. I’m brand new to roon…so where in the Roon do I fix the bit rate?

[Michael_Harris]

Sorry I had missed that bit.
Some DACS struggle to switch easily between formats and rates, but this may not be your issue.
It is useful to test though.

So go-to settings->Audio and then select your device and click on the settings cog and choose device setup (see below)

The at the bottom of that page select show Advanced
Then you can change the Max Sample Rate (PCM) to 48k and Max bits per Sample (PCM) to 16.

If this works you can also try DSP upscaling, which I can show you later.

Maybe someone else will also come along with a better idea than this

[Prasenjit_Biswas]

Thank you Michael for your detailed reply. I set it up as written…will keep my ears open for it. Appreciated!

[Michael_Harris]

No problem, what else am I supposed to do on a very wet day in Wales when I have my music and dogs for company

Fingers crossed this helps, you might want to post a signal path screen shot, if it happens.
Go back to the last song as well and do the same, hopefully it will give us some information that might be useful.

[RBO]

I’ve set my resync delay to 2000ms and this seems to have helped with the pops.

[grizaudio (Stephen)]

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?

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…

[grizaudio (Stephen)]

Thanks for this tip. I wasn’t aware of this sampling rate change “playback delay” feature.
My Motu Mk5 Uralite takes about 4 secs between sampling rate changes to play music, I would always miss the start of songs. Perfect fix! without upsampling everything to a fixed sample rate. Cheers.

[Michael_Harris]

Upsampling was my next suggestion if this doesn’t work. This might be useful if setting 16/44 doesn’t do a perfect job, or even improve it as well.

OP has gone off to test this, but thanks to you @grizaudio and @RBO for offering him additional help as well.

[RBO]

You’re welcome. Give us a shout if it works for you

[grizaudio (Stephen)]

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 messages appears, I need to test a few thigs.

[RBO]

@grizaudio

With this setting engaged, Roon radio doesn’t automatically transition into playback. The thumbs up and down messages appears, I need to test a few thigs.

I’ve just tested this and radio kicks in just fine.

[grizaudio (Stephen)]

Yeah, working now.
Once I clicked the radio Thumbs up pop it was fine.

[Prasenjit_Biswas]

I set sample rate to 48K and max bits per sample to 16. Also set the resync delay to 2000ms…have not heard the pop as yet…but will keep you guys posted…I’ve not got a chance to do extended listening. Thanks to all of you who responded…

[Prasenjit_Biswas]

Was hoping I found the solution…nope the above did not work…just got a pop on starting a song…

[RBO]

Are playing MQA?

I have not had a pop since setting resync delay but will test some more just in case pops are not as often now and somehow I missed them.

[Michael_Harris]

Can you screen shot of the signal path for the song that caused the pop?

As @RBO mentioned that if you are playing MQA it gets treated differently. Some people disable MQA on their DACs for this reason.

[RBO]

Fiddled with different sample rate songs from Qobuz and Tidal (FLAC and MQA) and surprise, I get the pops again even with resync delay.

I get the pops even when playing different sample rate FLAC so it’s not MQA related as far as I can tell.

[Prasenjit_Biswas]

Michael, how do I take a screenshot of the signal path… sorry is this a silly question… as I said I’m a newbie to Roon…