microRendu to Holo Spring, soft pops with HQP after SonicOrbiter 2.5 [Solved]

I had been experiencing some soft crackles and pops after the upgrade to 2.5 and finally tracked down the issue. The artifacts didn’t arise with the Roon Ready app, just the mR as an HQP NAA. It wasn’t confined to DSD, occasionally showing up in PCM, but far less frequently.

The solution was to reduce the buffer time in HQP Settings. I had it on 250ms to minimise noise when changing resolution and hadn’t experienced these crackles with SonicOrbiter 2.3. Taking the buffer down to 5ms in HQP eliminated the problem in 2.5. Much happier.

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Thanks. I have been having this problem also (but it also manifests when using RoonReady mode on my microRendu). I’ll have to give your solution a try, as this was very annoying and I seemed to be the only one having issues with 2.5.

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I don’t think I had any buffer time in Roon settings. If you did that might be the distinction.

I don’t have another hi res DAC on hand to check whether its just with the Spring, but it seems like the mR 2.5 and Spring have an issue with buffering.

Haven’t had a chance to try out the buffer settings for HQPlayer but I didn’t find anything that I could adjust in Roon :disappointed:

This only seems to happen for me at DSD512, and only with SonicOrbiter 2.5 on my microRendu.

Thanks for this. I had the exact same problem and it was driving me crazy (like listening to vinyl). Your solution worked a treat.

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Spoke to soon. The reduced buffer worked fine when upsampling redbook to DSD512. But upsampling 192k tracks to DSD512 doesn’t work at all. A soft click sounds at the start of the track then no volume. The track continues to play (and neither Roon nor HQPlayer’s GUI show any issues). Just no sound (even going back to the redbook files doesn’t work). Rebooting fixes the issue for the redbook files but not the hi rez ones.

I’ve tried swapping out various cables but no luck. I’ve also tried all the buffer times. Sometimes it will work with 96k tracks but will never work with 192k. Max volume is set at -6db. I’m using polysinc short mp -2s. The microrendu is running 2.5 OS and the SU1 has been upgraded with the latest firmware from Kitsune to run DSD512. It’s not the SU1 though as the issue happens without it in the chain. The DAC is Holo Spring KTE L3.

It’s a shame as it sounds amazing upsampling from redbook - best I’ve ever heard.

Will have a further play around tonight. I’m using the SonicTransporter i7’s bridged ethernet ports. Will try slotting in an Ethernet switch to see if that makes a difference (but I have no idea why it would).

Try changing Bit Rate (/limit) between 512 x 48 and 512 x 44.1 kHz. Leave Auto rate family unchecked. Power cycle the Spring.

Andrew - I don’t know how you thought of that but it worked. Was reluctant to call it solved until I’d spent a few hours listening without issues but haven’t heard any pops or clicks for several albums in a row. I think this is now solved (fingers crossed).

I’ve had the same problem. I think the Spring really dislikes 512 x 48 and can get stuck in a bad state if switched to it. Nowadays I leave it on 512 x 44.1.