MQA crackle noise on Desktop iMac [SOLVED]

[Marcor (Marco)]

Hello,

just checking if anybody had this issue before.
Last weekend I was working on my computer and I decided to play some music .I switched on Roon and started playing the latest Gorillaz album “Humanz” on Tidal. The album is released as MQA. At a certain point, I cannot remember exactly the song the music started coming out with some crackling noise. This was the second time this happened to me . First time was with the first track of Dr. John’ Gris-Gris MQA.
However when I try to listen to the same songs streaming it to my amplifier they play without any noise.
I double checked if the DSP was using some weird setting in the Zone but DSP was completely disable.
Any idea what could cause the computer output to generate the noise on some given tracks?
Thanks

Marco

[Greg (Greg Stratton)]

Hi Marco,

It sounds to me like you don’t have Exclusive Mode set. In Settings > Audio enable Built-In Output and select Device Settings. Under the Playback tab, select Exclusive Mode.

See if that helps.

Cheers, Greg

[Marcor (Marco)]

Thanks Greg,
I am pretty sure I have exclusive mode on, in fact I can control the volume only in within Roon, but that gives me the idea of trying the other way around and disable the exclusive mode and see if still does it.

[Marcor (Marco)]

And now it is gone.
I re tried both the tracks and the crackling noise is gone.
Really weird.
Oh well…