Occasionally Roon comes up with a very loud static noise. What might be the problem?
I’m using windows 10, 64 bit
Latest version of Roon
I’m using a North Star Essensio USB DAC
My music is stored on a sea gate usb external hard disk
Hi @Evert_de_Haan ----- Thank you for the report and sharing this observation you have made with. The insight is appreciated!
Moving forward, to help aide in our evaluation of this behavior you’ve reported to us, may I very kindly ask you for the following:
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A screenshot of your signal path when you make this observation (if possible
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When you notice this issue does it occur with both local and TIDAL content? Furthermore, you mentioned that this happens “occasionally”, do you notice any patterns in behavior when the static noise happens? For example, are using the DSP engine? Are you playing the same type of content?
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If you have any other DACs available do you make this same observation when streaming to them?
-Eric
Hi Eric,
Thanks for your reply.
I’ve changed a few things in my setup. I’ve put my music on the internal harddisk of my computer.
I also disabled the system audio in Roon.
For a while I thought I’ve solved the problem. However the problem showed up again yesterday.
It is not so nice because you’re listening to your music and all of a sudden, when a new song starts, you hear this very load noise. I don’t trust my setup any more.
The song was local. The signal was lossless. When I’ve restarted Roon, I’ve played the same song without problems.
I don’t have an other DAC available.
I hope you can help me with this problem.
Thank you for getting in touch with me @Evert_de_Haan, the insight is very appreciated!
Continuing forward, based on the screenshots of your “zone selector” I see that it appears that you are making use of a Sonos device (i.e “Keuken”). When streaming to this zone do you ever hear the mentioned static? Additionally have you confirmed what the experience is like playing directly out of the internal speakers of the Win10 device currently hosting your Roon core?
Furthermore, in regard to the Essensio DAC, can you confirm that the drivers the unit may require are up to date and that you have tested with a different USB chord between the DAC and the computer?
-Eric
Hi Eric,
I understand your questions. However I hardly use Roon for my Sonos device. Because the problem occurs only once in a while, it will be hard for me to find out if it also occurs on the Sonos/internal speaker.
I,ve replaced the USB cord.
By the way, it happened again twice since my last post.
Best regards,
Evert
Thanks for getting back to me @Evert_de_Haan, very appreciated!
Moving forward, I had a chance to discuss your report with a few members of our tech team today and as per the conversation the team has asked if you could provide us with a video example of the “static” noise you are hearing at the start of playback so we can get a sense as to what the error sounds like. Additionally the team has also asked if you have ever noticed this behavior outside of Roon while using the Essensio.
-Eric
KAZ79S Hope this link works to the video I’ve made
Hi @Evert_de_Haan ----- I don’t think the link posted correctly 
would it be possible for you to post it again?
Thanks!
-Eric
Thank you for the providing a link to the video you shot highlighting the static sound you are hearing with the Essensio, @Evert_de_Haan. Very appreciated!
I am going to be presenting this video to the team later in the week but want to check in with you about the question asked in one of my previous posts:
" Additionally the team has also asked if you have ever noticed this behavior outside of Roon while using the Essensio."
-Eric
Hi Eric. No I’ve never experienced this problem before. I would like to add that when this noise occurs it looks like it bypasses the volume setting on my computer and goes to the setting of the amplifier. That’s why this noise is sometimes very loud. Also the volume setting of Roon on my computer does not work at that moment. When this noise occurs when Roon starts a new track and I restart the same track again, the track is played without a problem.
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Hi Eric,
I’ve read in a previous posting that someone else experienced also problems with a North Star dac. He called it white noise. He solved the problem by buying another dac.
I saw on the website www.northstar.it a setup manual for the JRiver media center. Unfortunately not for Roon. Could it be possible that your staff checks this manual. Maybe they can give me thereafter the best setup for my North Star dac in Roon.
Hi @Evert_de_Haan ----- Thank you for touching base with me and my apologies for the delayed response.
Continuing forward, I presented the video example you provided to our team yesterday to get some feedback on the sound you are hearing with the Essensio (thank you again for that). Based on the conversation the team has asked if you could verify what driver is being used with the Essensio.
Additionally, I can certainly take a look at the manual and advise to the best of my ability, but in order for us to truly understand what is going with this DAC we must be able to reproduce the issue in our QA lab. With this in mind we are going to be trying to get one of these DACs for testing purposes.
-Eric
Thank you for the update @Evert_de_Haan and providing the requested information! Very appreciated!
Based on the sound in the video example this could be an issue with the DAC (I know some DACs that have failure modes that sound like white noise, and some drivers too). But I think the investigation has to start from the DAC side and work backwards. As mentioned we are going to try and obtain one of these devices from North Star to try and replicate this behavior in house.
-Eric
Since a few days I’ve changed the volume control to “use wasapi mixer”. Since then I did not experience the white noise. Only the quality is less.