Hello,
I am using Roon v1.4 (306) with a new setup today: MacBook Pro, Chord Hugo 2, DSD 64fs lossless signal path via DoP v1.0.
After pausing and then restarting play with the spacebar, I hear crackling noises which continue during play. When I restart the track or the album the noise disappears.
As a test I tried various playback settings: integer mode, max hardware buffer size, and power-of-2 buffer size. None of these options solve the problem.
I am looking for a solution, please advice.
This zip contains screen shots of the various system, setup, and signal path dialogs:
Thank you,
Mike Schuster
Hi @Michael_D_Schuster ----- Thank you for the report and the screenshots, confirming that they’ve been seen 
Moving forward, to help aide in our evaluation of this behavior ay I very kindly ask you for the following information:
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By the sound of it this issue is only occurring when playing DSD 64 files, is this indeed the case?
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What is the experience outside of Roon with the Hugo2 + DSD 64 content?
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Do you make the same observations when using a different DAC?
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What is the experience like if you upsample to DSD 64 via the DSP engine?
-Eric
Hello Eric,
Thank you for your reply. I appreciate your help.
By the sound of it this issue in only occurring when playing DSD 64 files, is this indeed the case?
Yes, although the issue occurs when playing both DSD 64fs and 256fs via DoP v1.0. It does not occur with FLAC 96/24 content.
Note: after the cracking starts, I found that I can eliminate it by manually repositioning the play point (ie by clicking on the time line). This workaround makes the problem much less of an issue for me.
What is the experience outside of Roon with the Hugo2 + DSD 64 content.
No information. I have used Hugo 2 only with Roon. I do not have another player software system.
Do you make the same observations when using a different DAC?
No information. I have not used Roon with a different DAC. I do have a Questyle QP2R portable music player for DSD play, but have not used it with Roon.
What is the experience like if you upsample to DSD 64 via the DSP engine?
Setting DSD Playback Strategy to Convert to PCM solves the problem. But I prefer not to do this as I want to enjoy Hugo 2’s native DSD support. Does this answer your question?
Thank you,
Mike Schuster
Hi @Michael_D_Schuster ----- Thank you for getting back to me and taking the time to answer my questions. Very appreciated!
Please allow to clarify the following:
Q: What is the experience like if you upsample to DSD 64 via the DSP engine?
A: Setting DSD Playback Strategy to Convert to PCM solves the problem. But I prefer not to do this as I want to enjoy Hugo 2’s native DSD support. Does this answer your question?
- What I am asking in that question is what is the experience like if you take FLAC 96/24 file and upsample it to DSD64 via the “sample rate” conversion in the DSP engine?
-Eric
Hello Eric,
Ok I understand now. With FLAC 96/24 to DSD64 sample rate conversion enabled in the DSP engine (and verified to be working in the signal path):
Same problem. Crackling noise after Pause and then Play. Noise eliminated by repositioning the play point.
Thank you,
Mike Schuster
Have you tried a different USB port and a different USB cable?
Have you tried a different USB port and a different USB cable?
Good idea. I just tried the other port with a different cable.
No change. Same problem.
Thanks,
Mike Schuster
Thank you for the follow up and the continued feedback @Michael_D_Schuster, both are appreciated!
Continuing forward, we have a Hugo2 in our QA lab and I am going to be scheduling some time for one of our techs to pull it off the shelf and verify what the experience is like when playing DSD 64 content (hopefully for today). Once I get some feedback I will be sure to touch base again asap.
-Eric
Ok thanks Eric. Be sure to test with quiet passages of music, classical. The noise will be very noticeable then. In moderate to louder music the noise is larger to hear. Also, I am using Campfire Audio Andromeda earphone, which are especially sensitive and resolving, and so likely make the problem more audible.
Hello @Michael_D_Schuster,
I was able to reproduce the behavior you are describing with the Chord Hugo 2. The tech team and I will be further investigating the issue, I will update this thread when we have some further insight on what’s going on here.
-John
1 Like
Thank you John,
Please note, I see another Pause related issue with Roon and Hugo2: Pause then Next Track. Since this issue seems related I decided to note it in this thread.
Immediately after Pause and then Next Track, Hugo2 drops out of DoP mode, you can see the blue light appear indicating PCM. Typically Hugo2 will recover quickly and begin playing the next track DSD successfully. However, occasionally Hugo2 does not recover and playback audio remains impaired. When this happens, to recover, I stop play, empty the queue, and start all over.
Thanks,
Mike
Just a note: this problem continues in today’s new release 1.5 (build 333).
Today I am listening with less sensitive ZMF headphones, the crackling remains clearly audible.
Hello @Michael_D_Schuster,
We have done some further investigation on this issue, and it appears to be related to something specific to the MacOS audio stack that is causing this behavior. We were able to reproduce this behavior on multiple DACs, not just the Chord Hugo 2. While I do not have a timeline on when we can expect to have a fix for this issue, this is on our radar and work has been ongoing in the area.
In the interim, can you report if pausing the stream for longer than five seconds, when playback is in the distorted state, results in playback resuming normally?
-John
Thank you John,
When playback is in the distorted state, pausing 10 seconds solves the problem. However, a shorter 5 second pause does not solve the problem.
Also, with playback in normal state (no crackling), it seems that if I pause longer than 10 seconds then crackling does not start.
I’ve tried the above tests about 10 times, and so far 10 seconds is enough to solve/avoid the problem.
Thank you,
Mike
Hi John,
I would like to add to this issue since It’s something I’m currently also encountering and have some extra details.
(Setup: DAC is a Bryston BDA-3; Mac Mini Quad Core i7)
- The problem appears during any kind of DSD playback (64, 128, upsampled or native DSD file).
- It’s only happening when a Mac is used as a Roon Core. Same Mac used as Bridge only works perfectly.
- It appears no matter which output source I use (DAC connected directly via USB to source, DAC connected to another computer on the network with Roon Control & Output, HifiBerry on a RPI.)
- Previously I had used Roon Core on a Synology NAS without any such problems.
- The crackling noise goes away once the signal is re-synced (jumping to another position in the track; hitting next / prev track; waiting 5-6 seconds to stop any signal going to the dac.
- The crackling noise also disappears when changing any DSP setting, with the dac still engaged and playback continuing after a very short brake (about 1 second).
Hope this helps. Is there any update on a fix for this?
Thanks,
Stefan