Play Silence before every song (even with the same sampling rate - DAC Mcintosh D150)

Support
1

Hi,

I use ROON Core Version 1.5 built 363 stable 64bits on a late 2012 iMAC. I do have several Roon Bridges (Chromecast, Bluesound Node 2 and raspberry pi 3 b+)

Setup:

Google chromecast is connected to a Rotel RC-1590 Preamp using optical cable and everything works fine.
Bluedound NODE 2 is connected to a McIntosh D150 preamp using coax cable (24/192k) and everything works fine.
raspberry pi 3 B+ using RoPieee latest version (Dec 2018). This raspberry is connected to a McIntosh 2500 preamp using USB interface and streaming works fine.

In all the previous setups I am able to play any song, using different sampling rate, jump songs, etc. Everything works fine!

The problem comes in the following setup:

raspberry pi 3 b+ using RoPieee latest version (Dec 2018) connected to a McIntosh D150 using USB interface.

Every time that I play a song (no matter the sampling or if the album has only songs with the same sampling/bit rate), it ALWAYS cuts around .5 seconds of each song.
In order to isolate the issue, I connected the raspberry to other DAC (C2500) and it works fine.

I contacted McIntosh support and they told me that the McIntosh D150, when it does not sense any signal, it automatically mutes itself, then when a new signal is sense, D150 does NOT wake up immediately, but instead waits 100ms and then un-mute. McIntosh says that it is working as designed and the intention is to avoid pops when there we play songs with different samples.

The problem is that D150 mutes EVEN when I play songs in a playlist with the same sampling/bits. Why, This is very obvious when the song that is playing ended “fading out”, this means that the last 1 or 2 seconds of the song basically don’t have any signal that is perceived by the D150 and mutes itself (this does not affect the current song), but when the other song starts, it needs to un-mute the D150 and this takes 100ms. The result of this is that the first part of the initial second of the song is cut.

Imaging listening Master of Puppets or Hotel California without the first part of the guitar!

Long story short, McIntosh told me that the player needs to send “silence” every time that a song starts, not only when there is a change in the sampling between songs.

JRiver has this kind of options.

Roon has the option Resync-Delay, but this does not work in this situation.

My wish for the Roon development team is the following:

Is it possible to create an option to “Play Silence” before starting ANY song. Then the user can select how many milliseconds of silence needs to be played before the song. This silence needs to be “attached” to the beginning of the song because if there is a small period of “no-signal”, then the D150 will mute again.

The intention of this option is to allow the D150 to un-mute a little bit before the real song starts to avoid losing the first part of the song.

This option can be available on any DAC and, the end-user can enable it if needed.

I know that this is a workaround for this preamp, but unfortunately that is the the only way to play correctly the songs on this DAC

DAC: McIntosh D150
Firmware: V 1.02

The issue happens ONLY using the USB interface. When I use Coax or Optical to the McIntosh D150 it works fine.

Thanks for your understanding and help on this topic.

Sergio

3

Sounds to me like you need to ditch the D150 (drastic) or use an alternative input option (any major issue?). I can’t see this being something Roon would implement for one device make/model - its not like its even a Roon Partner approved device.

4

:slight_smile:

Unfortunately I kind agree with you.

I talked with McIntosh and the intention of this mute functionality is to avoid Pops when we there is a change on the signal (DSD / PCM).

I also learned, out of another room forum, McIntosh D1100 (flagship DAC from McIntosh) had the same issue. McIntosh release a firmware that enabled a function to disable the mute as desired.

Unfortunately that will not happen on D150.

Due to that, I am that ROON could extend the current functionality that already has to re-sync with the hardware when there is a change in the signal. It is “just” to extend that functionality to the start oc every song.

JRiver has this functionality and works fine with D150… unfortunately I like better Room and I want to stick with it :wink:

Thanks!

5

This also happens with my streamer/player, a Salkstream III, connected to my Oppo 103 via HDMI. I was told on an Oppo forum “it’s the nature of the beast”…sigh.:frowning:

It would be great if Roon had a setting that could address this.

I also have the Salkstream III connected to my pre/pro, Anthem AVM20, via optical. It doesn’t happen in this situation (the Anthem does have an adjustable mute setting for cases where it’s an issue).

6

Hi,

Last night, I tested with a loaner D150 with firmware 1.00.

With this firmware, the songs (most of the times) play fine. There is no cut of the first note of the beginning of each song.

The issue now is that from time to time, there is a pop when I switch the songs. It happens with and without the same samplig rate.

So … looks like either I need to chose the least worse of either one or look for a different DAC

I’ll keep you posted is there are news on this.

Thanks.