Ringing noise when playing low bass on Windows 10

[Adam_Arczynski (Adam Arczyński)]

Roon Core Machine

NUC10i5 in Akasa Turing FX + Samsung 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe 970 EVO Plus + HyperX 16GB (2x8GB) 2666MHz CL15 Impact Black. Roon 1.8 build 831.

Networking Gear & Setup Details

Wired with UGreen cat 7 cable to 1GBps ISP provided router

Connected Audio Devices

• Win 10 Home PC (without any custom drivers) connected to RME ADI 2 DAC FS with optical. I also tried USB. Both cables are from QED Reference line.
• RPi 4 + HiFiBerryOS connected to the same RME with coax

Number of Tracks in Library

10k tracks

Description of Issue

When I listen to bass-heavy music, there is an audible ringing noise in the rhythm of the bass. This happens only when listening on my Windows PC. This is not the case when I play from RPi4 with HiFiBerryOS. This does not happen when playing directly from my Windows PC without Roon either.

To better visualize what I mean, I have applied a low pass filter and did some recording.

Here is the recording: https://vocaroo.com/1PPYuKumcrzw. I made some Audacity edits on it to exaggerate this problem a bit for demonstration purposes. I have noticed it when normally listening to some bass-heavy ambient music. This issue is present in any music, but usually not audible due to being drowned by vocals and instruments. After applying a low pass filter for tests, ringing noise is very easy to hear in any music.

I have also noticed that this problem is gone when I set Exclusive Mode in Roon device settings. Sadly it is not a solution for me as it mutes sounds from other apps. I tend to play online video games, use a voice communicator and listen to the music from Roon at the same time.

Kind regards,
Adam

[Mikael_Ollars]

@Adam_Arczynski

I have also noticed that this problem is gone when I set Exclusive Mode in Roon device settings. Sadly it is not a solution for me as it mutes sounds from other apps. I tend to play online video games, use a voice communicator and listen to the music from Roon at the same time.

To be quite frank, i don’t see the point of using Roon for music playback at the same time as avoiding exclusive mode for the reasons given.
But each to his own, i suppose.

Still, are you confident this is a Roon issue and not a Windows Kernel Mixer issue?

[Adam_Arczynski (Adam Arczyński)]

As described in the original post - when I am playing online video games, I listen to music as well. This is not critical listening. It’s just for gameplay improvement as MMO games music is usually poor. I do not have my music playlists copied to my PC and it would be convenient to use Roon here.

This issue does not happen when playing music directly from Windows during gaming, so I believe this is not the Windows Kernel Mixer issue. This happens only when I play from Roon to Windows PC without exclusive mode on. No other software on my Win PC produces such sound artifacts.

[Adam_Arczynski (Adam Arczyński)]

Fixed by changing my PC S/PDIF optical out sample rate from 48kHz. Any other value works fine - e.g. 44.1kHz, 96kHz, 192kHz. 48kHz produces this whining noise for some reason. Also tried switching bit depth between 16bit and 24bit but it does not change anything.