Splat! at the top of albums

I am experiencing a nasty digital ‘splat’ at the start of every album, usually about two seconds before any music is heard. I’m running a QNAP TS 251 with 4Gb (about to be upgraded to 8Gb) of RAM into a Meridian 218 zone controller and AC200 and out to a pair of DSP7200.2s. The Roon database is on a 64Gb SSD. All my connections are wired ethernet.

and DSP or DSD up sampling?

I’m doing neither. The DSP is disabled and there is no upsampling done in Roon.

Maybe lets tag @support and see what the boys can comment on…best you try and show the Audio settings roon screen shots here before they ask so they can see what you have setup currently. Plus any other pertinent info on the connectivity - I’m not familiar with the meridian gear or the QNAP but it sounds like its either a USB connection or LAN - but you should be explicit in your details. :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks for that. I’m at work at the moment so screenshots will have to wait until this evening but I will post them here.

Hi @Alan_McMillan ---- Thank you for the report and sharing your feedback with us.

To “piggy back” on @wizardofoz’s post (:thumbsup:). As mentioned, to help us evaluate this behavior you are experiencing, would kindly provide the following at your earliest convenience:

  • Screenshots of…

    • The signal path leaving Roon when you notice the “digital splat” mentioned in your report.

    • Any settings that you are currently being used in Roon pertaining to playback.

  • Please verify how big of a collections is being housed on the TS-251 based on number of tracks.

  • Besides the AC200 + DSP7200.2s mentioned in your report, do you currently have any other audio zones in your setup and if so do you make the same observation when streaming to them, OR does this seem isolated to the single zone?

  • Please briefly outline your network configuration/topology, being sure to provide insight into any networking hardware you are currently implementing. I want to have a clear understanding of what the chain of communication looks like and how information is moving from one device in your setup to the next.

-Eric

Hi Eric
Thanks for assisting me with this. I have attached five screenshots that should show you all the details of how my system is set up. If I’ve missed anything please let me know: I’ve only been using Roon for a week with this new Meridian equipment.

The TS-251 is dealing with a library of 19,891 tracks and I have no other audio zones in my system. The 218/AC200/DSP7200.2 is all there is.

The network topology is as follows. The TS-251 is connected to a Netgear Prosafe GS105 switch. This connects via ethernet to the Meridian 218. The Meridian speakerlink then passes to the AC200 and from there to the DSP7200.2s. The Roon Remote is on a Windows 10 laptop and connects to the core via Wi-Fi.
Hopefully this will give you enough to make a start. If you need more from me please let me know.
Regards

Alan

Capture4

Hi @Alan_McMillan ----- Thank you for touching base with me, very appreciated! A few things moving forward.

Please provide a screenshot of your signal path leaving Roon when the issues occurs. Furthermore, I see that background analysis is still running, has this completed yet? If it has not, my advice would be to enable audio analysis at max speed over night when you’re not using the system.

-Eric

Hi Eric
Here’s the signal path you asked for. The background analysis is still running so I’ve done as you suggested and increased its speed. I have also just added another 4GB of RAM and it seems to have reduced the incidences of the the splat occurring. it now only happens every few albums and only at the top of the tracks.

Regards

Alan

Signal Path

By way of an update, the splat has taken to reappearing more regularly again. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to when or how often it appears, the only predictable thing is that it is always at the top of an album that has just been selected for playing.

Alan

Just an idea (with no deepest technical background, just try & error)…did you try to adjust the “Resync Delay” to 1 or 2 seconds?

Hi Oliver
I’ll try that tonight when I get home from work. Thanks for the idea.

Alan

I’ve tried the resync delay. It made no difference. I’m still getting the splat. I’ve also noticed that if I pause a track and then restart it, I get the splat then too.

Hi Eric
Have you had any other thoughts regarding this? I’m still getting the splat at the top of albums (not always though) and also if I pause a track and restart it.

Alan

Can somebody @support please get back to me about this issue. Since sending the requested setup screenshots i have had no responses.

Alan

Hi @Alan_McMillan — Apologies for the delay, thank you for your patience here.

Moving forward, I would like to try and isolate some variables to see if we can pinpoint where the issue is occurring/stemming from. With this in mind, I would kindly like to ask you to please verify the following for me:

  • This “splat” you are experiencing at the start of playback when an album is selected. Does this behavior also occur in your setup outside of the application, say via Sooloos?

  • In regard to the 218 zone controller, besides the “speaker link out” (master + slave) interface, have you tried testing with any other available output options on the unit to verify if you notice the same issue when playback starts?

  • Since noticing this behavior have you by chance tried testing with your Roon core being hosted on another device? The reason I ask is because the TS-251 NAS (processor = 64-bit Intel® Celeron® quad-core 2.0GHz processor) is a bit under our recommended spec and could be experiencing a performance issue.

-Eric

Hi Eric
I have no alternative playback system, however, the present server and network infrastructure was used to host the library for my previous setup which involved using a Naim ND5-XS network streamer. No splats were ever heard when that equipment was in use. The QNAP TS-251 I have has a dual core Celeron processor running at 2.41GHz and during streaming via Roon the resource monitor shows the 8Gb of RAM running at around 10-15% and the processor at about 25-30% of capacity.

I have not had the opportunity yet to use another method of connecting the 218 to the loudspeakers but I will try that tonight.

Regards

Alan

Thank you for the provided insight @Alan_McMillan, I appreciate you touching base with me. Looking forward to hearing the results of your testing!

-Eric

Hi Eric
I reconfigured and replugged my system so that the 218 was delivering a coaxial digital input to the DSP7200s. It was very revealing. There was no splatting in evidence. At all. In Roon I started playing several albums and jumping around track selections…things that would normally have splats occurring with every change in what was playing. The coax output has no splatting on it at all no matter what is done. It only occurs on the Speakerlink outputs. Do I have a faulty 218 perchance?

Alan

Hi @Alan_McMillan ---- Thank you for giving the proposed test a go and sharing the observations you have made during.

While I cannot prove or disprove if the device is indeed faulty, a good test would be to try using new cables with the Speakerlink outputs. This test will provide us with a good data point because if things begin to work, great! Then we will know that the connection was the issue and not the unit itself. If the failure is still present with new cabling in place, I think it would be good to get Meridian’s take on the behavior.

-Eric