Roon Nucleus running Roon 1.5 connected via ethernet LAN to router. Tidal streamed via router to Nucleus. Bryston BDP Pi streamer( set to fixed volume ) connected via ethernet LAN to same router. USB 2.0 WD my book 2 TB drive connected via USB to Nucleus. BDP Pi connected to Bryston BDA-3 via USB.
Playing local music files is fine with or without DSP engine engaged. I normally do not engage headroom management. I can use the DSP engine with flac, wav, aac. Files from 16/44.1 to 24/192. Using Smooth minimum phase setting. No pops, no tics, no drop outs. Processing speed normally runs at 16X or better. IF I use the headroom management I can see the occasional “clip” on some dense or complex tunes but never ever hear pops or tics.
Playing Tidal files with DSP engine engaged will almost always result in pops and tics. Never at the same time in the same song twice. IE if there is a pop at :54 the first play, it will be at :50 or :59 the next play. It does not seem to happen as often with MQA files but it does still happen. Engaging headroom management at -3 db does not solve the pops and tics. When a pop or tic happens it does not happen at the same time as a clip indicator. Processing speed is again right at 15X or better.
Thanks for contacting support, and more importantly thanks for all of that information you posted regarding your setup, it will really help us get a better idea of what could be going wrong. Can you please let us know the model of the router you have? I’m thinking that this could be a networking related issue since you mention that local files are playing fine yet TIDAL content is not.
I have gone ahead and also enabled diagnostics mode for your account and what that will do is next time your Nucleus is active, a set of logs will automatically be generated and uploaded to our servers for further analysis.
I have a small request that would greatly accelerate this analysis process. Would you be able to play music from the Nucleus for a while and jot down the exact local time in your country (ex 6:50PM) that you notice the click/pop? We would then be able to cross-reference that time to see if there is a particular error that Roon is displaying in the logs and help narrow down the causes that way.
Please let me know your Router model and a timestamp of when this issue occurs when possible.
Thank you for the follow up. I just launched Roon and played 1 track ( MQA FLAC 44.1kHz 24 bit, MGQA 44.1 kHz per Roon ) and the popping started at 9:01 AM EST. Next switched to a FLAC 44.1 kHz 16 bit file and had no pops. Then swapped to another FLAC 44.1 kHz file and got pops at 9:07 AM EST.
All DSP settings as noted above. Headroom management engaged but at 0 db, clipping indicator on, smooth minimum phase bit depth conversion set to max power of 2.
Thank you for providing those timestamps and additional information. I can confirm that our system has successfully received the needed diagnostics info from your Nucleus and it has been submitted to our QA team along with the other relevant information you have provided. I will be sure to let you know once they have completed their report and have passed it back to me in regards to suggested next steps. I appreciate your patience while it reaches their queue and will be in touch again afterwards.
I appreciate your patience as QA reviewed that diagnostic info from your machine. They have asked me to confirm if the pops and clicks stop when disabling up-sampling in the DSP engine when playing TIDAL content. More generally speaking, what DSP functions do you have to disable to get rid of the pops and clicks? All of the DSP functions or just some of them? Please let me know when possible so that I can pass that information on to the QA team reviewing your case.
An update: Right now with DSP enables I am getting the popping sounds with just the sample rate conversion enabled. All other DSP is disabled. Sample rate conversion settings are Max PCM Rate ( power of 2 ) and Smooth, Minimum Pahase. DSD to PCM filter is set teh Recommended ( 30khz low pass filter) although I am not playing any DSD file via Tidal of course. Smooth, Linear Phase also results in popping. So does precise, minimum phase. And Precise, Linear phase. Max PCM rate pops as well.
I turned off the Sample rate conversion and turned on Headroom management -3 db. That ended the pops but then I would guess that it would as there is only bit depth conversion going on.
Thank you for letting me know that disabling the DSP engine helps resolve this issue and the exact settings that seem to be causing issues here. I have spoken to a few of my colleagues and they have said that this behavior can be resolved by updating the firmware on your Bryson BDA-3.
To update the firmware, please follow the instructions listed on the last page of the User Manual on their website. After you have updated the firmware, please let me know if the same issue still occurs or if the update has resolved it.
Just want to let you know that we are reaching out to Bryston regarding your case. I will be sure to update you once we have spoken to them and they provide some details of what could be going on here. I appreciate your patience in the meantime.