White noise when you hit play

Roon Software Discussion
#1

Hi Guys.

Are any of you experiencing this issue - When you hit play from Roon, along with the song, I hear loud white noise. If I pause the song and hit play again, the white noise goes away.

This happens occasionally. Any idea why?

#2

Is it correct to assume you are using the USB input on your DAC?
If so, you are most probably pushing your the usb input of your DAC to the edge.

I have encountered the same issue, using my T+A 8 DSD dac with my linux based Pinkfaun streamer.
Whilst the T+A 8 DSD dac has no issues with playing DSD512 (the highest rate supported) from a Windows server, it did not work corectly with Linux.
Although Linux is not (yet) officially supported on the DAC, T+A has done an incredibale job to provide me with a Linux only firmaware for the usb input card, that has solved my problem (although I cannot use the DAC with a Windows server anymore, without re-installing the compliant Windows firmware).

2 recommendations, again based on the assumption your are using the usb input on your DAC.

  1. if your are umsampling to the highest rate offically supported by your DAC, try to bring the upsampling rate down, e.g.PCM384 to PCM192, DSD256 to DSD128, …
  2. do a search on the internet to try and find out which input module your DAC is using, and if there is an updated firmware available. Instructions on how to update firmware on your DAC should normally be available (on request at least) by your DAC manufacturer.
    Please make sure to take into account the OS of your music server/streamer. Most of the time it is Linux that is the problem.

Hope this helps

Dirk

#3

Hi Dirk

Thanks for the reply. Yes I am using the USB input of the DAC. My streamer is a SOtM ultra neo and my DAC is a chord Dave and I am upsampling to 768 kHz. I’ll try doing 384 .

#4

My cousin was having an issue similar to what you mentioned. But this was with an audioquest Dac and his PC. He was using a USB cable from the PC to the dac on his desk so he could reach it to switch speaker and headphone plugins. I think he finally figured out it was an issue with USB 3 port and cable. He changed it to USB 2 port and cable and the noise was gone.

Different equipment but had to do with USB so I thought it was worth mentioning.

1 Like
#5

Hello @Roon_Superuser,

How often do you experience this issue with the SOtM ultra Neo and the Chord Dave? Would it be possible to connect the Dave to a Mac or PC laptop to see if you can reproduce the issue?

-John

#6

The issue happens very randomly. My roon server is a NUC and its sitting in a different place in the apartment. Its not possible to connect the NUC to the Dave.

#7

I suggest you turn off the upsampling for PCM, and feed PCM music to it in a lossless manner.

2 Likes