[Ern Dog]

I have a question about my Macbook Pro laptop having problems with playing files out to my stereo via USB to my Nuforce DAC-9.  After awhile the music starts to sound choppy and distorted.  I'm using Audirvana and Bitperfect and it does this with both software programs.  I turn off all other programs/apps except the audio software and that still doesn't help.  My suspicion is that the fan turn on as the laptop heats up and this draws power away from the audio playback.  With Audirvana the CPU light starts flashing when this happens.

Any tips on how to resolve this?

[wilsynet]

What does your CPU and memory usage look like when this is happening?

Run Activity monitor from Applications/Utilities.

[Ern Dog]

I think I may have figured it out.  In the Audio System's page in Audirvana, there is a feature called 'maximum memory allocated to tracks'-  I had the slider on "maximum", so I moved it to the lowest amount and I haven't had the problem anymore.  More time will tell.

[srb]

But you said you also had choppy sound and stuttering with BitPerfect?
 
Steve

[morganc]

I think I may have figured it out.  In the Audio System's page in Audirvana, there is a feature called 'maximum memory allocated to tracks'-  I had the slider on "maximum", so I moved it to the lowest amount and I haven't had the problem anymore.  More time will tell.

Yes, I think that you found the solution.  I had the same problem and this solved it.

[Ern Dog]

For Bitperfect I also lowered the "Buffer size" as I had it on the max.

I'm new into PC audio and frankly I'm amazed at how good it sounds.  Shoot in my system it rivals my Modwright Oppo 83 and at times I think the PC sounds better!  Well maybe better isn't the right word, it's different for sure.