[raymondbeautrix]

Hello Everyone,

I followed steve's helpful advice with foobar2000 recommendations and PC tweaks, and am still having occasional (maybe once every 30-90 seconds) crackling/popping noises.  Sometimes the music seems to lag ever so slightly, then quickly get back on track.  The issue is subtle, but still quite annoying and disruptive to my listening experience.

Though I'm hoping to be able to save up for it, I don't currently have an empirical audio source or reclocker.  I'm using the usb interface on my berresford 7520 DAC.

I tested the DAC with an alternate source, my PS2, and there wasn't the slightest crackling.  On my computer, I get crackling with mp3, flac, and even audio CDs.

I was using J River Media Center with bitperfect playback.  I also tried foobar, and set the buffer cache size to 700000000 and maxed the process priority as Steve had recommended.  Neither seemed to change anything.  I am running Windows 7 x64, 4g ram, and 2.4ghz quadcore.  I was a bit uncomfortable setting my pagefile size to 0, since I play games occasionally and wouldn't want to risk running out of memory (though 4g should be more than enough..).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Isaac

[audioengr]

Hello Everyone,

I followed steve's helpful advice with foobar2000 recommendations and PC tweaks, and am still having occasional (maybe once every 30-90 seconds) crackling/popping noises.  Sometimes the music seems to lag ever so slightly, then quickly get back on track.  The issue is subtle, but still quite annoying and disruptive to my listening experience.

Though I'm hoping to be able to save up for it, I don't currently have an empirical audio source or reclocker.  I'm using the usb interface on my berresford 7520 DAC.

I tested the DAC with an alternate source, my PS2, and there wasn't the slightest crackling.  On my computer, I get crackling with mp3, flac, and even audio CDs.

I was using J River Media Center with bitperfect playback.  I also tried foobar, and set the buffer cache size to 700000000 and maxed the process priority as Steve had recommended.  Neither seemed to change anything.  I am running Windows 7 x64, 4g ram, and 2.4ghz quadcore.  I was a bit uncomfortable setting my pagefile size to 0, since I play games occasionally and wouldn't want to risk running out of memory (though 4g should be more than enough..).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Isaac

The problem is hardware/software latency in your computer.  It may be that your particular computer architecture causes high latency on the USB ports, so real-time operation is impossible.  This is the case with some computers, such as many Dell laptops.  There is simply no help for them.

You may have no alternative but to use another computer.

The best quality playback currently is using Mac (such as Mac Mini) with Amarra. The Mini has very good USB ports with low latency, all USB 2.0.  See this for more recommendations:

http://www.empiricalaudio.com/computer-audio/

Steve N.

[srb]

You may have no alternative but to use another computer.

But if he wanted to stick with that computer for now, and the problem is the latency on USB, could he not simply add a PCI/PCI-e sound card and use it's coaxial digital output into his Beresford TC-7520 DAC?
 
Steve

[audioengr]

You may have no alternative but to use another computer.

But if he wanted to stick with that computer for now, and the problem is the latency on USB, could he not simply add a PCI/PCI-e sound card and use it's coaxial digital output into his Beresford TC-7520 DAC?
 
Steve

PCI would probably be lower latency, but the sound quality will not be good.  If you just want it for background music, probably fine.

Steve N.

[raymondbeautrix]

Thanks so much for the prompt replies!  I heard an interesting suggesting from a different forum about using a Squeeze box to 'factor out' the affects of your computer/os.  Is this actually the case?  I see deals for the logitech squeezebox as low as 140$, and it has coax out which is another big plus.

Also, I suspect my problem is NOT hardware related.  When I was running XP on this computer, I recall having no crackling noises at all.  I think there was some point when I was running win7 rc where it also worked fine.

Also, when playing games and watching some movies (with VLC) on my computer, I never recall crackling.  These observations lead me to believe I might have some software/OS level issue.  Would anyone have any OS tweaking advice or perhaps my foobar configuration isn't quite right?  I'm using the latest version, with highest CPU priority and a 700000000 buffer size.

Thanks,
Isaac

[raymondbeautrix]

I believe I have uncovered the main cause: my aggressive open-as-many-tabs-as-I-can web browsing style with google chrome.  I just always took being able to listen to music and browse at the same time, so I did it without thinking.  If I close chrome, the crackling/lagging seems to be eliminated completely.  As I write this post, audio also seems to be find, since I'm not loading any webpages.  I found loading even a single complex webpage would cause a hit to my audio.

I find it strange I'm having this issue.  I set foobar to the highest thread priority.  I would try to set chrome to lowest priority, but since it opens tabs in new processes, this wouldn't be a practical option.  I also set foobar to 'highest priority' in the task manager, also without effect.

Doesn't this suggest that squeezebox (used) might be the best possible fix with a sub-200$ price tag?  I also like how I can break away from USB and use coax in this case, though I know with an excellent empirical audio reclocker the USB issue can be eliminated.

Thanks,
Isaac

[raymondbeautrix]

I should mention that the same issue happens in IE (v8, since I'm using win7), and with other various apps.  Strangely enough, it doesn't seem to happen when I'm extracting some large file with winrar.  That can be fairly CPU intensive, and games are CPU intensive as well (they'll use the CPU and GPU), but neither seems to cause crackling.

So apparently the trigger for the problem isn't necessary CPU usage, and its severity isn't related to the extent of CPU usage.

Another thing I forgot to mention was I configured my speakers to be 'full dynamic' under the sound control panels.  I think this might have helped somehow, since before I had crackling even when I had no other apps opened.

This is overall a rather strange issue, since I don't experience it on some lower end computers and when I ran windows XP.

[audioengr]

Thanks so much for the prompt replies!  I heard an interesting suggesting from a different forum about using a Squeeze box to 'factor out' the affects of your computer/os.  Is this actually the case? 

This is the case.  Networked devices such as Sonos, Squeezebox, Duet and Transporter do not use the Core Audio kernel.  These are just treated as data.  The downside is that you must live with their GUI, you cannot use iTunes or Jriver etc..  Lots of happy customers with Sonos/Pace-Car combo.

Also, I suspect my problem is NOT hardware related.  When I was running XP on this computer, I recall having no crackling noises at all.  I think there was some point when I was running win7 rc where it also worked fine.

Also, when playing games and watching some movies (with VLC) on my computer, I never recall crackling.  These observations lead me to believe I might have some software/OS level issue.  Would anyone have any OS tweaking advice or perhaps my foobar configuration isn't quite right?  I'm using the latest version, with highest CPU priority and a 700000000 buffer size.

You might check to see that you have done everything here:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=37387.0

and here:

http://www.empiricalaudio.com/computer-audio/

Steve N.

[audioengr]

I believe I have uncovered the main cause: my aggressive open-as-many-tabs-as-I-can web browsing style with google chrome.  I just always took being able to listen to music and browse at the same time, so I did it without thinking.  If I close chrome, the crackling/lagging seems to be eliminated completely.  As I write this post, audio also seems to be find, since I'm not loading any webpages.  I found loading even a single complex webpage would cause a hit to my audio.

I find it strange I'm having this issue.  I set foobar to the highest thread priority.  I would try to set chrome to lowest priority, but since it opens tabs in new processes, this wouldn't be a practical option.  I also set foobar to 'highest priority' in the task manager, also without effect.

Doesn't this suggest that squeezebox (used) might be the best possible fix with a sub-200$ price tag?  I also like how I can break away from USB and use coax in this case, though I know with an excellent empirical audio reclocker the USB issue can be eliminated.

Thanks,
Isaac

No surprise.  I recommend an audio-dedicated PC or Mac, not connected to the network, except when ripping.

The SB3/Pace-Car is a great solution, although I'm not fond of Squeezecenter software.....

Steve N.