Hi…just joined and this would be my first post. First, love Audirvana, made more of a difference (positive that is) than I expected. My small issue pre-dates Audirvana so this is not a problem w/ it. Previously I had all my music ripped, full resolution, to my Mac Mini. When upsampling to DSD 64 or 128 using JRiver I’d always hear vinyl sounding pops. Now w/ this year’s Mac Mini and Audirvana I’m hearing the same pops. My DAC is the Wyred 4 Sound DAC, the one that’s one step below the 10th Anniversary model but has the ESS 9038 Pro installed instead of the 9028. Thanks!
Hi @Wayne,
Can you send us a copy of the "Debug Info“ when you have this issue? You can get it in Audirvana Settings>My account.
Note: When you click on the Debug Info button, Audirvana automatically copies all its content. Please paste it in response to this message.
Welcome…
It is always important to manage the gain structure of the digital-audio signal so to prevent clipping distortion noise… When modulating (upsampling) PCM to DSD the process adds gain…
In the upsampling settings, you will see an option to reduce the gain before upsampling… Try reducing the gain by -3dB.
Do not add gain by using the digital-audio volume control if your system employs a pre-amp/amp with a volume control… use the hardware volume control if this is the case.
You may also be experiencing an intermittent distortion condition inherent to some digital-audio mastering processes in productions that have been normalized to maximize the loudness of the signal… These are called Inter-Sample Peaks (ISP’s)… So again, managing your gain structure in the Digital Signal Processing (DSP) functions that may also include Audio Unit plugins, and any Volume processing from input to output will give you the best possible playback sound-quality from your system.
Make sure you have set the mute between sample-rate changes enabled..
“Pop” goes DSD? Why does this happen?
Here you go:
Audirvana Studio 2.9.3 (20903)
macOS 15.0.1 ARM64 with 8GB physical RAM
Connected account of : David Lindblom
NETWORK
Status: available
Local network access: allowed
SIGNAL PROCESSING:
Polarity Inversion:
Globally: OFF
Per track: ON
Effects plugins NOT ACTIVE
UPSAMPLING:
r8brain to DSD128 with filter type B 8th order
r8brain filter parameters
Bandwidth = 99.5%
Stop band attenuation 218dB
Phase linear
AUDIO VOLUME:
Max allowed volume: 100
Replay Gain: None
SW volume control: OFF
LIBRARY SETTINGS:
Sync list: 0 folders
iTunes/Music library synchronization: not synchronized
Library database path: /Users/davidlindblom/Library/Application Support/Audirvana/AudirvanaDatabase.sqlite
Local audio files fingerprinting
Tracks with no MBID: 842
Remote Control server:
Listening on on port 49497
ACTIVE STREAMING SERVICES
Qobuz: Connected as Qobuz Studio
APPEARANCE SETTINGS:
UI theme: dark
Font size: regular
Language: System language
Show album covers in tracks list: yes
Source list sorted:
My Music
Radios
Podcasts
Streaming
Local
Startup view: My Playlists
Show local extended in source list: no
Use media keys: yes
Use media keys for volume control: no
Use Apple Remote: yes
Number of paired remotes: 2
Remote pairing code required: yes
Screen saver disabled: no
=================== AUDIO DEVICE ========================
Active method: Local
Max. memory for audio buffers: 5120MB
Local Audio Engine: CoreAudio
Exclusive access: ON
Integer mode: ON
Use max I/O buffer size: ON
Actual I/O buffer frame size: 512
Preferred device:
Wyred 4 Sound 32bit 384kHz Dsd Interface
Model UID:32bit 384kHz Dsd Interface:27F7:1301
UID:AppleUSBAudioEngine:Wyred 4 Sound:32bit 384kHz Dsd Interface:413-001:2
Currently playing in Integer Mode:
Device: 2ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32bits little endian Signed Integer, 8 bytes per frame 352.8kHz
Active Sample Rate: 352.8kHz
Hog Mode is on
Bridge settings:
Sample rate limitation: none
Sample rate switching latency: none
Limit bitdepth to 24bit: OFF
Mute during sample rate change: ON
Selected device:32bit 384kHz Dsd Interface
Manufacturer: Wyred 4 Sound
Model name: Wyred 4 Sound 32bit 384kHz Dsd Interface
Model UID: 32bit 384kHz Dsd Interface:27F7:1301
UID: AppleUSBAudioEngine:Wyred 4 Sound:32bit 384kHz Dsd Interface:413-001:2
USB Vendor ID: 0x27f7
USB Product ID: 0x1301
ID 0x31
9 available sample rates up to 384000Hz
32000
44100
48000
88200
96000
176400
192000
352800
384000
Audio buffer frame size : 14 to 4096 frames
Current I/O buffer frame size : 512
Volume Control
Physical: Yes
Virtual: Yes
Max volume alert: Disabled
MQA capability
Auto-detect MQA devices: Yes
Not automatically detected, user set to not MQA
DSD capability
DSD via PCM 1.1
Device audio channels
Preferred stereo channels L:1 R:2
Channel bitmap: Ox3, layout:
Channel 0 mapped to 0
Channel 1 mapped to 1
Audio channels in use
Number of channels: 2
Use as stereo device only: No
Simple stereo device: Yes
1 output streams:
Number of active channels: 2, in 1 stream(s)
Channel #0 :Stream 0 channel 0
Channel #1 :Stream 0 channel 1
Stream ID 0x32 2 channels starting at 1
18 virtual formats:
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 384kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 352.8kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 192kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 176.4kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 96kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 88.2kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 48kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 44.1kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Float 32kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 384kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 352.8kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 192kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 176.4kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 96kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 88.2kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 48kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 44.1kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 32kHz
18 physical formats
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 384kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 352.8kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 192kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 176.4kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 96kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 88.2kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 48kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 44.1kHz
2 ch Mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 32kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 384kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 352.8kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 192kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 176.4kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 96kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 88.2kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 48kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 44.1kHz
2 ch Non-mixable linear PCM Interleaved 32 little endian Signed Integer 32kHz
Local devices found : 3
Device #0: ID 0x11e LG TV SSCR2
Manufacturer: GSM
Model UID: 1E6D0100-0000-0000-0121-010380A05A78
UID: 1E6D0100-0000-0000-0121-010380A05A78
Model name: GSM LG TV SSCR2
Device #1: ID 0x31 32bit 384kHz Dsd Interface
Manufacturer: Wyred 4 Sound
Model UID: 32bit 384kHz Dsd Interface:27F7:1301
UID: AppleUSBAudioEngine:Wyred 4 Sound:32bit 384kHz Dsd Interface:413-001:2
USB Vendor ID: 0x27f7
USB Product ID: 0x1301
Model name: Wyred 4 Sound 32bit 384kHz Dsd Interface
Device #2: ID 0x52 Mac mini Speakers
Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
Model UID: Speaker
UID: BuiltInSpeakerDevice
Model name: Apple Inc. Mac mini Speakers
UPnP
UPnP devices found : 0
Chromecast
Chromecast devices found : 0
I started w/ -3db but have tried the others too. -5db “seems” to be a little better. I use the W4S DAC’s digital volume control…and yes I want a real preamp but money…
It’s funny each song has different amounts of these little pin prick pops. It’s like each song is a different record. Speaking of which, that other forum posting is mostly about pops between songs, mine run randomly thru the songs lightly in the background. Often totally absent in long parts of songs. I posted my Debug report to Antoine’s post.
Firstly i would hurry up to update Sequoia to 15.1 released earlier…
This may be related to ISP’s… reduce the gain by -6db… If you continue to hear these distortions, it is probably inherent in the source file…
Try reducing the pre-load memory buffer to 2GB…
macOS Sonoma and Sequoia are memory hogs… Sonoma uses 20GB of disk space… The more RAM you make available to the Operating System the better… You are allocating 5GB of your 8GB available RAM for Audirvana pre-load buffering… This behavior appears to be either related to anemic RAM availability or gain structure related and/or ISP’s.
The debug report looks normal and nothing sticks-out that will precipitate the behavior you are experiencing…
You can try upsampling all PCM files using the ‘Power of Two’ option, as the ESS chipsets convert everything (DSD included) to multi-bit PCM for output anyway…
But try reducing your pre-load RAM allocation and reducing the gain before upsampling by -6dB first… 
*Note:
1-bit is equivalent to 6dB dynamic range. The theoretical LPCM digital-audio dynamic-range is calculated as follows: [ 6 (dB) x (number of bits) + 1.75 (mv) ] (Example: 6 x 32bits + 1.75 = 193.75dBmv Theoretical ) Obviously no DAC is capable of reproducing a signal with this dynamic range… Real-world expectations in some modern DACs is getting close to 130dB of dynamic-range.
Been busy of late but thanks for all your suggestions. Implemented them all and it’s a little better. I have a sneaking hunch it’s the W4S DAC. I’ll keep fiddling but most of my listening is, as you suggested, via the “power of 2”.
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.