LOUD SNAP/POP/PLOP between DSD tracks

Studio
1

I am a Mac user. Today is the last day of my trial of AS… I sure do love the way AS sounds!!! There’s a definite improvement over 3.5. I have an exaSound e38 DAC and have an issue with a loud SNAP/POP/PLOP (whatever you want to call it) between DSD tracks (.dsf, .dff, .iso) that has been happening since 3.5.13. I have therefore never moved beyond 3.5.12. Unfortunately, this problem has been carried through to AS. I have tried everything i can think of, configuration wise to try and correct this but have not been successful. This happens with my primary music computer (intel iMac ) and M1 MacBook Air.

  1. SNAP/POP/PLOP happens only after I have disabled “Use as Stereo Only” thus enabling multi-channel capability. This does not happen if I leave AS configured as “Use as Stereo Only”.
  2. If the next track following DSD (either .dsf or .dff or .iso) is a PCM 2-channel or multi-channel track) , there is no SNAP/POP/PLOP.
  3. One of my friends who uses AS and has a 2-channel system is able to recreate this issue if he makes the change in step 1, above.

I will subscribe to AS in a heartbeat if this problem is solved but with a significant amount of DSD content in my library, I do not want to invest in AS to use as 2-channel only when I already own a 3.5.(12) license that plays everything without this issue.

2

Until this post, I thought it was only a Windows/ASIO issue. This is the first time I’ve seen a Mac user mention this problem.

Do you get 1 pop or 2 pops upon initially playback?

Also, do you have another DAC to test and attempt to replicate the problem?

3

I don’t get a POP on initial playback. It happens on each subsequent DSD type track and I get a single very loud POP just before it starts playing the next track. If the next track is a PCM track, there is no POP. If I enable, “Use as Stereo only”, then quit Studio and restart it, it will play DSD without any POPs (of course, multi-channel content is played as 2-channel, only).

Interestingly, as I was experimenting, I found that if I had the buffer set too low, in addition to the loud POP between tracks, I would sometimes get the same loud POP during play. When I increased the buffer, the POPs during play stopped happening (but continued between tracks). I wonder if it’s an efficiency issue. Perhaps 8g of RAM is not enough for multi-channel play?

Yes. I have used another DAC (my friend’s 2-channel DAC). It happens to him if he disables “Use as Stereo only”.

4

Ah okay. I misunderstood. While still related to DSD playback, your issue is a little different than the issue some of us with the Windows version (both 3.5 and AS) have been experiencing.

Loud POPs when using Windows version/ MacOS version does not POP at all - Licenses and Installation / Windows Installation - Audirvana

1 Like