Very Strange Problem After Importing New Files

Legacy versions MacOS
1

Not hearing back from the very busy Damien, I thought I’d throw this out to the group. I honestly don’ think this is a problem with Audirvana per se, more likely a problem on my Mac Mini. Since we’re all running MACs, I thought maybe some of you have run into this weird problem or at least have heard of it. i’ve been tearing my hair out for weeks trying to figure out what’s going on - but I’m stumped.

Basically, whenever I import new files into the library, the new (and only the new) files are distorted for a few seconds at the beginning of the track. Dropouts, hiss, and pops for 2-3 seconds at the beginning of each new track. True for all file types, but I have mostly DSD64 and DSD128 files. This is happening across multiple DACs on this particular computer. This is a brand new Mac Mini with a 1GB Fusion Drive and 8GB memory. In fact, this is the 2nd new Mac Mini to have this issue. I had Apple swap out the first one. Here’s the exact model I have:
https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/mac-mini?product=MGEQ2LL/A&step=config#

This problem doesn’t exist with Audirvana 3 playing the same files on two other MACs. These files play fine with AV3 on a Haswell i7 iMac with 16GB memory and 3TB Fusion Drive. Also fine with my MacBook with 8GB and 512GB SSD.

Typically, the distortion problem just goes away after a few days and I have no idea why. After several weeks of research and inquiries, I’ve concluded that it’s a not a problem with my DACs (4 total) connected to my iMac and MacBook. Everything is fine using those 4 DACs on the other two computers. That leaves the Mac Mini hardware itself or some configuration thing on the Mac Mini. Didn’t have the problem on my old Mac Mini which I upgraded to get a larger disk. I no longer have the old Mini but I’ll bet it would be fine playing these files if I were to revert back to it. The old Mini had run Audirvana for many years with no issues and it was updated to AV3 a few weeks before I decided to pop for the new one. The Mini is used solely as my music server. Very little other software is installed or running on it. The problem exists even with NO other software running on it.

This has been really frustrating. If any of this rings a bell with any of you, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Many thanks.

2

You can try reverting back to A+ 268 just for testing if its v3

https://audirvana.com/delivery/AudirvanaPlus_2.6.8.dmg

Replace or rename the other or just put back v3 after test… if not, return that Mac again and bring your dac to store before coming back home with the new mac :smiley:

3

Thanks, RunHomeSlow. But this wasn’t a problem running V3 on my previous Mini. Seems to be ‘something’ on this new Mac Mini model.

4

yes but did you run v2 on this model just to check to be sure…
many people have bugs with v3 even on 3.0.6 with System Optimizer of A+…
take 2 minutes to try :slight_smile:

5

Also… if it is the MAC forget this, but did you try those 2 options in A+ Menu
File…Library… Optimize Database… 2 menus there, that might help also :slight_smile:

6

Yep, one of the first things I tried was backing away to V2 on this same Mini. Problem persisted as on V3. I will try today to optimize the database as you suggested. This option escaped me previously. I’ll let you know how that goes. Thanks, RunHomeSlow !!!

7

Found the problem. As I expected, it appears to be a problem with the Mac Mini, specifically with reading the files from the Fusion Drive. When I build my library with the files on an external drive, all is well. Looks like the problem was related to the Fusion Drive interactively swapping files in/out of the SSD portion of the disk as Audirvana read them into memory. I have since read several threads on the internet warning about Fusion Drive issues with audio files. Live and learn. So in the short-term, I have my library on the Fusion Drive and my audio files on a 1TB external SSD connected over Thunderbolt. In hindsight, I could have avoided the problem entirely by getting the new Mac Mini With the 1TB SSD Drive. Now I’m wondering why I don’t have the same problem on my big iMac which has a 3TB Fusion Drive?