XDA-2 gen 2 garbled sound on multi-use laptop

[MikeWI]

I have an Emotiva DC-1 stealth and XDA-2 gen 2 in an office system with same laptop source.

It seems that the XDA-2 gen2 has more issues with garbled sound with multiple computer tasks ongoing than the DC-1.
This isn't present all of the time.

My computer:
OS Win 7Pro-v1.14 on laptop
Software: JRiver Media Center 20 - Version: 20.0.47
-- Options -> Audio -> Audio Device: USB2.0 High-Speed True HD Audio (WASAPI)
----- Device Settings: Device -> checked "Disable event style (required by older hardware)"
Computer: Intel i5-3230M CPU @ 2.60 GHz
RAM: 16 GB


I increased the JRiver MC settings "Prebuffering" from default of 6 seconds to 10 seconds.


It would seem like I have enough RAM (16 GB) and a reasonable CPU (i5).
Anyone else experiencing this or with suggestions?




Mike


Some testing with example files:
16 bit depth / 44.1 KHz sample rate - Bit Rate 256 mp3 - eg Imagine Dragons - Night Visions; John Mayer - Born and Raised
24 / 44.1 KHz / ~1700 FLAC - eg Dave Matthews Band - Away From the World
24 / 48 / 1676 FLAC - Led Zeppelin (Deluxe Edition) "I Can't Quit You Baby (Live in Paris, 1969)"
24 / 88.2 kHz / 4233 AIF - eg Ottmar Liebert - HDTracks 2014 Sampler
24 / 192 / ~5200 FLAC - eg ZZ Top Eliminator


Some intermittent issues with playing well:
24 / 96 / 2785 FLAC - eg Adele - Skyfall
24 /96 / ~3000 FLAC - eg Led Zeppelin I
24 / 352.8 / ~11,000 FLAC - TrondheimSolistene - SOUVENIR Part I - JRiver automatically downsampled to 176.4 KHz



One option of course might be a dedicated media server without concurrent processes running.
eg -- Geek Source - pending availability - /1866831
...or many other options

[vcautokid]

This might sound odd here, but you aren't using an expensive "audiophile" USB cable are you? Some of these have a history of inconsistent performance. A decent USB cable you can buy anywhere, or one of Emotiva's USB cables might do the trick. Does your computer have an optical option. Might be fun to compare and see if the garbling sound continues from that output as well.

[MikeWI]

Dec 22, 2014 10:45:17 GMT -5 vcautokid said:

This might sound odd here, but you aren't using an expensive "audiophile" USB cable are you? Some of these have a history of inconsistent performance. A decent USB cable you can buy anywhere, or one of Emotiva's USB cables might do the trick. Does your computer have an optical option. Might be fun to compare and see if the garbling sound continues from that output as well.

It's a Emotiva USB cable.
The only difference is I had to switch the 1m USB for a 2m in order for it to reach.
Otherwise similar setup to when I used DC-1.
It's a laptop attached to a docking station. No optical out.

Mike

[bootman]

So you are sharing that usb2 bus across two devices simultaneously?
(probably also along with all of the other stuff off that docking station. It will depend on model if a USB data lane is used for all of the dock functions.)

If so, maybe you can find out if hooking up one device to the dock and one to a usb port on the laptop itself may help.
Or you laptop may only have one USB lane and you are stuck as is.

[MikeWI]

Dec 22, 2014 11:51:26 GMT -5 bootman said:

So you are sharing that usb2 bus across two devices simultaneously?
(probably also along with all of the other stuff off that docking station. It will depend on model if a USB data lane is used for all of the dock functions.)

If so, maybe you can find out if hooking up one device to the dock and one to a usb port on the laptop itself may help.
Or you laptop may only have one USB lane and you are stuck as is.

bootman -

Great thinking.
The laptop dock has 4 USB outs and this is plugged into one of them.
It isn't plugged into a USB hub, but your thoughts about USB bandwidth sharing (+/- CPU load) may be the issue.
It is also a testable hypothesis.
I attempted to test that and noticed I had to change to device setting.
Doing that caused a BSDOD and reboot.

I wonder if the laptop dock takes "control" of the USB ports when plugged in and the usual laptop USB ports don't work normally.
I will continue to explore, but appreciate the thinking.

The funny thing was that I had the same setup with the DC-1 without as many issues.

I'll try the XDA-2 gen2 on another (more powerful) laptop and see if any differences.

Thanks for the help.

Mike