DAC that plays nice with Qobuz?

Tried the Qobuz buffer size increase and I was all the way up to 7seconds with little change, still having the click and dropouts. Though I did find a fix that worked through Audirvana and all but eliminated the clicks and dropouts.

The “fix” that I found works through Audirvana and requires several settings to be changed or turned on. Picture below.

It requires that “Large CoreAudio I/O buffer” be turned on “Mute during sample rate change” also be turned on and lastly it also requires “additional latency when changing spl. Rate” but changed to atleast 1s as 0.5s is not enough.

I switched back and forth from a 24/96 to a 16/44.1 track 25 times and it only had a quick click and dropout once is those 25 switching

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I’ve read about this issue on certain DACs. I believe @ProfFalkin is correct. Possibly instead of purchasing another DAC, another work around is to do a separate Playlist for high Rez files and other one for low Rez.

I’m using an Aurender N100H connected to a Luxman D-08u SACD/DAC and there is no clicking in Qobuz. However, that is a rather expensive option.

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Lots of DACs get around sample-rate/bit-depth switch issues either by, as @ProfFalkin says, just doing ASRC ahead of the DAC IC and feeding the actual converter a single bit-rate.

With USB DACs there’s an input buffer, so done properly you can mute the output of the DAC, switch clocks, reset the DAC IC, and then restart playback. The actual clock/switch and reset usually takes about single sample in duration, but can result in audible glitches if the output isn’t muted.

DACs that suffer actual dropouts/gaps in the music (not just a pause, that doesn’t skip/pause audibly or restart an audible period into the following track) here are typically just lazy implementations.

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Thanks everyone, I appreciate all your advice and help! I will try @jb77 recommended workaround in audioirvana under the free trial if that eliminates it and the other features of the software justify my spending $75 on it I will keep that software. Otherwise I will just sell the SMSL unit and get something else for my desk. By changing those settings through that software am I losing any of the audio quality or bit perfect stream from Qobuz?

Do we have a list of DACS on the forum that don’t have “lazy implementation” or audible dropouts that you guys would recommend looking at?

I know the Bitfrost 2 is thought of fairly well, and the RME. It sounds like they may or may not have clicking from the clock changes but definitely no audio or drop in playback.

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No, no loss to quality. You’re just changing how much data it buffers before playback and adding more time before music plays whenever it changes sample rates.

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I’m pretty sure the RME uses solid-state relays for muting, so there’s no audible switching on sample rate changes. It does have relays that are audible for other things, for example the attenuators that control is output reference level.

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Yes…I also knew nothing of this magical unicorn pee! I’ll have to figure out how to harvest some for…other matters…DON’T YOU JUDGE ME!!! :wink:

Edit: I’m talking about my bald head…but then that implies other things …damn it!! I can’t win!!! falls to knees while being riddled by bullets in the Vietnamese jungle w/arms held high!

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Oh, and “no”, because MOST DACs don’t have this issue at all, especially driven over USB.

I will say that a LOT of DACs have issues switching between DSD and PCM, different DSD rates, and even just stopping/starting DSD replay though.

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Thank you Ian, I will try the Audioirvana route and see what comes of it. I am sure eventually I am going to update my DAC anyways, just wanted to make sure I don’t get one that does the same thing as this SMSL SU8.

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Once again thank you to everyone here on this forum. I am grateful for you all. This community has been absolutely terrific.

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after this case seems closed and I am late with my 2 cents

this is what I did with Tidal from start, as I build seperate mqa playlists(for the ifi xDSD) and others(non mqa) I never experianced any problems
in december I used the Audirvana trial with Spotify, Tidal and my files and did not recognize pops or breaks
now that I recently started with qobuz and changed my DAC(to RME ADI 2), I did not notice any of this problems with the SMSL SU-8, yet - mainly cause it was rarely used before
with my own ripped FLAC files there is no change in qualities…

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Yeah it seems just a bad implementation on the SMSL for $170 I guess you can’t expect much… how are you liking the RME ADI-2?

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Oh could not be more biased with hardcore new toy syndrome
So from looking at it in off mode, using it and reading the user guide at the times I am not near it and takin notes…
You see sanity turned off at the moment

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Would be great to get your A/B opinion about the RME vs. The SmSL since you had the same SMSL as I do.

The good news is Audioirvana works great to get rid of the audio dropouts I was experiencing and very little click noises now either. Also the added benefit of Dark mode on the desktop with Qobuz. Software is likely a keeper…

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have to re-connect the SU-8 as I have no switch for the XLRs
I will do it friday afternoon
tomorrow i have a 2020 kick off event and the next day my brain is not as reliable :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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All good! Take your time, no rush.

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Since I have the SU-8 V2, I just have to try this myself so I signed up for the free Qobuz trial last night and oh boy, I wish I didn’t :sweat_smile:

The popping I can live with since it’s not loud at all but the audio drops is definitely a showstopper. I haven’t try this with my other DAC/AMP and will do so tonight.

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hahah that is the way I felt too for about an hour last night, but honestly Qobuz is way better for my IPAD pro, Iphone, then AmazonMusic HD was even if it has 10,000,000 less tracks currently in the US. 40,000,000 in the USA 50,000,000 in Europe according to the Qobuz rep I spoke to through email. If they up to the same level of music they will be undeniably the best streaming service in my opinion. The audioirvana fix works really well for the desktop app on MAC for Qobuz and the Dark Mode is welcomed as well!

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Yeah, I’m not sure if I want to keep Qobuz service yet. There are some songs I couldn’t find where they’re available in Spotify. I’m not sure how I’ll feel about switching between two services and personally, it just doesn’t make any sense paying for both. I’ll have to do more research on Audioirvana once or If I decided to go with Qobuz instead. I got to have those K-POP guilty pleasure of mine :rofl:

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For sure I totally get it… I am giving Qobuz 1 year to up their selection to be on par with their two major competitors and if they don’t hopefully AmazonMusicHD figures out their UI crap and gets bit perfect in place and I will go back to them.

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