PureMusic Ticks and Pops

JackD201 · Nov 30, 2012

I'm getting ticks and pops playing Hi-Rez files on PureMusic, don't get any with redbook or AAC files. It happens with any DAC I use whether through a bridge or direct USB. It also happens from both my iMac and MBPro.

Any idea what causes this and what I can do about it?

RBFC · Nov 30, 2012

Jack,

Try turning off any other programs that are running on your server/computer, and also try minimizing the PureMusic player window once you start the playback. You can examine what CPU load you're experiencing by looking at your computer's activity monitor function. I have a Mac, and it's quite easy to check. Go to your Utilities folder and find the "Activity Monitor". It will show you the effect of each change you make by displaying the CPU usage. The differences were dramatic for me.

I was running an early version of Amarra, and its player window had fancy active level metering during playback. By minimizing that player window, I dropped maybe 30% in my CPU usage and didn't hit the "red zone".

Lee

JackD201 · Nov 30, 2012

Hi Lee,

I'm looking at getting a Mac Mini since I told my daughter I'd give her the iMac. One of my business partners is a Mac guru, I've asked him to configure one for me solely for music purposes aka perpetual hog mode. He say's it won't be difficult to do at all. In the meantime, thanks, I'll try your recommendations!

asiufy · Dec 1, 2012

JackD,

I know it's simple, but have you restarted your Mac?
PureMusic has issues when other players are used before it, Audirvana specially.
A restart cures it.
Could also be that your HD is severely fragmented, and PureMusic is not able to read the (generally big, hi res) file fast enough for playback. Have you enabled the "Memory Play" function, which loads the entire track in memory before playing? That could help too.

alexandre

JackD201 · Dec 1, 2012

Hi Alexandre,

Yes my HD is probably fragged to hell by now. This is still my old MBP. I haven't transferred to my new one yet since I just got back from vacation. I always use Memory Play. Did you guys get the Zero-XO ticks before too? I know another guy who does so I guess I'm not alone.

mdkim · Dec 2, 2012

Interesting that a fragmented drive could slow read times enough to cause these types of issues. I was always under the impression that the cached playback eliminated this sort of thing. I also thought if the data was not available during playback, there would be a pause rather than a tick or distortion. Am I mistaken?

amirm · Dec 2, 2012

Even the most fragmented hard disk can keep up with audio playback. Stereo 24-bit, 96 Khz for example uses 0.7 megabytes/second. Hard disk speed for sequential reads is 100X that. So even with a lot of fragmentation this is not going to be an issue. If it were, then playing the same file twice would remedy it as the second time the file would be in memory and hard disk would not matter.

CPU starvation and running out of memory would be the two causes assuming it is computer related. Bad implementation of USB DAC can also cause such problems.

RBFC · Dec 2, 2012

amirm said:
Even the most fragmented hard disk can keep up with audio playback. Stereo 24-bit, 96 Khz for example uses 0.7 megabytes/second. Hard disk speed for sequential reads is 100X that. So even with a lot of fragmentation this is not going to be an issue. If it were, then playing the same file twice would remedy it as the second time the file would be in memory and hard disk would not matter.

CPU starvation and running out of memory would be the two causes assuming it is computer related. Bad implementation of USB DAC can also cause such problems.

Amir,

No doubt you remember my travails with Amarra and my Calyx DAC. It was the amount of CPU that Amarra's old version drew. They've redesigned the player to use far less CPU, confirmed by my Mac's Activity Monitor.

Lee

mep · Dec 4, 2012

JackD201 said:
I'm getting ticks and pops playing Hi-Rez files on PureMusic

Lousy noisy digital.

JackD201 · Dec 4, 2012

Glad I still have the ole CD and SACD players! LOL

amirm · Dec 4, 2012

mep said:
Lousy noisy digital.

You have heard of sympathetic pregnancy where men get the symptoms of their pregnant wives? Same thing here. His system was mimicking the popping of LPs!

JackD201 · Dec 4, 2012

'cept with a collection of 90% or more NM LPs and an RCM my LPs hardly ever pop or tick

garylkoh · Dec 4, 2012

JackD201 said:
'cept with a collection of 90% or more NM LPs and an RCM my LPs hardly ever pop or tick

That's a lovely role reversal - ticks and pops in digital and silent LPs

JackD201 · Dec 4, 2012

It's a strange, strange world we live in!

JackD201 · Dec 10, 2012

RBFC said:
Amir,

No doubt you remember my travails with Amarra and my Calyx DAC. It was the amount of CPU that Amarra's old version drew. They've redesigned the player to use far less CPU, confirmed by my Mac's Activity Monitor.

Lee

So Lee you were getting zero crossing distortion (ticks) too?

Bruce B · Dec 10, 2012

Yeah, clicks and pops in digital are either buffer or clocking issues.

RBFC · Dec 10, 2012

JackD201 said:
So Lee you were getting zero crossing distortion (ticks) too?

My playback ticked on 24/96 and especially on 24/176.4 and 24/192 files. I found that minimizing the player window (with the active level meters) eliminated the ticking. Looking at the CPU usage, the active window used 10-20X the CPU power as was used when the window was minimized. Amarra has removed the metering from their later versions.

Lee

JackD201 · Dec 10, 2012

Thanks Lee and thanks Bruce. Seems I underestimated what the load of Hi-rez has on these old in dog years CPUs. I actually never tried closing all the applications I usually run. I guess I took it for granted since I never had problems with 16/44 and AAC.

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