Occasional glitchy playback of DSD files on Cascade DAC

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1

hi @Dustin_Symanski @Daniel_Francis @Jonathan_Gullman

First of all, a very happy new year to all of you and the entire MSB family!

My Cascade DAC has been breaking in very nicely the past couple of months; a more formal review will come soon. However, I am experiencing occasional glitchy playback of DSD files with the DAC, hence this message.

All my music lives on an external high-speed SSD which is connected to a dedicated Macbook Pro (running Mac OS El Capitan). I use Audirvana Direct Mode to output to the Cascade via Pro USB. I have a huge collection of music in all generes, and the majority of it is in the DSD format. What I am experiencing is glitchy playback of DSD files - especially quad DSD (DSD256) - where there are occasional ‘scratches’ and weird electrical clicks and distortions. These can last a second or two, or sometimes they keep going on and I have to stop the playback. Interestingly, when I play the file back, no issues whatsoever! I have done extensive testing around this, but it is not related to any particular file. This happens mostly with DSD256, but with DSD64 as well. Now here’s where it gets more interesting - I had very similar issues with my previous Reference DAC! I never complained about it… just learnt to accept and live with these occasional burps.

So my questions are… what could be causing this glitchiness, are you already aware of this issue, and is there a fix for it?

Thanks,
Harsh

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Hello Harsh,

This is not something I’ve experienced. Is it possible to record a video of it happening and to email it to me? Each noise means something different and it will help us narrow it down.

Thanks,
Jonathan

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Thanks Jonathan. Will do!

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Hi sir

I have see something like this before and it have never been the DAC all ways the pc/streamer there made the problems.

Try to play the bit perfekt test from the Mac and see if you see that in the display ?

Other cables ?
Like usb and make the problem.

I will be more end happy to have a WhatsApp call and help you whit the problem. If you want that.
Best regards
Henrik

+45 50999508

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I agree with Henrik, I would start by looking into a streamer and getting rid of the MacBook pro. You will end up with something that is designed specifically for music playback that will be more stable and improve sonics.

Best, Larry

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