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Topic: Distortion sound after a while (Read 4710 times) previous topic - next topic
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Distortion sound after a while

I have an audio system Corsair SP2500 and a ASUS Xonar  Essence STX. As music player, I using Foobar2000.

For several days, maybe a month, I experience something very strange with my sound. Any form of music I listen to MP3, Flac etc. sounds good few minutes, sometimes half an hour, I mean it sounds very clean, clear, and then begin to appear distorted soloists voice, throaty, the entire audio spectrum becomes throaty, instruments, all, at a pretty annoying level, obviously.

I tried all sorts of settings, and with ASIO, and with Wasapi, and without any plugin, just with DS speakers, but still those distortions are there, can be heared.

If I stop the music, and I make a couple of minutes pause, after restart the Foobar2000, the same story, first minutes, the music is very clear, and then, not very long after, start the distortions. In some files this is more pronounced, in others not, I believe it depends at what kind of music is: rock, blues, house etc.

It manifests like something works very well at the start, then start to warm, and then, after this warming increases, reach a point when begins to distort the audio signal.
I don't know if is the player Foobar2000, or a hardware problem, but with any other players which I tried, these distortion didn't manifest. Can be a connection between player (Foobar2000) and a hardware component.

Was faced  anyone anymore with something like that?

Please, excuse my english, but I'm not a native english speaker.
Thanks

Distortion sound after a while

Reply #1 –
Does it happen with other players?
Does it happen when playing something on youtube?

Distortion sound after a while

Reply #2 –
Quote from: dhromed on
Does it happen with other players?


I already mentioned this in my above post:
Quote
but with any other players which I tried, these distortion didn't manifest.

Distortion sound after a while

Reply #3 –
So,... to understand that this is something new, and no one didn't faced till now, with something like that.

Distortion sound after a while

Reply #4 –
Have you tried a clean portable installation to rule out misbehaving component?

Distortion sound after a while

Reply #5 –
I reinstalled even the windows, suspecting that maybe he is guilty and influence the player. Only with Foobar2000 I have these distortion. Of course, an alternative would be to give up on him, and reoriented to another player which works well, but the bad part is that Foobar2000  it is the player that sounds best. (when not distorting).

LE: I installed now and the portable version, now testing...

Distortion sound after a while

Reply #6 –
Try increase buffer lenght.

Distortion sound after a while

Reply #7 –
Well, I resolved,
Searching on the Internet, I found another forum, where someone was complaining about the same thing. The answer which he got there, had effects and for me.

Where was problem:  because I have windows 64 bit, I went in Foobar, to Preferences > ASIO, and there I ticked both, and "Use 64-bit ASIO drivers" and "Run with high priority process".
This action stopped my problems, now music sounds clear, crystalline, without being throaty anymore, meaning in the right way and how I want.

That's was.

Distortion sound after a while

Reply #8 –
For all the playback distortions, usually there are three things would cause it.

First, check the buffer length in fb2k -> preference -> Output. There is no certain rule for that value. It could cause problem when it's too low or even too high. So try different values to find out the best for your computer.

Second, check the settings of sound card playback from your operating system, see if it's working on weird bit/sample rate such as 24-bit/192 kHz. Most music has the bit/sample rate in 16-bit/44.1 kHz, some problem or games would use different settings which could mess up the setting from the system. The sound card could not be working well if it's set to a different rate from your playback music. All you need to do is set it back to 16-bit/44.1 kHz if it's not.

Third, if you are using ASIO, please check if the buffer size is set too small or it's working on 24-bit from the ASIO driver settings. You can see it by going to fb2k -> preference -> Output -> ASIO. double click the drivers you are using under ASIO drivers box which located on the top section of the window. Usually, you will see the ASIO driver settings from your sound card driver. Small buffer size is gives you low latency, but can lead to distortion if it's set too small depends on your computer hardware, and compatibility of the sound card driver with your operating system. Since you're not doing instant playback for live recording, you can set it as high as you want to avoid the distortion.

Re: Distortion sound after a while

Reply #9 –
after so many years of using the same setting, all of sudden my Foobar developed the same issue...
I was using a old version of foobar ( didn't remembered the version, probably 1.3.13)  & recently updated to 1.3.17 in win7 x64.

Sound distorted after playing bass heavy track for some time, i first noticed it 2-3days back but did't paid much attention & the track i was playing.
but it happened today while playing a bass heady track (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U8B1i0gGic)

I have checked every possible settings, downgraded one version of foobar to 1.3.16 but nothing helping me.
in DSP i use "Real Bass Exciter" - disabling this stopping the distortion. but i'm loosing the sound setting i'm used for years.

Please help if someone figured out any solution to this problem yet.
 

Re: Distortion sound after a while

Reply #10 –
What is your soundcard model and its driver version (with mentioning if it is latest available or not)? If it is something from ESI (like Juli@) then I know that such situation can occur and you can do nothing about it. Or just change soundcard... If it is other manufacturer than ESI - then I hope someone else can help.

Re: Distortion sound after a while

Reply #11 –
i don't have dedicated soundcard, but a built-in on an ASUS motherboard (8+yrs old).
Specification of audio says - AMD - ADI 1988 8-channel High Definition Audio CODEC.

downgraded below to all version 1.3.13 - problem remain the same.
 1. Checked with other players such as boom audio player/ Media player classic.. they playing this track absolutely fine.
 2. I'm unable to replicate the same issues with any other track. I mostly listed to FLAC & this is 32kHz mp3 file ( Encoding settings  : -m j -V 0 -q 3 -lowpass 16 --vbr-new -b 32)

Will try playing this particular track in another apple desktop & win7-  Laptop later today & report back.


EDIT:- examined my scrobble records, it seems i have heard this track only once in past, way back in 11 Apr 2015 ( exactly 3 years back -- what a coincidence). I will definitely check this track in my Laptops foobar setting & report back.

Re: Distortion sound after a while

Reply #12 –
Distortion after prolonged listening is something I too have experienced, with certain onboard sound chipsets, which I attribute to clocking errors with the chipset, and buffer underruns in the system mixing chain, which is an incredibly low latency system on Vista and newer. I don't know what particular configuration causes it, or which hardware is to blame. It hasn't happened to me recently with anything newer than 2012.