Random Popping / Clicking With Auralic Aries G1 and Cyrus i9XR.

[asha_bristol]

Hi all,

I really need some expert advice on this one as really at a loss as to what the issue is here. Please read the following that was sent to Cyrus customer support that describes the problem in detail. Any thoughs or ideas appreciated. Thanks.

"I bought the Cyrus i9 last year to partner my existing Cyrus CD-T. This was connected via an Atlas Spdif cable. Everything worked fine. No issues.

Later that year I purchased an Auralic Aries G1 streamer to replace my Cyrus CD-T. Initially, this was connected up with the same Atlas Spdif cable and again, everything worked fine. No issues.

After talking to my dealer, I was encouraged to try the USB input as it was suggested this might offer a further improvement in sound quality. So, I swapped out the Atlas Spdif cable in favour of the USB cable that Auralic supply with the streamer and here’s where I started to have issues.

Random clicks (akin to playing a dirty LP) of varying loudness and at various intervals. These clicks are more noticeable on quiet tracks but happen on all types of music. Intervals for these clicks range wildly – I might get two or three in a five-minute period and then none for thirty minutes – although I have started to wonder if the mainly beat driven music, I mostly listen to is more adept at masking some of the less prominent clicks. Nearly all of the music I play is 44.1k CD rips (stored on a USB drive attached directly to the streamer) which are sent natively to the i9. I do not use streaming services.

First thing I thought was the USB cable probably isn’t up to the job, even though my dealer told me the only reason Auralic supply their own USB cable is because some customers experience problems with third party USB cables! I tried a few other cheap and cheerful USB cables I had around the house all of which yielded similar results so I asked my dealer to lend me a £470 Atlas USB cable which to my surprise didn’t improve the situation. No better, no worse.

I then began to focus on the streamer. I tried upsampling the 44.1k signal but that didn’t really make any difference to the intervals of the clicks, although at the highest sample rate I do reckon there were more clicks. I then plugged my work laptop directly into the i9 and played a few tracks and to my surprise the clicks and pops were still present. No more frequent, no less frequent. This to me rules out the Auralic streamer as the cause.

My focus then shifted to the i9. I agreed to borrow my dealer’s demo i9 (which was built a year after mine) to see what happened and again to my surprise the pops and clicks are still there, no better, no worse.

So far, I’ve managed to establish: -

1. It’s not the cable. I’ve tried 4 different USB cables including a £470 Atlas cable.
2. It’s not the Auralic streamer as the same clicks occur when playback is via my work laptop.
3. It’s not the source material as it plays back perfectly via Spdif
4. It’s not a fault with my particular i9 as the same clicks were present via my dealer’s demo i9."

What am I missing here? Thanks.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

I'm not sure anyone can help without direct diagnosis of the kit itself. But it's probably worth noting that at CD quality, SPDIF should be fine so you could stick to that.

If we assume that the clicks and pops are in the digital domain, these can be timing errors and/or synchronization errors. Via USB, there should be asynchronous buffering on the receiver end. You might need to see if there's a setting minimizing delay (i.e. it's set to synchronous receive or zero buffer) and change that.

But there may be something else such as induced noise.

 

[asha_bristol]

Thanks for the reply. Although using SPDIF is fine for now but I would like to dabble in hi-res at some point hence my continued attempts to make USB work.

Since I get exactly the same random pops and clicks with both the Aries G1 and my work laptop I'm kind of pointing the finger at the Cyrus i9. However, any search of 'Cyrus QXR' (the name of the DAC inside the i9) together with 'pops and clicks' yields nothing whatsoever. Cyrus is a popular make here in the UK and if I find it hard to believe I'm the only person experiencing problems.

Neither the streamer or the DAC have any settings that can be adjusted other than filters and resampling rates so that avenue of investigation is a dead end.

I've been told that a powered USB hub between the streamer and DAC might fix it. Is it worth trying this?

I've also been told somethihg like an ifi iPurifier might fix it. Is it worth trying this also?

Can anyone suggest anything else I can try or has anyone managed to solve a similar problem?

Thanks.

 

[MaxwellsEq]

Thanks for the reply. Although using SPDIF is fine for now but I would like to dabble in hi-res at some point hence my continued attempts to make USB work.

You don't need USB for hirez. My DAC accepts 192kHz 24bit content via copper SPDIF and 96kHz 24bit via Toslink.

 

[asha_bristol]

I was more interested in playing DSD files. However, surely the bigger picture here is that if someone spends over £5k on two Hi-Fi components the general expectation is that they work using whatever output the owner wishes to use.

 

[ThangBV]

I was more interested in playing DSD files. However, surely the bigger picture here is that if someone spends over £5k on two Hi-Fi components the general expectation is that they work using whatever output the owner wishes to use.

Any updates? Is the Cyrus customer support working?

 

[asha_bristol]

Any updates? Is the Cyrus customer support working?

No. I've given up on resolving it to be honest. I offered to send Cyrus a few particularly problematic tracks to try but they didn't take me up on the offer.

I discovered by accident that if I upsample everything to 192 then 99% of tracks play pop free. However, after 3 days of using the USB input both components lost sync with each other and it took a day of resetting and unplugging in different orders to get them synced again. Way too much hassle for me.

The only silver lining is that after listening to music resampled to 192 via the USB input for a few days I actually prefered the native signal sent via SPDIF coax so I have decided just to stick with that. Not a problem since 95% of my music is CD rips.

 

[Kramerlux]

Hey maybe too late but I was having the same issue with my i7-XR

When I changed the sample rate on my PC from 48 to 44.1k the crackling stopped

I realise you're using a streamer so not sure if you can adjust on there...