I ran into an odd issue with my brand new M400. As background, I have the M400 connected via USB to my Mac and Monoprice THX headphone amp with Hifiman Arya headphones. I had the M400 configured for fixed volume pre-out (80). For 99% of my FLAC tracks, this was perfect. However, at least two tracks (MS MR "All the things lost" and The Chainsmokers "Sick boy") there was VERY noticeable distortion for the kick drums (?). It's like something was being significantly over driven. I took the M400 out of pre-mode and reduced the volume to 60, and boosted the gain and volume on my Monoprice amp and the distortion completely went away.
To me this points to some issue in the M400?
Hello everyone,
I am new in this forum, because I need some advice of the experts.
I own the M400 and SP400 for a few weeks now and I have two issues and I am not sure if this is common, I guess nót.
First I ran into the same issue as Phony above. But because he used a Monoprice and I use the SP400, I would assume that I should not have this issue, because the SP400 is specially created to work with the M400!?
When listening to David Byrnes "here lies love" or Pinks "Just give me a reason" and some other tracks with present base frequencies, I have some distortin and scratching on the left channel.
My SP400 is connect via XLR to the M400.
Using the A1 with SE, I dont have this issue. Reducing the M400 to 60 or 65 volume, the distortion disappears.
So, the question is, shouldn't work the SP400 clean with max volume of the M400?
The second issue I figured out is playing MQA files via Audirvana. In not reproducable situations the M400 loses connection to USB and the sound drops out.
I found a thread at
roonlabs.com where this issue is described. I tested something around, but sometimes the dropouts are still there.
The idea that the pc is limiting is barely the case in my case, I guess. (Ryzen 5 3600, 32GB RAM, SSD for my music). Setting up the M400 as renderer instead of decoder should not be the solution in my opinion.
Did anyone experienced the same issues as well and maybe some of you could give me some advice.
Thanks a lot and greetings from Germany.
olli
Version of M400:
HW Version: 1.5
SW Version: 1.2
USB Version: 2.06
Driver: lates from S.M.S.L Homepage
SP400:
HW Version: 1.0
SW Version: 1.0
If needed I could provide the serial number.