Topic: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

Hello guys,

I got ADI-2 DAC FS months ago and I loved it very much.

Wihle one issue got me frustrated as sometimes the playback will "crack"  or "skip" by 0.x second during ASIO MADIface USB mode selected,

I saw some familiar feedback before like that, but my situatioin gets some different since usually happens when (but not limited to):
- apps like Chrome/new Edge with Chromium core are being operated, open new tab/session especilly
- system interface poped, e.g, when I click out the notification panel from the right-down corner of win10 screen
- when using other apps those mostlikely to show themseves, you know, like ims/chat apps, who usually req much resource and system responce priority
- the issue not only impact DSD, but also to PCM ouput when I'm playing FLAC or wav files under ASIO MADIface USB (in foobar, under DSD: ASIO: ASIO MADIface USB)

When I just use music app+ASIO to playback and leave other apps not operated, the issue disappears. (e.g Chrome, either closed or leave to background works to mitigate the issue.)

OK that looks like to be a driver or session priority issue, so I have done the followings to debug:
- swap USB cables (in box one or other brand cables), or USB ports (all on board original ones suppose driven by intel chipset)
- Upgrade all drivers to latest, including ADI-2 DAC, PC component drivers, system etc
- reset ADI-2 and upgrade the FW to latest
- uninstall RME app/driver completely, and re-install driver and leave everything default setup
- Install latest Chrome and disable all add-ons
- change the music playback apps between foobar, Qobuz, or others with ASIO output supported
- manual set the related playback sessions to highest system priority (real time)
- of course, restart windows or apps

But the issue is still there.

There're just fews things helped when I tried:
- uninstall RME app/driver completely, just use Win10 built-in driver (UAC2?), then select DSD:WASAPI (Push): Analog (1+2) (RME ADI-2 DAC) in foobar or other familiar modes in other apps, help reduced the issue happen.  (yeah push mode, because event mode will output real crack sound continuesly, I don't know why)
- use system default interface, DS mode or something like that, yes that works without crack but the sound quality is like using,  you know, on board Realtek,


Does anyone meet same issue as I got?

Guys can you help advice anything I can do to mitigate the crack/skip case when I'm listening music and doing some works at the same time?

Thank you!


ADI-2 DAC FS info:
Driver:    9716
HW:    27

PC SW/HW:
Win 10 Pro 1909
i7-8700 + 32G DDR4 + GTX1070 with latest driver

Playback routing:
PC -> USB - > ADI-2 DAC FS - > Genelec 8020

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

add some more:
- I disabled on baord audio chip so should be no driver or devide conflict as ADI-2 is the only audio device in the system
- I don't run high loading tasks in system when listening to music, browse webpage via Chrome and chat with friends with chat app (no any audio usage when met the skipping issue) are mostly used.  i7 8700+32G DDR4 should be enough to cover those tasks.

3

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

Check your system with Latency Monitor from Resplendence. Motherboard type?

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

MC wrote:

Check your system with Latency Monitor from Resplendence. Motherboard type?

hi, thank you for replying my post!

Motherboard is ASUS PRIME B360-PLUS. 
I used on board USB port instead of PC front panel audio jack or anything beyond mainboard original port.

here's the test result (surry i have no image server yet)
- 1st one for system without any playback, everything silent. 
- 2nd one for foobar playing normal flac via ASIO output.



Test 1 without any playback
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CONCLUSION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Your system appears to be suitable for handling real-time audio and other tasks without dropouts.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for  0:00:20  (h:mm:ss) on all processors.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   268.50
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   5.364218

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       223.30
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       1.836715


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED ISRs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs):              299.332707
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time:       dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%):          0.059898
Driver with highest ISR total time:                   dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%)                          0.060009

ISR count (execution time <250 µs):                   3248
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs):                1
ISR count (execution time 1000-1999 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time 2000-3999 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED DPCs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs):              318.813283
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time:       nvlddmkm.sys - NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 451.67 , NVIDIA Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%):          0.041358
Driver with highest DPC total execution time:         nvlddmkm.sys - NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 451.67 , NVIDIA Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%)                          0.089869

DPC count (execution time <250 µs):                   48016
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs):                4
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.

NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.

Process with highest pagefault count:                 msmpeng.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults                       2
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process:          2
Number of processes hit:                              1








Test 2 with playback on


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CONCLUSION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Your system appears to be suitable for handling real-time audio and other tasks without dropouts.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for  0:00:36  (h:mm:ss) on all processors.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event.

Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   916.10
Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs):   3.938565

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       913.80
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       1.357219
_______________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED ISRs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs):              184.984336
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time:       dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%):          0.029480
Driver with highest ISR total time:                   dxgkrnl.sys - DirectX Graphics Kernel, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%)                          0.031666

ISR count (execution time <250 µs):                   12435
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs):                0
ISR count (execution time 1000-1999 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time 2000-3999 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED DPCs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs):              958.778822
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time:       nvlddmkm.sys - NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 451.67 , NVIDIA Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%):          0.061795
Driver with highest DPC total execution time:         Wdf01000.sys - 内核模式驱动程序框架运行时, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%)                          0.103239

DPC count (execution time <250 µs):                   81968
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs):                20
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution.

NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit.

Process with highest pagefault count:                 dllhost.exe

Total number of hard pagefaults                       83
Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process:          73
Number of processes hit:                              4

5

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

You did not mention the ASIO Latency (Buffer size) that you use (in the RME Settings dialog). For ASIO you could go to the max size and check if the same happens again. For WDM set 256 or 128.

These two points:

> - apps like Chrome/new Edge with Chromium core are being operated, open new tab/session especilly
->  system interface poped, e.g, when I click out the notification panel from the right-down corner of win

look like system sounds are played via the ADI-2 DAC. Go to Sounds panel and set your onboard soundcard as default playback device.

You can also let the Settings dialog open all the time so you can see if USB errors show up or the sample rate changed.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

6 (edited by pumpkinknight 2020-07-28 16:13:53)

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

Oh sure here's the setup for buffer size and sample rate I set:

ASIO Latency buffer size:
- DSD or high bite rate PCM:        8192 samples  (seems to be automatically up to this one)
- normal PCM (up to CD rip):        2048 sample  (the setup i put as default)

sample rate:
- DSD or high bite rate PCM:        176400 or 192000 hz  (seems to be automatically up to this one)
- normal PCM (up to CD rip):        44100 hz  (the setup i put as default)


Usually I set the buffer size to largest as I can, and I can see the buffer size will automatically change depend on the bit rate of the playback. (is that good or bad if changes automatically?)

Sample rate, I just leave it to default and looks it will change by itself as same as buffer size.

Is that a better idea to have onboard soundchip to cover brower and system sounds? That will req separate cables to my speaker and also I got a bit worried whether it will conflict with ADI-2 DAC.

If i want to use ADI-2 DAC to cover all sounds in the system, does that mean I have to suffer this issue since any system sound or brower generated sound will interupt ASIO output and bring a skipping/crack?

Thank you





MC wrote:

You did not mention the ASIO Latency (Buffer size) that you use (in the RME Settings dialog). For ASIO you could go to the max size and check if the same happens again. For WDM set 256 or 128.

These two points:

> - apps like Chrome/new Edge with Chromium core are being operated, open new tab/session especilly
->  system interface poped, e.g, when I click out the notification panel from the right-down corner of win

look like system sounds are played via the ADI-2 DAC. Go to Sounds panel and set your onboard soundcard as default playback device.

You can also let the Settings dialog open all the time so you can see if USB errors show up or the sample rate changed.

7

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

The point here is to first find out what is the problem cause. Then we can discuss further. If you are running WDM (OS audio) constantly at 192 kHz then I woudn't be astonished if Chrome etc freak out. If OS audio switches between high sample rates and lower ones then the same applies. As I said: open the Settings dialog and find out what your system is really doing.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

8 (edited by pumpkinknight 2020-08-02 07:18:29)

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

OK here're the snapshot of Setting page (is that?)

the buffer size and sample rate do variate when system playback different bit rate medias



The one at playback after 1 hour
https://i.loli.net/2020/08/02/OXxUgVI8ZMinY6J.jpg


idle statues
https://i.loli.net/2020/08/02/HQ8DZJYbKSRErOW.jpg


page2, just keep as default
https://i.loli.net/2020/08/02/vkFMr3O78mgcDEw.jpg

MC wrote:

The point here is to first find out what is the problem cause. Then we can discuss further. If you are running WDM (OS audio) constantly at 192 kHz then I woudn't be astonished if Chrome etc freak out. If OS audio switches between high sample rates and lower ones then the same applies. As I said: open the Settings dialog and find out what your system is really doing.

9 (edited by pumpkinknight 2020-08-08 13:39:52)

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

Update today's test statues, still met skipping case when playback via ASIO/USB and browsing webpages with Chrome.
On board audio chip disabled.


Setting Panel Page 1
https://i.loli.net/2020/08/08/4jJecY9uGOzbDwV.jpg


Setting Panel Page 2
https://i.loli.net/2020/08/08/Hh8QozyYnpPBkev.jpg



LatencyMon
https://i.loli.net/2020/08/08/YPG4I3xlSw9Qjhp.jpg

10 (edited by pumpkinknight 2020-08-15 10:41:08)

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

Hi, I turned onboard audio as default playback device and re-install ADI-2 driver, looks the situation looks no improve no matter onboard chip selected as default or not:

Pic 1, I played FLAC in Foobar (ASIO) and the sample rate looks normal, but still got several skippings

Pic 2, latencyMon test result with some time chrowing with Chrome and system panels.  The on board audion was selected as default during the test.

Pic 3, Sounds panel setup with onboard one selected as default device

Is there any suggestion for that?


https://i.loli.net/2020/08/15/rRtZDMpcizmO1vU.jpg

https://i.loli.net/2020/08/15/tji84ve35khJPga.jpg

https://i.loli.net/2020/08/15/xbfFyWY4IlDVmPo.jpg

MC wrote:

The point here is to first find out what is the problem cause. Then we can discuss further. If you are running WDM (OS audio) constantly at 192 kHz then I woudn't be astonished if Chrome etc freak out. If OS audio switches between high sample rates and lower ones then the same applies. As I said: open the Settings dialog and find out what your system is really doing.

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

Upgraded to latest driver (although the change was for another case).

no change to the skipping situation with the following debug activities done
- active on-board audio or not
- set either on-board audio or ADI-2 as default device
- turn on system sound or off
- set foobar/ASIO session as highest system priority or just as default/normal

https://i.loli.net/2020/08/22/7bAdNS9vQTEhMsH.jpg

https://i.loli.net/2020/08/22/SwQqgVHPyktGMWs.jpg

https://i.loli.net/2020/08/22/P7eAnLmV8OujvlS.jpg

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

record high tonight

https://i.loli.net/2020/08/23/jzmuC7eTlPIhaDK.jpg

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

Just joining this thread in my attempts to diagnose and resolve exact same problem - Love my new ADI but something must be set incorrectly given since installing it (on separate USB controller) my USB has this intermittent brief 'stutter' - Sound 'skips' for 0.5 secs approx once every 3-4 mins.  Have also noticed my Razer mouse was disconnecting, in some cases requiring a un-plug / re-plug to restore mouse detection.  Perhaps related to Razer Synapse crapware? Mouse disconnects were resolved by changing mouse but this did not eliminate sound skips.

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

DRG80N wrote:

Just joining this thread in my attempts to diagnose and resolve exact same problem - Love my new ADI but something must be set incorrectly given since installing it (on separate USB controller) my USB has this intermittent brief 'stutter' - Sound 'skips' for 0.5 secs approx once every 3-4 mins.  Have also noticed my Razer mouse was disconnecting, in some cases requiring a un-plug / re-plug to restore mouse detection.  Perhaps related to Razer Synapse crapware? Mouse disconnects were resolved by changing mouse but this did not eliminate sound skips.

I was getting random blue screen of death in Windows 10 that turned out to be somehow related to my Razor mouse. After I switched to using another mouse brand (and uninstalled all Razor software) I have not had any more issues with my ADI-2 PRO FS (I still don't know if Razor had conflicts with ADI software or something else - don't care at this point).

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

Yes, this issue has been going on for me the day I installed the driver from RME website. I have done literally everything I can think of short of reinstalling windows and nothing resolves the issue. You see it's like micro stutters for like .1 of a second every 10-15 seconds but only in some applications. Foobar is quite bad no matter what settings are used and when recording system sound in obs or audacity it records the skips! Played the file back on other devices.

Thing is I had been using it for a good 6 months or so before installing any drivers manually as I wanted ASIO for testing higher sample rates without needing to manually change it in sound settings but ever since installing those components and even after uninstalling them multiple times this problem persists. I even updated firmware recently which did nothing to help.

Guess I am not the only one then. This really needs to be fixed because it's affecting my ability to record audio from my system cleanly. Might just have to hook it up with SPDIF.

16

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

There is nothing to fix on our side. You need to fix your computer. This forum has enough threads on how to analyze and solve those problems. Even this thread shows some ideas. If you have latency issues or USB errors the ADI-2 is out of the equation.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

Just a quick post on noisy/slowed and distorted sound on windows 10 machine after just installing my brand new ADI 2 DAC FS when streaming from Qobuz at varying sample rates.

Took me about three hours to finally resolve and turned out to be a conflict in ASIO drivers. I also have a Chord Mojo and had installed specific usb drivers for that - and these were directly conflicting but only in Qobuz. I also use Roon and that was fine without uninstalling - something I'm putting down to custom drivers from Roon potentially?

Anyway - still testing but hope that helps someone maybe in the future?

Cheers

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

Thanks for posting that - You're doing well having resolved it in only 3 hours.  I've been trying to figure out the USB micro stutters that interrupt sound for 6 months.  Lovely little device, but I'm really at wits end and feel like throwing it out the window.

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

Does it perhaps change something if you give processes a higher and static CPU quantum ?
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/ind … es-or-not/

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

Same problem as everyone else, random 0.5 second skips every few minutes. Brand-new ADI-2 PRO FS R, using J-River. Skipped regardless of WASAPI or ASIO and regardless of any buffering settings. Firmware updated. $200 USB cable, $350 dedicated PCI USB card, $2000 gaming PC, doing nothing more than browsing the web in the background. Tried maybe five other DACs in the past year that had zero problems with skipping, some very cheap, some more expensive than the RME, with the same hardware and everything else.

Uninstalling the RME ASIO driver completely seems to have fixed the problem so far, but that's a bit unfortunate. If I actually did any pro audio stuff and not just listened to music, it would be somewhat fatal. As it is, I can live with WASAPI, it should be bit-perfect playback anyways. If it crops up again over the weekend the unit is going to back for a refund, which would suck, because I love everything else about the ADI-2 PRO and really need the +24 dBu XLR output to help out my amp. But there are other options, even if they do have fewer features (for example, Benchmark DAC3). Hopefully RME can improve their driver reliability. (Again, why should five other DACs I've tried, many with their own ASIO drivers, have worked perfectly?)

21 (edited by ramses 2021-10-15 07:37:32)

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

stereolab42 wrote:

Same problem as everyone else, random 0.5 second skips every few minutes. Brand-new ADI-2 PRO FS R, using J-River. Skipped regardless of WASAPI or ASIO and regardless of any buffering settings. Firmware updated. $200 USB cable, $350 dedicated PCI USB card, $2000 gaming PC, doing nothing more than browsing the web in the background. Tried maybe five other DACs in the past year that had zero problems with skipping, some very cheap, some more expensive than the RME, with the same hardware and everything else.

Uninstalling the RME ASIO driver completely seems to have fixed the problem so far, but that's a bit unfortunate. If I actually did any pro audio stuff and not just listened to music, it would be somewhat fatal. As it is, I can live with WASAPI, it should be bit-perfect playback anyways. If it crops up again over the weekend the unit is going to back for a refund, which would suck, because I love everything else about the ADI-2 PRO and really need the +24 dBu XLR output to help out my amp. But there are other options, even if they do have fewer features (for example, Benchmark DAC3). Hopefully RME can improve their driver reliability. (Again, why should five other DACs I've tried, many with their own ASIO drivers, have worked perfectly?)

Sorry to hear this. There can be some reasons for audio to fail. So some more detailed information about your system and your setup would be helpful, to e.g. detect certain issues or similarities to other (few) cases.

1st of all info about your Operating System (exact version e.g. Windows 10 Home/Pro, 21H1, 32 o. 64bit)
and hardware: CPU, mainboard, chipset, graphics card, driver version.

Did you check your system using LatencyMon, whether your system has issues processing audio (due to driver(s) staying too long active on CPU cores blocking these for too long for audio processing -> "DPC latencies") ?
https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

At what sample rate and ASIO buffersizes did you have audio problem? Did you try to increase the ASIO buffersize ? What was the result ?

Do you use energy saving ? How are your power settings ? Using everything else than "High Performance" causes additional DPC latencies.

If you have a desktop PC, did you try to disable Windows CPU core parking ? This can also help to reduce DPC latencies as CPU clock changes also cause a little delay (-> higher DPC latencies).

Do you use Wireless or do you access the net through LAN while listening to music ? Wireless can have big impact, try to disable WiFi and/or do not use LAN and pls check whether this makes a difference.

Have you checked if the RME ASIO driver shows CRC errors during data transfer? To do this, you have to leave the driver settings dialogue open when playing music and then check whether CRC errors are displayed.

Is the DAC connected directly to a USB port or via a USB hub? How long is your USB2 cable ?

In your case it seems to be audio loss in two 2 different sub-cases:

a) USB ports from the mainboard, so the following information would be helpful:
Have you tried all USB3 and USB2 ports that your mainboard offers for the DAC?

b) use of an USB expansion card
Which card, do you know which USB chip is installed there?
In which PCIe socket of your mainboard do you have the PCIe card installed?
Have you tried other PCIe sockets?

Which other PCIe sockets of your system are equipped with which cards?

Did audio loss change in any way when connecting the DAC to either USB ports from mainboard or to ports from the add-on PCIe USB card ?

Did you try another Music Player, like e.g. MusicBee or foobar2000 which also have ASIO support?

What happens if you use a typical DAW product to import and play audio (DAW usually have a better handling with ASIO, this would simply be interesting, whether this changes the situation). I would check with Reaper, because it is easy to download, install and test.

Allow me a few additional comments:

> $200 USB cable

So expensive cables are not necessary and have no influence on the sound with digital transmission. The D/A conversion is done in the ADI-2 Dac/Pro.
With the bit test you can convince yourself that the data arrive lossless / unchanged up to the ADI-2 Pro. This is an unnecessary expenditure of money. A simple USB2 cable of good quality such as from Lindy in the price range under €22 is completely sufficient.

> $350 dedicated PCI USB card

Such an expensive card is not necessary either. You don't want to achieve more here than to connect the ADI-2 Pro/DAC via another USB controller to solve any problems of your other USB infrastructure (be it chipset or 3rd party chip). Good cards are available here for well under €60.
Special cards that offer dedicated USB controllers for the 2-4 USB ports are of course also available if you need more ports with the full USB bandwidth per port for any reason, but even these are available in the €150 range.
Does this card come with own drivers or is it supported by your Windows version ?

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13

22 (edited by stereolab42 2021-10-15 21:24:42)

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

So after more hours of listening on WASAPI with the RME driver uninstalled, there are no skips, whereas with the driver, it skipped on ASIO and WASAPI regardless of buffer/sample size. I've tried a good number of the techniques above. At this point I'm fine with sticking with WASAPI and the Microsoft driver. The fewer third-party drivers I have on my system the better, I read articles every day about security exploits in this or that driver. If I ever find real need for ASIO I will revisit the issue. But again there is a clear difference in the stability of this driver vs. the ASIO drivers for other DACs I own in precisely the same hardware and software chain. Maybe that's intentional for some sort of "pro audio" reason, I don't know. For now I'm just going to enjoy listening, I have no arguments with the SQ or functionality.

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

I had the same problem with two different Windows computers - one with 7 and one with 10. I tried everything (and spent maybe two weekends on it), but still had the dropouts. I had no problem at all with my Cambridge Audio DACMAGIC XS and its ASIO driver, so I don't think my computers were the issue.
In the end, I figured the answer was just to buy a Bluesound NODE, which works perfectly.

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

stereolab42 wrote:

So after more hours of listening on WASAPI with the RME driver uninstalled, there are no skips, whereas with the driver, it skipped on ASIO and WASAPI regardless of buffer/sample size. I've tried a good number of the techniques above. At this point I'm fine with sticking with WASAPI and the Microsoft driver. The fewer third-party drivers I have on my system the better, I read articles every day about security exploits in this or that driver. If I ever find real need for ASIO I will revisit the issue. But again there is a clear difference in the stability of this driver vs. the ASIO drivers for other DACs I own in precisely the same hardware and software chain. Maybe that's intentional for some sort of "pro audio" reason, I don't know. For now I'm just going to enjoy listening, I have no arguments with the SQ or functionality.

Hi Stereolab42 - I'd like to try your approach but am new to a lot of this so would you be able to assist?
I've uninstalled the RME driver but then for my PC - Windows 10 64bit Pro - the RME device vanishes.  You talk about listening on WASAPI - is this a different driver I need to install - if so can you let me know where I'd get this from?

Like many others on here, I love the RME DAC - but this little glitch is driving me nuts.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

See manual, chapter 20, Driver installation. The unit will be found by Windows automatically. Maybe you did not reboot...

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

MC wrote:

See manual, chapter 20, Driver installation. The unit will be found by Windows automatically. Maybe you did not reboot...

Thanks MC - I think I was having other issues on PC also.  Followed instructions and got this working.  I must admit I hadn't quite got to chapter 20 in the manual yet so appreciate your support.  I'll make sure I read the rest.  Great device by the way - a significant upgrade for me.

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

Hello, is anyone solved this yet ? I have reinstalled my Windows 10 and everything was ok for 10 mins, then installed madiface usb driver and it started to skip again. Uninstalled the driver and it still skipping, like once it's installed it upsets the system or something. Tried on my girlfriend laptop and same thing happens. Would RME finally fix this for windows?
So many peoples have this issue and RME blame users PC... naver had this issue with any other device.
Bit ridiculous to ask for so much money and be proud of "it's just works" while it's not and doesn't even have proper driver.
Without driver I can't even change bitrate on DAC as when changing it on DAC it just goes back where it was.

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

Hi Kerussm,

This was affecting my system with an old X99 Motherboard (there are some other posts referencing X99 / USB issues ).  Resolved by doing two things:
1. Turn ON pointer trails in Mouse settings (and set them to shortest trail so not seen)
2. Turn OFF XHCI and EHCI handoff in bios power settings.

Re: ADI-2 DAC: Sound output cracked or skipping with Win10 ASIO

DRG80N wrote:

Hi Kerussm,

This was affecting my system with an old X99 Motherboard (there are some other posts referencing X99 / USB issues ).  Resolved by doing two things:
1. Turn ON pointer trails in Mouse settings (and set them to shortest trail so not seen)
2. Turn OFF XHCI and EHCI handoff in bios power settings.


Thx buddy, I have fixed it by sending signal out from my motherboard's Optical output into ADI-2 DAC and it stopped immediatelly.