We ran Dunc’s Upsampler (and his DAC) through our automated test procedure (which contains thousands of individual tests) and they passed, indicating no obvious fault. We then left them playing for two weeks around the clock but the problem didn’t recur. Based on the video he sent us clearly showing the symptom he was experiencing we identified the most likely culprit and replaced it. Time will tell.
2 Likes
If I have the same problem, should I check with local dealer?
I’m a Vivaldi 3 stacks without CDT user.
My DAC got apex upgrade before.
Please could you capture a video the next time the symptom occurs, so we can hear what your system is doing as well as see the displays of both your Vivaldi DAC and Upsampler at the time, and email it to [email protected]. That should tell us if it is the same symptom as Dunc’s or not. If it is then let’s wait and see how Dunc gets on. If he hasn’t experienced any recurrence in a couple of months’ time then we can be fairly confident we solved it, right now we’re not certain.
Sure, I will do it.
Thanks for the info.
Hopefully mine is now sorted, but time will tell.
If it happens again I am going to run mine without the clock on, as i have found with mine, when it did play up, it normally played up for a few days at a time and then went back to geing ok.
So going to try running it clockless if it does. How old is your clock as mine is the oldest bit i have.
OK, I’ll try it if it happens again.
I think I bought my all 3 stack back in 2020.
It’s just a thought that’s all, but i hope mine is now all happy.
But I can 100% say you are in good hands as dCS will not leave you in the lurch.
1 Like
Hi Dunc, My colleagues and I frequently do clock demos where we turn the master clock on and off while the music is playing. If the DAC is set to auto-word clock mode (W) and loses lock on the master clock signal it just falls back to master mode (M) and continues playing. While losing the audio signal will cause it to lose lock on the master clock (because clock rate selection is based on the sampling rate of the audio that is playing), the reverse is not true. So by all means test it, but I don’t see how your master clock can have been the cause of your issue.
3 Likes
Hi
Sorry to say it’s happened again. Err.
I did video it and can obviously send it over. I am not too bothered about it as I can deal with it. But I am going to try different stuff as I can only think its my clock cause it? Or maybe a clock cable?
But i feel it’s always when it switches over to a difference clock rate it does it. Play say an album all at the same and its fine. Switch over to qobuz and then stream different sample rates and this is when it can go wrong.
Maybe the clock doesn’t send the correct signal for the dac to lock on to? I obviously don’t know but with my clock being the oldest bit by far and the other 2 been checked over it has to be the clock, doesn’t it? Yes its working fine and hasn’t got the re calibration icon up, but I guess it could be showing signs of something not quite right at times.
Anyway I know this is a bank holiday Monday and wasn’t going to send this till tomorrow but I have a busy day tomorrow and so here it is, obviously I am not expecting anything response and like I said i am not overly bothered about it at all and going to try and find a cause for it by trying a few different things.
1 Like
I can try lots of different things, replied to the email
Cheers dunc
I was expecting this to happen, sorry.
As I have said earlier, I do not think the issue may be with the Upsampler. This happened to me with an earlier dCS line when DAC muted during sample rate changes. Automatic unmuting did not happen cleanly subsequently resulting in a terrible sound.
Next time it happens press mute on front panel ( it should mute again) then press mute again to unmute and it should give clean sound again. When I did this couple of times it never recurred though I cannot predict that will be the case here.
The mute operation involves a relay and this may be “sticking” I guess.
This video is different again to the last one.
Went from playing a 24/192 to a 16/44, the upsampler is playing and shows word 1, the dac is showing word 2 and just aes 3 and not aes 3 + 4
If you are playing 16/44.1 then DAC will only use AES 3 ( or 1 depending on your connections). Dual AES is only in use when sample rates of 176.4 or above (and DSD) are being used. Upsampler filter 1 is default.
It normally says aes 3+4 on the dac as its upsampling to DSD ×2
This also reverts back to this once it goes back to normal. All this is happening from streaming and upsampling.
But it continues unfortunately but I know the dCS team gave my back on all this
If you are playing 44.1, 88.2, 48 or 96kS/s samples then only a single AES connection will be used. Above these rates including DSD ( natural or upsampled) dual AES is employed.
If you are upsampling to DSD x 2 but only see AES 3 this implies that you have switched off dual AES in upsampler or DAC or both. You can reset this is Mosaic control in Device section.
If i could upload the latest video from yesterday you would see much clearer i feel.
So basically playing a track from qobuz, a 16/44.1 track, then upsampling it to DSD x2.
The dac when going wrong has eas 3, 24 /192 and word clock 2.
After i turn the clock off and back on again the dac then has aes 3+4, DSD x 2 and word clock1
I think the last track i played before this one was at a different sample rate. Plus I can’t remember it ever going wrong playing an album streamed, as in playing all the tracks. Plus it only ever goes wrong at the start and never say 10 or 40 seconds into playing that track
I am out of ideas here. It seems that when you start playing 16/441. to DSDx2 wrong information is being displayed but switch the wordclock off and reboot it is corthenrect.
Maybe there was some kind kind of incorrect wiring but if it is all OK when the clock is rebooted then this can’t be a problem.
Is the wordclock showing a red recalibrate warning? Clutching at straws really but preset settings can be lost if the batteries need attention. This issue affects each of the Vivaldi units ( only wordclock has the recalibrate warning) AFAIK.
No re calibration light on.
I changed the battery in it not that long ago as was a bit concerned due to age, but the system was already playing up long before I did it , and only did it because I was unplugging it gor done time due to taking it all to the show I did with it all.
But its certainly a strange one.
I think going forward I will swap my clock cables over to see if it still does it.
Then if it does i think I can use different clock connection on the back of the clock to see if that changes anything.
But really I will wait to see what dCS has to say, as i think we can rule out the dac and upsampler as it didn’t miss a beat while it was on test at dCS.