1.2.2: electrical interference noise when loading new tracks

Be your own person.

Don’t be led by others attempts to rock the boat. The features that you liked a few months ago are still there.

Even luxury cars aren’t immune to faults.

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As a new owner of SC5000’s I wish there was a bug list somewhere, so I would know if this had been acknowledged already. Sorry if this is a documented bug.

I encountered this issue today and it was easily reproducable.

  • Connection via digi-out to an A&H DB:2
  • 240gb ssd drive in the rear usb-port, also tested with the front connection, same results
  • Digital stuttering noise is clear on the layer that’s playing when loading a track to another layer
  • Only the channel with the track playing was on
  • This seems to happen only when loading tracks with hot cues

If you use the rotary encoder instead of the touch screen and you keep your hand away from the platter, does it still happen? You can also try just loading a track with your right hand while the left hand is touching the rear-left grounding screw on the back and see if that makes any difference.

You’re on the latest firmware?

How many hot cues saved does it take for it to occur?

Is it only with certain file types or very long/big tracks?

Does it happen early in a set, late in the set only, or pretty much throughout?

Only on the linked deck or even the deck the drive is directly connected to?

Does it happen through the analog outs, too?

I had the very same issue with my 1TB SSD, except for the hot cues. Never had anything like that with SD cards. My solution: I changed the SATA-USB adapter to a more expensive one. Haven’t experienced the problem since. Only sometimes the linked player seems sluggish.

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I’m using a USB-C drive with a 3.1 gen 2 port so the drive speed shouldn’t be an issue. The adapter is high quality as well. I’ll do more thorough testing tonite and will also try with the older firmware

If you use the rotary encoder instead of the touch screen and you keep your hand away from the platter, does it still happen? You can also try just loading a track with your right hand while the left hand is touching the rear-left grounding screw on the back and see if that makes any difference.

I will try this tonite, I used both the rotary and the touch screen when I noticed the noise.

You’re on the latest firmware?

Yes. Will downgrade to 1.2 to check if the problem dissappears as it did with a former poster on this theread

How many hot cues saved does it take for it to occur?

One is enough, althought the ones I tested with were in either the very beginning or 16 bars into the track

Is it only with certain file types or very long/big tracks?

Will test, but this happened with AIFFS, I will check with other formats tonite.

Does it happen early in a set, late in the set only, or pretty much throughout?

I noticed it at first an hour into playing. Powered off the machine, waited a while, booted up and the problem was right there with the first 2 tracks.

Only on the linked deck or even the deck the drive is directly connected to?

I only have one, so this happens when two layers are in use. The noise appears on the track playing on say, layer A, when you load a track to layer B.

Does it happen through the analog outs, too?

Will test this and will also test with another set of coaxial cables.

I don’t think the problem is about speed. A USB 2 drive would be fast enough. My guess goes toward the I/O protocols that might give the SC5000 a hick up. If it was electrical interference, then it should occur consistently, also with no track running.

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Yes, that makes sense. I’ll investigate this further with different setups, but my guess is that it has something to do with the drive compatibility and/or digital audio i/o. I need to narrow down if there is a direct correlation with specific tracks/file formats and if indeed the hot cues play a part.

(I did notice the speed-up issue which was reported before which also incl hot cues - ie. sync on, the non-playing layer has a track with hot cue, you either start it from the hot cue point OR scroll past it with the platter - this momentarily affects the speed of the layer that is playing a track. I tend not to use sync, so not a biggie).

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Ok, I did more testing and the results are in. It’s clearly a problem with the latest firmware. After 30 mins of testing with 1.2.2. I installed 1.2 and the noise is gone , not a single hiccup after another 30 mins of testing.

  • The noise appears both on digital and analog outs
  • The noise appears when the player loads up an AIFF file, most of my library files are AIFF (max 24 bit, 48 kHz but it does not make any difference). At least with AIFF’s, it happened every single time. These files are all prepared with Engine Prime.
  • Other formats, incl. FLAC/ALAC/WAV-files seem to work fine.
  • Hot cues don’t seem have anything to do with it.
  • I tested with the same drive and same files on 1.2.2. and on 1.2.
  • 1.2. does not seem to have the noise problem, at least not straight from the boot like 1.2.2.
  • I tested loading tracks with rotary, touch screen and kept my hand away from the platter, touching the grounding screw - these had no effect
  • I encountered a more worrying problem 20 mins into testing with 1.2.2. There were audio dropouts, almost like the processor choked when loading the track on layer B. The biggest pause was 2 secs. This was random but happened 4 times total during 30 mins of playing.

So my guess is that it’s a software bug. The drive I’m using is a Pioneer SSD, USB-C Gen2 interface, 240 GB model.

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Seems like I should also downgrade to 1.2. All my files are .aiff and I also experienced the dropouts you speak of. Though they are gone after a reboot.

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Thanks for replying to this thread and confirming what i have been experiencing for a year since i bought these units. What also has been confirmed in another thread (by Denon), is that the players will have tempo changes when you sync two layers on the same players with AIFF files (breaking sync, loops and whatnot).

These problems, and the high end drop-off @Reticuli has researched and posted (i think Denon confirmed this too) to me are the primary functions of the units.

After a year of actively trying to contribute to fixing these players so they can at least do the basics right, i have given up. Meaning i sold both units, took a very big financial loss and switched to the other players in the market. The difference in sound quality and stability is astounding.

Good luck trying to get these bugs fixed. I sincerely hope things will work out. Competition is good and i wish you all get the players you paid for. But considering we got 1 firmware update in 1 year that introduced more bugs than it fixed, i’d say don’t get your hopes up.

Cheers.

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Hey mate sad about this, I assume you take Nexus 2?

Nope. Too expensive. That 1 year of early adopting cost me about 1400 euro. Back to 2 players (XDJ) but happy because i can enjoy my music again. And that’s what it is all about for me. :slight_smile:

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Can you give me a pointer to the hi-end roll-off thread? Tried searching but to no avail. Luckily I still have 25 days to return this unit with no questions asked if it turns out to be a lemon :wink: Hoping for the best though.

Yeah, no problem. Got two links.

and

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I would hold them those 25 days.

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Read the hi-end roll-off thread and I’m fairly confident it can and hopefully will, be fixed in a firmware release. It would boost my confidence if I knew a little more about the innards of the SC. But as I said, hoping for the best.

Hoping since 2017, bro. Look at the thread dates.

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