I've noticed a playback bug on my Karma. There's an occasional faint pop on playback.

I'm sure it's not errors in my files. I use EAC in secure mode to rip my CD's and the files sound perfect on other players. Also, the pops do not occur in the same place when I rewind.

Does anyone else have this problem?

Note that I hear the pop only on quiet sections or in classical music because it is pretty faint.

I don't use EQ or the crossfader so I don't think it's related to those features.

Thanks

Did you update the frimware to the latest version ?

I will second Matt's recommendation to make sure you've downloaded and installed the latest firmware from www.rioaudio.com . But also, you said:

I don't use EQ or the crossfader

Okay, but do you use the automatic gain control feature? This is another part of the player which affects the audio stream. I've never heard it cause the problem you describe, but I just wanted to check.

Next thing to check. Pause the playback and see if you can still hear clicks. If they go away when you pause, then yes, it could be a decoder problem. If they do not go away, it could be a hardware issue or something physical (like bumping the wires on earbud headphones).

Thanks for your replies.

I'm using the latest firmware (1.25) and I'm not using gain control.

I found posts on the riovolution forum that seem similar to my problem and recently replied there (so it should be near the top of the karma forum)

The click is faint and fairly rare, but it does happen more or less consistently. I've been listening to the same song over and over and the click happens every once in awhile but not every time the song is played. Maybe every other time or slightly more frequently.

The song is encoded with lame, using the --alt-preset standard setting.

I'm trying the pause test now and haven't heard a click.

-Neal

Hi,

I found an example of the click. The click is just like the click that happens when you start up the karma, right after the spinning Rio logo.

Most of the time, the click during playback isn't as loud as the startup click, but sometimes it is.

-Neal

I'm using the latest firmware (1.25)

Argh, I thought the public version was more recent than that. Hang tight until after the holidays, and 1.4x will hopefully be out. Some work was done to resolve certain audio glitches (although not that specific audio glitch), so let us know if 1.4x solves the problem for you.

The click is just like the click that happens when you start up the karma, right after the spinning Rio logo.

Wait a minute... All this time I'm assuming the click is coming through the headphones.

Is this a physical clicking noise made by the hard drive instead? To check this, unplug the headphones while playing a song, and see if you can hear the player itself making the click.

If so, an occasional single click is normal as the hard disk spins up and spins down. Repeated clicks would indicate a failing hard disk.

Thanks again for your great help. Man, this forum is fast.

I'm pretty certain it's not just the hard drive clicking (that possibility occurred to me, too). And the click that happens at startup can only be heard in the headphones.

I use in-ear headphones that are pretty isolating (like ear plugs). I can't hear the Karma's hard drive through my 'phones.

I'll look forward to the next firmware update.

Thanks again,
Neal

Just to wrap up this thread...

Firmware 1.41 seems to have cleared up my problem. No more pops.

Excellent.