Gapless but glitchy - some tracks beginnings squelched.

[Ladyfingers]

I have a collection of about 450 albums in EAC-ripped Uberstandard file-per-track FLAC on a Western Digital Elements 1TB mains-powered USB drive (NTFS) plugged directly into my Squeezebox Touch, which is plugged into a NAD T747 AVR using coaxial S/PDIF.

All album art is 600x600 and stored as folder.jpg, not embedded.

These tracks transition perfectly in foobar2000 and on my Rockboxed Sansa Clip+.

I've set crossfade and so on to off and zero nearly everywhere I can think that might affect playback, but some tracks still have their beginning slightly clipped off. It's really about half a second or less, and tends to happen mostly at the beginnings of albums. Some albums are affected throughout.

Problems I can see that may be causing this.

* - The deeper setting changes I'm making via the web control are not applied to USB playback.

* - There is a lack of silent stream being fed to the AVR and it's resyncing whenever it encounters silence. I can run it via analogue RCA, but I'd prefer not to.

* - Tracks beginning with a few microseconds of digital silence are being trimmed by some "force gapless" setting I'm not able to find.

* - NTFS is not supported as well as FAT32. This is easy to fix but will take time.

* - 450 albums using USB functionality is a bit too much for the Squeezebox Touch to handle. I'd really rather not have to run a NAS or anything to get better playback.

* - There is some tag or flag I am unaware of causing the issue.

* - The CUE/log files left in the folders are causing an issue. I don't play the CUEs. Should I delete them?

* - There is a buffer setting I can improve.

* - The cover art should be downsized and compressed so that it takes less loading per track.

Any ideas? I've looked through past threads on similar problems, and have made every adjustment I can, but I still have the same issue.

[slackhead]

If you go to the 'Audio' settings tab for the Touch on the Web GUI you will see a setting called "Audio Startup Time". Try setting it to 0.25 or 0.5 and see if that helps.

[andynormancx]

If you go to the 'Audio' settings tab for the Touch on the Web GUI you will see a setting called "Audio Startup Time". Try setting it to 0.25 or 0.5 and see if that helps.

He is using the Touch internal server, so there is no WebUI, right ?

[Ladyfingers]

He is using the Touch internal server, so there is no WebUI, right ?

This was my first question. I don't know if the changes made to the WebUI are somehow saved onto the Touch and applied to the USB drive.

Is it possible to safely export and paste a .prefs file into the USB HDD's Squeezebox folder?

[andynormancx]

This was my first question. I don't know if the changes made to the WebUI are somehow saved onto the Touch and applied to the USB drive.

They are not.

Is it possible to safely export and paste a .prefs file into the USB HDD's Squeezebox folder?

I don't think so, I could be wrong though.

[Ladyfingers]

They are not.

I don't think so, I could be wrong though.

Blaargh.

I guess it's time for a NAS then.

[Mnyb]

So it is working with analogue output but not digital ?

Wich fw version ?

is this happening with normal CD rips or is it hirez 24/96 files ?

Have you tried another dac or avr ?

[Phil Leigh]

Try using the analogue output. Gapless playback should be perfect.

IF analogue works fine, the problem lies with the NAD.

[Ladyfingers]

Try using the analogue output. Gapless playback should be perfect.

IF analogue works fine, the problem lies with the NAD.

Done, and flawless. It's the NAD. Strange that it doesn't happen with CD over S/PDIF, though. I'm going to try the TOSLink now to see if it works better than coaxial.

[Ladyfingers]

I've tried S/PDIF coaxial and TOSLink, and I can see the NAD losing its lock of the signal (the 44.1k appears and disappears between tracks.

I know this is avoidable by use of a "silent stream" output as opposed to a simple signal null <i>during</i> silence. Guess I'll have to find a plugin.

Thanks for the help everyone.