1.2.2: electrical interference noise when loading new tracks

Noticed today that both my SC5000 players made a disturbingly loud electrical interference kind of sounds when loading a track on another layer while a track was playing. This was reproducible on both players. First i though i had electrical issues. So i turned off both players and then tested things again with one player off. Same pops and clicks on load. Then, to test things out, i rolled back to 1.2.0 and everything was fine again on both players.

Something seems to be terribly wrong with the 1.2.2 firmware build. I can’t imagine this stuff is good for the players itself. What is happening here? Can anyone else reproduce these issues? Just let a track play on one layer and load another in the other layer with both channels open on your mixer.

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In the normal flow of use at an club, who would leave a channel up when loading of a track? We would load to a closed down fader rather than of this way.

I can to try this in two days.

Leaving it up is just for testing purposes. But it doesn’t really matter. Had the same noises with just one channel up.

Hey @Sevenkami have you contacted technical support?

Hi @Chloe_DENONDJ, no. Mainly because I fixed it myself by rolling back to 1.2.0. Which confirmed to me it is not a hardware defect, but a firmware issue. Right?

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Hi @Sevenkami,

Happy to help!

What mixer are you using and how are the SC5000s connected to it? As mentioned already, it’s risky to load a track with the channel open especially because of all the additional data being loaded along with it.

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A Xone92. Everything is perfectly grounded, without any loops or other buzzes. As I already mentioned I only opened the channel for testing purposes and the players behaved like this regardless of the channel state. Also: when you are playing a track on layer A that channel will be open when you are loading on layer B.

Either way, the players behaved like this with firmware 1.2.2 with both channels open and closed. And they stopped doing this when I rolled them back to 1.2.0. Both of them.

If you have a US Edison 3 pin AC power cable I suggest snapping off the ground pin (the round barrel one) it’s a quick fix ground lift. All you’re doing is disabling the ground, there are PSU’s and cables that have this feature.

The SC5000 is basically a DJ computer, usually a laptop or PC hooked up to a mixer you can hear the HD spin up and down with data searching, it’s a common issue with computers and audio mixers.

https://www.soundonsound.com/sound-advice/q-how-can-permanently-stop-mains-noise-my-studio

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Have patience Sevenkami. Sooner or later, someone will actually read what you’ve said. Perhaps the previous firmware used to mute the audio output on track loading and doesn’t on the current firmware. Either way, no-one should go around snapping off safety features (like Earth pins) from products which have them.

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I don’t think the SC5000 has a mechanical hard drive inside.

It’s a bit of a weird sentence. I had to read it several times also.

The SC indeed has no disk, so I fail to see the comparison to the noise a computer HDD generates on a mixer.

… just the electronical noise between the controller of the usb/card reader, chipset and so on,… its a standard phenomenon and can be reproduced on older pc machines, and modern too, yes, really… firmware issue are as you said above: muting diabled before the track are finished loading. thats all. no error, no bug, no s*** player or so on…

and: i never had the fader on while a track are loading while mine sets.

of course you just listen to tracks, perhaps the fader are always on, but like i say, need just to refixed.

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Thanks all for the input.

Few things:

  1. There are no ground loops or other electrical interferences. These noises are generated by firmware 1.2.2. There are zero noises or other bugs in 1.2.0. Means there is nothing wrong with the hardware or the wiring.

  2. Do NOT lift the ground on these units. I know it is a popular and easy way to fix ground loops. But notice you are touching steel units with built in PSU’s. If you cut the ground on these things, you are putting yourself in a lot of danger. This is not worth the risk. Just don’t. There are numerous ways to fix or reduce ground loop noise. Turning your player into a potential death trap is the worst thing you can do. It also has nothing to do with the issues I described.

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Can’t speak to whether or not firmware is at issue here as I’m using an 8k and not 5000’s but wanted to also encourage people to not break off the ground pin on their cables. Doing this defeats the most important safety feature of your unit. The pin is there for a reason, to keep you from dying from electric shock should the metal chassis of your unit become energized due to malfunction.

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Now that’s possible. I presume you guys mean the analog outputs from the SC5000. A lot of digital audio gear mutes the sound when in certain states to create the illusion of lower noise floor. The latest firmware might just not do that anymore. That and the supposed compression going on could be to boost the measured S/N ratio and/or deal with RF/EM interference issues people have previously mentioned, like when your cell phone is near the screen, etc, that InMusic supposedly resolved somehow. The compression and auto muting might have been the somehow. Or you could just have some defective units. Anyone else noticed this on either the earliest firmware or the latest?

To stay a little bit on topic.

Yes there is a digital ticking sound when both faders of both layers are up, while one is playing and other loading a track. (My players are all connected digitally btw.)

Seldom use the second layer so took some time to check and can confirm.

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That’s bleeping weird, though. I think the other guy with the SC5000s and the MP2015 said it happened to him at one time with a cell phone close to the screen and like connected to a Urei or Bozak, but he also said it was happening over the SPDIFs, too. He also had some not entirely shielded speakers close to the players. This is different than poorly-designed analog outputs or something. Like a clock problem or I’m kind of at a loss.

No it’s not external interference. It seems to come from the loading of the track into memory or opening the Engine generated waveform from the database to display on screen.

edit: text went double in reply (started on pc, finished on iPhone)

Could be internal interference, but the question then is on what…

Must say i am getting a little dissapointed with these players. I mean, i spend a good fortune on them expecting at least stability and excellent sound quality out of the box. The extra features, like dual layers, sealed the deal for me.

But now it seems my two very basic demands for any player (and one of the reasons i moved away from Traktor) are not met. These players are not stable and the sound quality (see http://www.denondjforum.com/t/sc5000-high-end-roll-off/5602/161) isn’t top notch either.

Now i don’t know if both my units are defect, but that would be a really silly coincidence. But i am considering to put them up for technical service by Denon. Shame. :frowning:

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