I’ve had my 6000s for maybe just over a month (?) and am hearing the occasional glitch in the music. It comes at complete random, almost like the file is “skipping” momentarily. Some times it sounds more nasty than others. It passes quickly each time, but is generally quite audible each time it happens (it’s not something only a DJ would hear in the details).
CONTEXT:
I only use AIFF files, almost all from Bandcamp
At first I heard it on a Sandisk Go USB which was close to capacity
Thinking that stick may be a bit old, or it’s related to having ~30GB on it, I put just 20 tracks on a brand new purchased Sandisk Pro USB
I hear the glitching out a lot more on the former than the latter. But I do still hear it on the latter. I have gone up to maybe 90mins without hearing it
I think (?) it happens more often when a deck has been on for some time. I might be imagining this somewhat, but I am starting to get half-confident that it’s rare in the first 30mins of a set but can then start happening as much as every 1-2 tracks if I play for 2-3hrs. I’d need to spend a few more weeks to validate this though.
To try and isolate if it’s the network cable or similar I mixed 90mins last night with a unique USB in each. It still happened, mostly on the side with the older, less fast USB.
Today I purchased an SD card - this one - and have just played my first ~90mins on it. It has mostly been going great, but I had one ever-so-slight glitch come through at ~45mins in. It was really minor, but it definitely skipped for a brief second.
The mixer is a Xone-DB2. I’ve never had issues with it before, and I listened to 2.5hrs of TV last night through it and it was fine. I don’t think it’s the mixer at all.
This little skipping sounds like when your computer has hiccups with audio when it doesn’t have enough RAM. If it happens a few times in a row it sounds particularly rough. I am a little worried, and am trying to get a feel for if I have potentially defective units or if this is a wider issue. I haven’t read of it anywhere else online.
I intend to play a lot longer with the SD card tomorrow to see how it goes. I’ll get an audio sample if it keeps happening so people can see exactly what I mean.
SC6000’s here, but no drops as well. Tracks are loaded completely into memory, so it wouldn’t be the storage source. Curious thing; let us know what more you might find.
Sounds like you’re on the right track for troubleshooting this. Only thing I would say to do, only because it couldn’t hurt, is to download a new copy of the firmware and upload to the players again if possible. It can’t hurt.
I agree with Reese, with the track loaded to memory it makes this interestingly odd but some info from Denon on the memory of the players could help you troubleshoot further knowing your file size.
Have you taken the films off of the platters and ensured nothing is on the platter during power up, when the platter touch detection calibration is done.
Good call on reloading the firmware. They are on 1.5.3 as they came shipped with that, but I might see if I can re-install it. I guess I could also try an earlier version (just not 1.5.2 as that had the platter issues) to see if that isolates it.
I didn’t get around to jamming today - 12hrs of work leaves me so tired and lacking creativity - but will do tomorrow.
I’m listening to psytrance music so the tracks are 6-10mins long. As such AIFF files are sometimes 100mb each.
It doesn’t necessarily happen when I touch the platters, it happens at random times. I don’t think it’s a platter calibration thing. (FWIW I find the platters on these things fantastic now that I’ve got the tension and sensitivity where I want it.)
I finally got a 3hr mix in today. I only heard it twice - once it was tiny and once quite noticeable - and both times it was in cue so I’m frustrated as I don’t have a recording to share (!)
Given what’s been said above re: the file being stored to memory, my latest hypothesis is that I’ve got too many things plugged in to the electricity in this corner. Perhaps the up-and-down nature of this is situation is because of variable levels of power usage by the other products?
Tomorrow I’m going to unplug everything else leaving just the 5 plugs required for the music setup and see if that makes any difference.
If you don’t ever have vinyl on, then touching the top of the platters literally does nothing. Most people always have vinyl mode on. Do you always have that button and light off? If you always have it off, then these issues you’re having can’t be jog touch issues or issues with the grounding. However…
OK I finally got a recording of this. Check it out: Mixcloud
This particular time it happened as soon as I started playing tonight.
You can hear really noticeable skipping 5 seconds in. It’s during a breakdown in the song, but you can still clearly hear it garble the music. (I assure you that is not an effect.)
On 42 seconds there is a brief skip over a kick drum. This little skipping is quite often what it sounds like.
You hear it again just after 10mins 40 seconds. This is the best example, here it’s really clear skipping again.
That first track is an MP3, which is rare for me as I almost always play AIFF. So that’s helping deduce it isn’t file size related.
Further to the above trouble-shooting I have recently tried adjusting the electrical setup in the room. I’ve now got it so that the mixer + 2 speakers + 2 decks are the only things plugged in to these two adjacent power points now, and it’s still happening. So the electricity is now ruled out as an issue (which makes sense as my old Pioneer setup was in the same place).
I am now approaching the point where I think they are faulty Curious if anyone has any other thoughts?
If you don’t ever have vinyl on, then touching the top of the platters literally does nothing. Most people always have vinyl mode on. Do you always have that button and light off?
I definitely don’t use vinyl mode. Top of the platter does nothing. I adjust the jogs by touching them on the side and I’m not a scratch DJ so I keep that option disabled. In the past I always used CDJ mode on pioneers because I preferred cueing with the stutter in your ear rather than listening for the sound you get in vinyl mode, even though Denon doesn’t have this I’ve kept vinyl mode off.
The bug happens when I don’t touch anything so I doubt it’s jog related.
Wow, that’s massive and I would not accept keeping it like this.
Do you have connected the players to the Xone:DB2 by analog or digital signal? If it is digital, I would give analog a try and see if the issue persists.
The first ~30mins were on layers 1&3 which are my usual use connected via digital. I had a few small glitch moments that I was able to get a video of for Denon support.
The last ~60 were on layers 2&4 which are connected via analog. No glitches during this time.
I need more testing - I’ve burned by hope a few times in the last month trying to troubleshoot this - but this is something more to test.
This looks like a digital signal is losing some packages of data resulting in glitches. Try different settings for Digital ins if possible on the mixer, or different cables - maybe they have some cracks in copper inside…?
Maybe the problem is on the DB2 or some kind of incompatibility. Is the DB2 on latest firmware?
Could also be any kind of interference, maybe even from mobile phone (buzz) nearby or something like this, if the shielding of the used cables is not so well.
Got through another 90mins tonight on analog with no issues. Now starting to suspect I know the issue.
Next step is to swap the digital cables out. I’ll use the same RCAs I am using on analog to see if it’s the cable or the DB2 itself. Cross your fingers for me.
EDIT: Got through 60mins today with the decks connected via the digital ports using a plain RCA cable. Was all good, so I think I’ve narrowed down it’s the digital cable and not the mixer or decks.
This is a bummer, these cables did make a difference to the audio and they weren’t cheap (!) It’s a long shot to get my money back without the packaging, but I’m definitely complaining.
Frustrating I got this far without trying the cable. Logically the last thing I changed should have been the first thing I tested. But for some reason I had the timeline muddled in my head and thought I’d heard the glitching before I bought these.
Hey Jaza, if it really is the cables then maybe the “improved” versions you got weren’t so good after all. When it comes to digital audio links, the kind of issues you have suggest a lot of errors in the transmission path - if so those cables are out of spec… I’ve used the Cordial CPDS1 CC. They work well with all the setups I’ve used and they don’t cost much either.
This turned out to be the cables. Silly me for not checking them first. I’ve replaced them and we are in good shape.
Also related - everyone who told me all coaxial cables are the same was right. Whilst a proper SPDIF cable is a noticeable step up from just using a plain RCA cable on the digital outputs, the cheaper one sounds practically the same as the more expensive one. (And it works!)
- but will do tomorrow.
Curious if anyone has any other thoughts?