Newbie. Music monkey issue w/HRx

[joeljoel1947]

I am trying to get my HRx disc to go via music monkey on my laptop. Whether paying from the disc directly (which I thought was impossible, but I'm doing it somehow)or ripping the files into Music Monkey---My issue is I'm getting clicks and dropouts about every 10 seconds. It almost as if my PC can't handle the 24/176.4 material. I'm getting some blue screens of death too randomly when in Music monkey. Its a newer laptop:

 

Core 2 Duo 2.5GHz

2GB Ram

75 Gig Hard drive

Windows XP

 

Anyhow, I can get everything to work on my desktop (which runs vista) but I get these non-stop dropouts on my laptop. I changed all the settings in Music Monkey. like RR recommended too:

 

Media Monkey setup:

 

(1) Select ‘Tools’ - ‘Options’.

(2) Select ‘General’.

(3) Uncheck ‘Pop-up track info in tray’ to avoid alert tones.

(4) Select ‘General-File Types’

(5) Check ‘extensions to be associated with Media Monkey’. Include FLAC and WAV

(6) Select ‘Player - Output Plugins’.

(7) Select ‘waveOut’.

(8) Click on ‘Configure’ button

(9) In ‘Device’ window select AES16. (this one I can't do cause nooption is there in the drop down menu like that)

(10) Under ‘Buffering’ set ‘Buffer-ahead on track change:’ slider to 0 ms.

The 200 ms default causes (noise problems with high-res material.

(11) Check that ‘Prebuffer:’ slider is also set to 0 ms.

(12) Leave ‘Buffer length:’ at 2000 ms default.

(13) Under ‘Volume control’ uncheck ‘Enable’.

(14) Click on ‘OK’ in ‘waveOut’

(15) Click on ‘OK’ in ‘Options’

 

Is there any other hi-rez interface besides Music Monkey that you guys recommend that may work better with my laptop? I'm using a Konnekt 8 audio card interface FWIW.

 

Thanks for any advice, Joel

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Joel - That's a bummer to hear you're having problems with the HRx material. It really is awesome and it's pretty easy to get working on computers. Which is why I'm somewhat surprised at your troubles.

 

Have you tried copying the tracks from the DVD to your hard drive, then playing them from your hard drive? I don't think you can "rip" them in MediaMonkey like a traditional CD and I highly suggest you do not play them directly from the DVD.

 

Have you reinstalled MediaMonkey? Blue screens should not happen at all and there may be something else wrong that just appears when you play HRx material.

 

[joeljoel1947]

Yep, its a bummer alright. I tried everything under the sun and spent an hour on tech support and nothing fixes the issue. Even disabling EVERYTHING on my PC (and its brand new and I don't even play games) I still get massive dropouts. Foobar 2000 worked much better then MediaMonkey, but its still unacceptable to get the dropouts. I'm even getting dropouts in Windows media player with redbook with the Konnekt 8 attached! When I disconnect it though, everything plays fine.....

 

I did install the HRx files to the hard drive, it made no difference---still dropouts. So the Konnekt 8 is going back, they feel my firewire port is not up to snuff. Or, maybe its the Konnekt 8 that is defective. Anyhow, now I'm going to try a Emu 0404 24/192 USB interface instead. We'll see how that goes.....

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Let me know what happens with the new USB unit.

 

[joeljoel1947]

10-4.

 

Fingers crossed......

 

[mruszczy]

It may not be HRx.

 

Are you connecting to your DAC via USB? I was having the same problem as you until I:

1) used a higher speed USB cable (monster makes a pretty cheap one) and then

2) installed a PCIe USB card (Sonnet Allegro Exrpess USB 2.0)

 

I have almost no dropout now.

 

Michael

 

[joeljoel1947]

has been fixed. All it took was a whole new interface!! The issue was with a firewire one, and magically a USB one saved the day (EMU 0404). No more dropouts at all now. Apparently Dell laptops have a really crappy firewire port.....