Hi,
I have an active speaker system built with 4x10HD (with Vol-FP and Digi-FP), which has been working for about two years now. Recently, I experienced distortion in the sound, which went away after I resync'd the MiniDSP box (described in this thread). I got a lot of help from other forum members there. But it indicated that there was a stability problem with the MiniDSP appliance -- it could get into some unknown state by itself and start distorting sound, and this could be corrected by upgrading firmware and re-loading configs.
I'm seeing more signs of instability.
First: I tried loading config from XML files into each of the four config slots, and the sync'ing to slots 3 and 4 took a very long time, more than a minute. (In the pop-up dialog box which shows data comm with the appliance, I saw messages like "Write sth to dsp XXX", where the integer XXX kept incrementing till 280+.) After the long delay, it sync'd and showed success. Later, when I reconnected the laptop and switched to those configs, I saw once again that Configs 3 and 4 were being reported as unsynchronised. This makes me feel that the syncing did not go off correctly the previous time, yet the plug-in reported success. Configs 1 and 2 are behaving correctly.
I re-synchronised Configs 3 and 4, they again took more than minute to sync, and this time, the plug-in did not report unsynchronised configs. All four configs are playing music correctly. I still don't know what was going on with the prolonged sync. It's taking very long to sync Configs 3 and 4 even now. Maybe it'll go away the next time. And in case you think the configuration details in Configs 3 and 4 are vastly more complex than the slots 1 and 2, let me clarify: they're identical in complexity. All four have exactly the same configuration, with the same complexity. Only the signal levels of Configs 1 and 2 are different from Configs 3 and 4.
Second: After switching to one of the configs, I began to hear a quiet crackling noise on the audio output. This was noise, not distortion -- it was there even when I was not playing anything. My estimate was that it was 40-50dB quieter than the level at which I play music. And it was there only with one of the configs. Switching config to the others immediately killed the noise.
I sync'd the configs again by loading XML files into the plug-in and then syncing with the appliance, and the noise went away. This is the second sign of instability.
Third: This is the most obvious and disturbing. I cannot change configs from the front panel rotary encoder of the 4x10HD right now. I push the knob, and the config light starts blinking. I then turn the knob, and the blinking LED shifts position to some other config as expected. I push the knob once more, and the config LED stabilises and the input light starts blinking. I don't want to change input, so I push the knob a third time and the input LED becomes stable. All of this is as expected. But nothing happens in the config change. The config doesn't change. I have loaded configs where two configs cut the digital input by 10 dBFS and other two don't. This drop in input level is massive -- any fool can hear it. I can't see any change. I've tried it multiple times.
I do the same thing from the laptop, through the plug-in, and it changes every time. Each change is accompanied by a few seconds of silence, followed by a very tiny pop-sound first in one channel then in the other, and the music starts playing with the new config. And yes, Configs 3 and 4 cut the volume by 10dB as expected, which is a dramatic drop.
When I try changing config from the front panel, there is no brief silence. The music just keeps playing without interruption.
So, I am seeing these three signs of instability or malfunction. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Any similar experiences with any other DIYer? Am I doing something wrong? Should I contact MiniDSP support?
I have an active speaker system built with 4x10HD (with Vol-FP and Digi-FP), which has been working for about two years now. Recently, I experienced distortion in the sound, which went away after I resync'd the MiniDSP box (described in this thread). I got a lot of help from other forum members there. But it indicated that there was a stability problem with the MiniDSP appliance -- it could get into some unknown state by itself and start distorting sound, and this could be corrected by upgrading firmware and re-loading configs.
I'm seeing more signs of instability.
First: I tried loading config from XML files into each of the four config slots, and the sync'ing to slots 3 and 4 took a very long time, more than a minute. (In the pop-up dialog box which shows data comm with the appliance, I saw messages like "Write sth to dsp XXX", where the integer XXX kept incrementing till 280+.) After the long delay, it sync'd and showed success. Later, when I reconnected the laptop and switched to those configs, I saw once again that Configs 3 and 4 were being reported as unsynchronised. This makes me feel that the syncing did not go off correctly the previous time, yet the plug-in reported success. Configs 1 and 2 are behaving correctly.
I re-synchronised Configs 3 and 4, they again took more than minute to sync, and this time, the plug-in did not report unsynchronised configs. All four configs are playing music correctly. I still don't know what was going on with the prolonged sync. It's taking very long to sync Configs 3 and 4 even now. Maybe it'll go away the next time. And in case you think the configuration details in Configs 3 and 4 are vastly more complex than the slots 1 and 2, let me clarify: they're identical in complexity. All four have exactly the same configuration, with the same complexity. Only the signal levels of Configs 1 and 2 are different from Configs 3 and 4.
Second: After switching to one of the configs, I began to hear a quiet crackling noise on the audio output. This was noise, not distortion -- it was there even when I was not playing anything. My estimate was that it was 40-50dB quieter than the level at which I play music. And it was there only with one of the configs. Switching config to the others immediately killed the noise.
I sync'd the configs again by loading XML files into the plug-in and then syncing with the appliance, and the noise went away. This is the second sign of instability.
Third: This is the most obvious and disturbing. I cannot change configs from the front panel rotary encoder of the 4x10HD right now. I push the knob, and the config light starts blinking. I then turn the knob, and the blinking LED shifts position to some other config as expected. I push the knob once more, and the config LED stabilises and the input light starts blinking. I don't want to change input, so I push the knob a third time and the input LED becomes stable. All of this is as expected. But nothing happens in the config change. The config doesn't change. I have loaded configs where two configs cut the digital input by 10 dBFS and other two don't. This drop in input level is massive -- any fool can hear it. I can't see any change. I've tried it multiple times.
I do the same thing from the laptop, through the plug-in, and it changes every time. Each change is accompanied by a few seconds of silence, followed by a very tiny pop-sound first in one channel then in the other, and the music starts playing with the new config. And yes, Configs 3 and 4 cut the volume by 10dB as expected, which is a dramatic drop.
When I try changing config from the front panel, there is no brief silence. The music just keeps playing without interruption.
So, I am seeing these three signs of instability or malfunction. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Any similar experiences with any other DIYer? Am I doing something wrong? Should I contact MiniDSP support?
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I think you should post a support ticket and ask the miniDSP guys. They no longer check this forum, so contacting them directly is the best option.
It's not clear to me that Items 1 and 3 aren't perfectly normal.
Sometimes it does take a while to load configurations. This is not unusual....I've noticed that myself.
Item 3 may be the result of you still having your USB cable connected. Unless they've changed something in the design, you must remove your USB cable to make manual input/config changes via the front-panel encoder.
Item 2 does seem like an issue with your unit. You should not notice crackling noise on the output under any circumstances.
Dave.
It's not clear to me that Items 1 and 3 aren't perfectly normal.
Sometimes it does take a while to load configurations. This is not unusual....I've noticed that myself.
Item 3 may be the result of you still having your USB cable connected. Unless they've changed something in the design, you must remove your USB cable to make manual input/config changes via the front-panel encoder.
Item 2 does seem like an issue with your unit. You should not notice crackling noise on the output under any circumstances.
Dave.
Well, I tried doing some more experiments, and it's now quite clear that the Vol-FP does not work. I can't change configs or inputs. The LEDs work just as prescribed, so you think everything's fine, but actually nothing changes internally. And when you say it takes a lot of time for config changes, how much would qualify? I have waited for five whole minutes, and nothing changes.
In contrast, changes to config from the plug-in over USB work reliably each time, within about five seconds. Shouldn't front-panel-driven changes take exactly the same time?
This seems like a transient problem. It went away when I re-loaded configs, and never came back so far. So, I'll let it be, I guess.
This is quite normal. My OpenDRC DA8 behaves the same under certain circumstances.
What I think happens, is that when the plugin tries to check the state of the plugin versus the current config on the minidsp, it cannot get the state of a non-running config, so if the minidsp is running on for instance congig 1, and the plugin has number 3 active, the error pops up.
I suggest checking what config is active on the minidsp, and then switching the plugin to the same config, before clicking connect. This works for me.
As for the other problems - Minidsp runs its own user support community on www.minidsp.com. Try contacting them there. The community is quite active, and usually helpful.
Johan-Kr
I'll try this next time, but since this problem hasn't re-surfaced, I'm okay with it now. All four configs are syncing, and are behaving well.
Ya, I've been there.
Well, it seems like your VOL-FP unit is no longer working correctly. I would re-verify the communication with the motherboard per section C1 of the VOL-FP connectivity manual and also verify you still have good connections between the VOL-FP and the motherboard.
Since the lights are lighting it indicates you probably have power and ground, but maybe the data line is intermittent or broken.
Dave.
Since the lights are lighting it indicates you probably have power and ground, but maybe the data line is intermittent or broken.
Dave.
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