NSXFTW

I know this has been referenced in other threads, but I thought I would dedicate one to the random glitches encountered with 5.1 audio playback.

I got my RDX A-Spec on Saturday and my Acura dealer is 180 miles away, so I was ready to give the sound system a thorough workout for about 3 hours with my Samsung T5 SSD loaded with a little over 500 flac 5.1 files encoded at a 24/48 bit rate per the expert instructions provided by oblio98. I was blown away by the sound quality. I always considered the ELS system in my 2012 MDX to be excellent, but the RDX takes it to an entirely new level. Unfortunately, this makes the glitchiness of the system all the more frustrating. Over my 3 hour listening experience, I had issues similar to what others have reported. For me the glitches came in two varieties. Here they are in order of frequency:

1. Songs are interrupted by a sustained beep (kind of sounds like the old Emergency Broadcast System alert), followed by a message on the screen that says the track cannot play. The system seems to correct itself, and then move on to the next track.
2. Songs are interrupted by silence, album art disappears, and then an "initializing" message shows up on the screen with the round progress ball spinning. Again, the system seems to correct itself, but in this instance the track that was interrupted resumes where it left off.

As others have said, these glitches occur randomly and I confirmed that I could go back and replay an interrupted file with no problem.

I just wonder if the issue is with the system processor getting overloaded trying to decode the 24/48 files. I've seen some posts suggesting further down sampling (to 44.1) as a possible solution. Has anyone tried this, and if so, do you still encounter the glitches at a lower sample rate?

I hate the thought of having to go back and re-convert all my files to a lower sample rate, but I would gladly do so if it would provide error-free playback. It would be worth the trouble because the sound system is so good! Oh, and by the way, I find the rest of the vehicle to be pretty fantastic as well!

oblio98

The "Emergency Broadcasting Test Tone" is a reality, and it can be quite jarring when you are cruising down the road, got the HiRez tunes cranked and all of a sudden "CONALRAD"!!

I am not sure what causes this but I would guess it has more to do with the inner workings of the Infotainment System than the ELS portion. As you guessed, somewhere along the way the CPU bails out. I have not tried using lower resolution files, in fact, I have yet to try stereo files, so I don't know if that's an issue.

Has anyone had this problem playing HiRez Stereo files or even CD quality files. That would be interesting to know.

As for issue #2 above, I have had a similar issue with 4.0 files where either the fronts or backs go silent, leaving the one set of tracks playing on their own (which can be quite interesting to hear), in the middle of a tune. When the next tune begins, all channels are back to normal. This probably is related to your #2 issue.

Hopefully, all of these oddities will be cleared up with the first software update.

PS - How's that Samsung T5 working out? What size did you get?

NSXFTW

The Samsung T5 seems very fast to load, it doesn't get hot, and the size is right for the space. I have the 500GB version, and presently have about 75GB of 5.1 files on it. Gotta acquire more surround discs to fill the T5 up! Of course, your Quadraphonic Quad site is a great source for me to track down more music!

As for a software fix, have you reported this issue to Acura? I have wondered how much attention they would give it, since 5.1 files over USB is not really a "promoted" feature of the system.

oblio98

I updated the review of the system on the site (QQ), and the ELS people have a link to it on their Facebook page, so I know they've all read it and digested it. I have not posted directly on their site about the glitch, but I would guess they got the info. It would be nice if there was a way to communicate with them privately as opposed to using FB, which I hate. Communicating with Acura about any of this stuff is pretty much a waste of time. The people you get to are "Flow Chart Readers" and there are no flow charts that include glitches in 5.1 playback.

RE: T5 - I assume the T5 fits nicely in the little pocket where the port is and you can still close the sliding cover? I might have to get me one of those!

Gate 17

I find your posts interesting.
I believe some speakers go quiet in my car regardless what source I have on. Basically the lower door speakers. I can't be sure but the sound is inconsistent.
I have shutoff the car left it. Returned and ran it on accessory. I believe the sound works well. With the engine running it is inconsistent. This I've tried with the DTS on & off, listening to FM, Sirus & MP3 (256kbps). Best has been the MP3 but again it is inconsistent.

I'm using a Lexar USB3 64GB that fits with the flap closed. Loads fast and does not heat up.

Never gotten the beep or the display disappearing.

NSXFTW

Eiffel

Jon, I have 2 T5's and an older T3. One T5 is used exclusively for 5.1, 24 bit-48 kHz albums, and the second for stereo DSF to FLAC 24 bit 96 kHz. I am still working on those after initially converting to 48 kHz. Also cleaning up my NAS music files and tags which contains all my music including these conversions for the RDX. The T3 is for lower resolution 16 bit 44 kHz CD albums.

I originally tried to fit all these formats on one 500 GB T5 but the indexing time vs my normal drive to work time left very little time to listen to music, even after initial indexing. Also the number of audio glitches seemed to increase, so this is my effort to try to reduce those issues. Switching out the USB drives will restart the initial indexing,

I have decided to reduce the number of folders by organizing by genre folders instead of by Artist - Album or some other combination such as Artist then Album sub-folders. I searched and read online about other vehicles and music devices having indexing issues similar to the RDX and some of those threads allude to reducing the number of folders, so that is what I am trying. Since the RDX, as part of the indexing, groups by Albums and Artists already, I felt that sorting folders by that were redundant and genre was an additional bonus under the Folders section. I could just select play all on say "Classic Rock" or "Jazz", etc.

Unfortunately, this cleanup is time consuming especially since the conversion from my JRiver files on the NAS using Foobar2000 and Mp3Tag tools do not convert the tag information seemlessly. Foobar2000 drops the Album Artist tag and the embedded album art so I add it back in using Mp3Tag. I just started using Foobar2000 and I am not skilled with this application enough to know how to fix this, but it would be nice to convert once correctly.

Let me know if you do get the T5 and what your experience.

Bill

NSXFTW

Bill,

Out of curiosity, how many gigs of 5.1 files are currently stored on your T5? I'm at 75 GB right now, but will add more as I have yet to rip my blu-ray and SACD collections. I'm worried I will compound the glitch factor as the T5 fills up with more files.

Regarding indexing, my experience has been good so far and I can generally get the music playing before I'm out of the driveway. My only gripe is that sometimes it will remember where I shut things off, and sometimes it starts over in alphabetical order and I have to go to the music library screen and navigate back to what I was listening to. Very inconsistent with no rhyme or reason.

Eiffel

On the first T5, I had it around 3/4 full so about 375 GB.

I had 5.1 and stereo 24 bit 48 kHz files on there and also stereo 16 bit 44 kHz files. My folder structure at top level was 2CH, MCH, and CD with the latter being the lower resolution 16 bit files. Then under each top level folder were "Artist - Album" sub-directories. After the initial indexing which took quite a while, I had quite a few of the known glitches, and they occurred more times than not.

So I moved all the the 16 bit CD quality files to my older T3 and performance was better. Then I researched about reducing the folder structure down from "Artist - Album" to Genre with the file names changed to %artist% - %album% - %track% - %title%.flac. Note that after indexing, the new file names still produce the proper Artist and Albums categories that can be selected from the Music Library menu as this is probably created from the tag information for each file. But under the Folder category, there are now just a few genre folders, not near as many as I had before.

This reduced the number of glitches and start up times to be bearable. I still get the occasional glitch but it is better. I bought a second T5 and split my stereo and multi-channel high resolution files accordingly. I still get more glitches with the 5.1 files, but it is better. Now each of the two T5's are about half full, so 250 GB each.

It is wasteful to me, but the designer of these systems probably did not expect audiophiles to try and shove over 2 TB of music files onto these USBs. That is what I have on my QNAP NAS, as most of my music are ripped SACDs to DSF files, including quite a few multi-channel albums. For the RDX, I have converted those DSFs to FLACs and reduced the resolution, especially for the 5.1 files. And a couple of weeks ago, I read Jon's QuadrophonicQuad website posting that 24 bit 96 kHz works on the RDX, so I am in currently upgrading the stereo T5 USB from 48 kHz to 96 kHz which means reconverting my DSFs once again.

NSXFTW

Wow, that's a lot of work! But the payoff is the incredible sound quality you get as you're cruising down the road!

oblio98

Thanks for all of the info guys. I will try the T5 for sure. Looks like the 500Gb is fairy reasonably priced.

As for stereo 24/96, I know they will play, but I believe the guy on the ELS FB page said that the system downsamples them to 24/48, so it might be better for you to do that yourself to save space and processor time in the car. I think that is why the system messes up 24/96 5.1 files in that they play, but they turn to stereo.

Interesting about limiting the number of folders. So far I have a 160Gb USB Stick (USB 3.0) that is about half full. I can find no rhyme or reason as to what causes the audio tone glitch. I can go for an hour without it, then it will suddenly appear out of nowhere, and sometimes it even appears rather briefly and does not terminate the tune. It's almost like an old record skipping! It has to be related to what else the car infotainment system is doing.