Playback speeds up sometimes using my PC for playing ripped CD's

[Alobar]

Have had this issue for sometime and I usually can correct it by closing and restarting JRiver or rebooting the computer. I am running Win10 with a HP Pavilion with 6G ram and a Schitt Modi (the predecessor to the Modi they sell now) and play mostly lossless .ape files I ripped from my CD collection. Often times the problem occurs if JRiver has sat idle for a time, say an hour or 2 and I have been using the computer for other things. Also seems to occur more if I have anything else opened on the PC. When I start to play music I may not notice the speed right away, especially if it is not music I play often. Then after about 30 seconds it hits me, the vocals are pitched just a little too high (maybe 10-20%) and the tempo is obviously running too fast. Usually simply closing down JRiver and restarting it fixes it.

Lately I have been playing quite a bit of new music I am not familiar with and my imagination gets the better of me and I start thinking maybe it is running too fast. Other times I start thinking even music I am very familiar with is fast, but just slightly. Anyway all this is starting to sour me on digital music and I know it shouldn't be that way!

I have posted about this on JRiver's forum a long time ago and the response seemed to be that it wasn't the program. That leaves the computer hardware, possibly Win10 which has been far from glitch free, or the DAC.

Any ideas? Anyone else having this issue and if so did you find the cause?
Thanks

 

[EchoWars]

Sounds more like a JRiver issue to me. I suggest that, as a test, you try playing back the files with some other software.

 

[Alobar]

Sounds more like a JRiver issue to me. I suggest that, as a test, you try playing back the files with some other software.

My first thought too. When I first encountered this I posted on their forum as well as searched for this issue but didn't get any hits as I recall. I am not sure I have any other software that will know what to do with an ape file so maybe I'll re-rip something in FLAC and give it a shot.

One other thing, I am running the DAC with WASAP which bypasses Windows processes. I noticed I have the buffering set to 100 milliseconds. I may try it at 250 ms but am doubtful that will help as the buffering increase is usually for skipping which it doesn't do.

I suppose it could be the DAC doing something on occasion (that was what the folks on JRiver's forum figured) but why would restarting JR fix it? I've kept JRiver updated and pay to install the latest release but the problem is there regardless.

 

[EchoWars]

For testing, just go with this: http://www.apeplayer.com/

 

[Alobar]

Thanks! Been playing with very familiar music, first with the free ape player and then JRiver. They both sound like they are being played at the correct speed and I deliberately left a bunch of other programs running including Turbocad which often seemed to be detrimental to playback. I am going to continue with JRiver and when the next speed episode happens immediately run the same music on the ape player. If it is normal while JR is fast it kinda rules out everything but JR itself... maybe.