First Hifi System with Issues (KEF X300a)

[shawngt2]

Hi Everyone,

I recently purchase a pair of KEF X300a USB speakers...I'm new to the world of audiophile!

The KEF speakers have built in amp and DAC in each speaker (excellent reviews).

I downloaded Pure Music and using this as a plug in to iTunes (I own a Mac).

I do not understand, but there is so much crackling in the songs I play except for the rare exception (when I'm playing true 24/96 audio files, but even these have the issue as well). I can't play anything in iTunes directly and each selection of music I select is completely different.

I try to use VLC to play songs and all is well (as long as Pure Music is open). When I select 24/96 files to play directly with VLC (Pure Music closed) I get constant crackling during the song.

This is happening VERY frequently and nothing seems plug and play at all. I would just like to understand what the 'crackling' means...Why is it doing this? If I physically or digitally can understand what is going on, I can maybe narrow it down.

The exception where I got perfect sounds was playing a true 24/96 file using Pure Music...Are these speakers really THAT picky on song/settings/program selection???

I'm afraid if I don't understand this sooner rather than later, these things are going back....

 

[tmurnin]

I'm not familiar with PureMusic, but why are you using a plug in? It would be unusual for software to be causing the crackle, but did you try playing directly out of iTunes and see if the issue is still there? This sounds simplistic, but have you checked all of your connections to make sure they're secure?

 

[shawngt2]

PureMusic is a flac player plug-in to iTunes. I am under the impression that flacs cannot be played in iTunes.

I got a little further...There is an upsample function in puremusic that upsamples to 96khz. Once I select this, all songs are up sampled to 96 and issue is solved. Everything plays perfect!

Now when I got back to playing with just iTunes or VLC, the crackling is back throughout the song...

Is it possible the 24/96 capable speakers can only accept that format of music? From my trial and error process, this seems to be the case? I was under the impression that the DAC did everything and processed songs into music without issue...

Is the above correct? Connections are perfect, because before the only songs I could play flawlessly was 24/96 files...Now that I up convert software based to 24/95 no matter the original file, it plays perfectly. I cannot find a setting in iTunes that will do the upsampling. Unless the DACs in my speakers are not functioning properly. Are these speakers really that dependent on software feeding the speakers?

Thanks in advance.

 

[TLS Guy]

PureMusic is a flac player plug-in to iTunes. I am under the impression that flacs cannot be played in iTunes.

I got a little further...There is an upsample function in puremusic that upsamples to 96khz. Once I select this, all songs are up sampled to 96 and issue is solved. Everything plays perfect!

Now when I got back to playing with just iTunes or VLC, the crackling is back throughout the song...

Is it possible the 24/96 capable speakers can only accept that format of music? From my trial and error process, this seems to be the case? I was under the impression that the DAC did everything and processed songs into music without issue...

Is the above correct? Connections are perfect, because before the only songs I could play flawlessly was 24/96 files...Now that I up convert software based to 24/95 no matter the original file, it plays perfectly. I cannot find a setting in iTunes that will do the upsampling. Unless the DACs in my speakers are not functioning properly. Are these speakers really that dependent on software feeding the speakers?

Thanks in advance.

It sounds to me as if you are running out of bits. The signal is too hot for the Dacs. Turn up the gain on the speakers and the volume from your sending device down. The other possibility is that you have a coding error.

I'm not highly familiar with Apple stuff and it usually only works with other Apple stuff.

I personally dislike everything Apple and avoid it. I would bet the problem if there is a coding error has something to do with Apple software and not the KEFs.

 

[slipperybidness]

You may need to check that all the drivers are up to date, etc. May want to call customer support, probably on the computer/software side of things.

 

[star]

Try this. Open "Audio MIDI setup" on your Mac. Note this isn't in System Preferences, its a seperate utility. Select your X300A speaker and choose 96kHz and 24 bit.
Hopefully this will resolve your issue.

 

[tmurnin]

The speakers are not that software dependent. They play iTunes files downloaded straight from iTunes fine, so the issue is either elsewhere in your software setup or you have a defective set.

 

[RDSChicago]

Hi, I just purchased these speakers and I find that the USB cable is not fitting snugly into the USB port in the left speaker. I am having issues in that sometimes the right speaker works and sometimes it doesn't. I switched around the cables to check and still had the same problem. Should I upgrade the cables to see if a better cable fits better, or does it sound like I have an issue that requires the speakers to be returned? I got them less than a week ago from a Kef authorized retailer. They were open box. Thanks.

 

[neelagrawal]

Hello star,

Thank you so much for your help. What you suggested worked perfectly.

Neel

 

[ichaanisaar]

thanks for sharing