I will occasionally experience a click during playback. I run over to
the player, rewind to a point prior to the click, and replay. No
click this time. So the error is not in the MP3 file. This happens
about every 5 minutes. Is there a known occasional glitch with the
RAM buffering algorithm? Sporadic wackiness in the D/A converter?
Have others experienced this?

Greetings!

Is this only in the car, or on AC also? (Trying to eliminate the car install as an option.) Can't say that I have heard it, except when changing speeds rapidly and hearing the key ring click against the steering column...

Is there a known occasional glitch with the RAM buffering algorithm? Sporadic wackiness in the D/A converter? Have others experienced this?

No, there should be no odd clicks or pops during playback unless there's something wrong with the MP3 file to begin with.

Do a RAM test as described here if you can.

There is also the possibility that the clicking problem is happening somewhere in the amp/speaker system and has nothing to do with the empeg (although I'm sure you've checked that, too, right?).

It's not the car install, as I haven't actually gotten it installed in a car yet. (That's right, a vehicular MP3 player that sits on my stereo at home all the time. That will change.)

Ctrl-T says that the RAM is maximally groovy.

And I've never noticed any problems with my home stereo setup before, though it is getting a bit long in the tooth.

I haven't been noticing the clicks lately, as I have been using the Empeg for background music and not focusing on the output in minute detail.

I'll keep everyone posted if I track down anything more.

I've had a couple of loud clicks during my three-month usage of the empeg. Both times, rewinding the track has shown they're not mp3 errors. I haven't had the HD icon on, as it would have been interesting to see if it was caused by the buffering somehow being 'forgotten' and the data stream running out before the disk was spun up again.

It's never bothered me, and it doesn't seem to be physical - i've had it once in the car, on a smooth road, and once sat on the stereo at home.

A.

Ditto,

I'd say maybe once every few weeks it happens. Definitely NOT the MP3, as I've checked them by rewinding and playing the same MP3 on my pc. I should turn the HD indicator back on and watch too, It would be interesting to figure out.

It really is not annoying, its just a simple click. But it definitely is not an urban legend, it does happen from time to time.

(BTW, the click I hear sounds JUST like one you would hear in an mp3 from a scratched CD. Like the decoder got a couple frames of bad data, but its very short in duration, and NOT repeatable within the same song...)

_jeff

I have one mp3 that gives a click at the same point each time. When I play it back on my PC, the click is gone, but there is a dip in the audio (like some silence). Maybe the Empeg interperates this as a click which iswhat you hear?

Just a thought
Phil

I have one mp3 that gives a click at the same point each time.

This is a faulty MP3, for instance, it probably has a section of corrupted data that is missing the correct frame headers. Or maybe there is a clump of ASCII garbage data in the middle of the file somewhere.

Different decoders will interpret MP3 errors differently. Some will click, others will have a "dip" in the sound, etc.

To check out your MP3s for errors, click here.

Note that if there is a click that plays back the same way in every decoder, then the MP3 structure is probably fine and it was just a bad rip from the CD drive, and the click was present in the original WAV file before it was encoded.