2. pc-audio
  3. 158817-1604

Audiogon Is Noisy

I use my 5 year old cheapo PC (DELL Optiplex 790), that I picked up from the trash heap and fixed, to stream ROON to my DAC. Now my streaming sounds pretty amazing because I use a Sonore microRendu. This eliminates the noise in my computer from getting to my DAC. I still have the Ethernet network noise getting into the DAC but that is not that much. For, another $1K I will upgrade to the "OpticalRendu LITE for ROON Only" and that noise goes away too (for the most part).

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/how-to-optimize-digital-streaming-with-optical-fiber/

So I thought I should be in good shape once I get the opticalRendu. However, recently this audio office computer with ROON was starting to have CPU usage that averages 45%. At this rate of CPU usage, my computer fans come on and my machine is no longer silent. A real bummer for audio. So I am thinking I need a new more powerful processor for my mostly audio only PC. Normally my CPU usage is around 10%. I also do some remote desktop via this machine but that hardly uses any CPU.

Well after a bit of testing today I find out it is AUDIOGON.COM that is making all the noise on my computer. With my browser opened up to A’gon the site’s advertisement JavaScript (likely written by monkeys) is jacking up the CPU. I killed the browser running A’gon and CPU is back to my beautiful 10% range and silence again.

So the moral of the story is don’t keep a browser open to A’gon while streaming.
yyzsantabarbara

Showing 5 responses by yyzsantabarbara

yyzsantabarbara OP
4,525 posts
 
Yes, that is true so I have know which sites can be opened without causing CPU hiccups on my audio PC. Audiogon hogging the CPU is a new thing I am seeing. Likely some random ad from the advert platforms. Though I could be in the Audiogon website code it self.

Whatever, the case I am killing the A'gon browser from hanging around while I stream. I should just do what I am doing now as I type this. I have the browser open to A'gon on a remote desktop connection from the audio PC. 
yyzsantabarbara OP
4,525 posts
 
Well my software debugging took me to a new audio related bug today. When using ROON my CPU was spiking to 30%+, it should be under 10%. At 30% the fans come on, similar to when the internet browsers are hogging CPU with ad Java Script doodoo.

What I found today was that when the ROON application was maximized on 1 of my 3 monitors the GPU and CPU spiked. The GPU to 100% and the CPU to 30%+. I minimized the ROON application so that it was hidden and the GPU went down to under 5% and the CPU about 6%.

Seems like a new ROON bug to me. I am running on a Windows 10 Enterprise version 1903 build 18362.959.

I really should post this on the ROON forum. Maybe tomorrow.
yyzsantabarbara OP
4,525 posts
 
GPU issue is now solved with the help of some stranger in London, UK. Likely a ROON engineer.

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/gpu-100-on-roon-client-maximized/115316/9

I reinstalled the display drivers and the GPU is no longer going crazy. It seems Windows updates sometimes replaces OEM drivers with their own. I had an update to my OS done on the 15th of July. That seems like when my ROON when crazy.
yyzsantabarbara OP
4,525 posts
 
Posted the following on ROON Support forum.

When the ROON application client is maximized my GPU hits 100%, when the application window is set to restore (not maximized) the GPU is around 50%, and when the application window is minimized the GPU is very low (which is great). My CPU follows the same usage pattern with highest on maximized and lower on restore and lowest on minimized.

What this means is that if I am playing music with the ROON application window maximized my GPU and CPU are working extra hard and my cooling fans come on. Which is noisy. If I minimize the ROON application window my GPU and CPU have very little work to do and the fans shut down and the computer is silent.

Seems like a bug to me and not a feature.


Seems like this is a known problem on Macs, I am using Windows.

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/high-cpu-and-gpu-usage-on-macbook-pro-2020/114416

yyzsantabarbara OP
4,525 posts
 
I think I may have been wrong to blame audiogon. It was 100% ROON as described in the 3 posts above. I did notice some CPU craziness with Audiogon but that may have been in conjunction with the GPU issue tied to ROON.

Anyways, anybody else having Auto-Updates set on the operating system where ROON runs may want to check this issue out if they run a the ROON client on the same machine.

The resolution is to reinstall the video driver to fix the GPU usage. In my case I have a NVidia video driver.
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