Marantz NA7004 & Hi-Res FLAC

[Rasmussen]

Thanks to Simon's testing, we now have some idea of what's going on.

In my OP I wrote, "Checked the files w/ an audio editor, and the last few seconds are digital silence."

It turns out that I was quite wrong. Within the digital silence there was a short segment of very low amplitude audio (normally completely inaudible). Amplify it by cca 120dB, and that's the noise I was hearing.

The definitive test was that the same issue occurred when playing on the NA7004 the same file from an attached USB drive, rather than from the network.

Consequently, it would appear that, when the Marantz NA7004 plays a high resolution FLAC file encoded at compression level 3 or higher, it amplifies the final digital silence by roughly 120dB.

Why this happens, we don't know. Nor do we know why it doesn't happen when the file is served by Asset. (Simon suggests it's an audio data timing issue.)

However, as the file served by MinimServer plays exactly as the same file stored on a local USB drive, the problem is clearly with the NA7004, rather than MinimServer.

What to do about it? For me, the solution is to edit every file that displays this issue and silence that audio segment. (Is it a defect? The product of a bug? Or maybe a digital watermark or copyright indicator? At any rate, I don't think it should be there.) Not perhaps the ideal solution, but good enough to live with.

Thanks again to Simon for helping with this issue.