Sound distortion on companion

[Delija]

Today it happened to me the second time in about 2-3 weeks.

The sound on companion was slightly distorted - like digital clipping. It's not so obvious - in some songs it cannot be even heard, but in some songs it's pretty obvious - e.g. the beginning of Allan Taylor - Colour to the moon.

It's not overheat issue since it occurs right away when I turn Devialet on and also temperetures are always on normal values.

The first time it happened I turned off/on Devialet and everything went back to normal. Today I switched source from UPnP to some other and back to UPnP and it was enough to fix the issue.

It can only be heard on companion - master is ok.

Last fault says: none.

I've checked all cables - everything seems fine. Besides the link cable, I'm also using trigger cable. Both are original - from the package.

It's pretty strange.

Has anyone else maybe had an occurance of this issue?

[ghosttipper]

Factory reset could help

[Delija]

So far I haven't used factory reset, but between the first occurrence and today I did unplug both Devialets while I was installing Furutech wall outlet.

I did factory reset now. Thanks for the hint.

[ogs]

Another thing to try if the issue returns is to swap master and companion. Would tell you if it is a unit problem or a configuration (configurator) problem.

[Delija]

Good idea.

I hope it won't return, since the access to back of my Devialets and cables is pretty tricky, but that would be the next step.

[mdconnelly]

The Configurator is known to have problems with dual-mono setups if you reedit an existing configuration. I did this once and had clear, extremely loud distortion from one channel. That certainly doesn't sound like what you're dealing with but another thing to try might be to start a new config from scratch and keep it as simple as possible.

[Delija]

I did change configuration when my new speakers arrived, but that was more than two months ago.

Speaking of factory reset - it only works on master. Is that enough?
I assume that this reset both, but only master has "reset" and counter on display.

Companion is reacting on power button only when master is unplugged and only circles through info screen - there is no way to do factory reset of companion. At least I don't know how to do that. Removing the SD card should do the trick, but as I said it's hard for me to access the back of the companion.

[Pim]

Since you have a Pro you have the luxury to be able to swap the two and see whether the problem stays on the 'companion' (Right) side or it swaps to the left. If it swaps to the left, that would be a good indicator of a fault in what you now use as the companion, or the cables connecting the two.

If it stays on the right, it could be, as @mdconnelly says, a configurator issue or it could be the source. Does it happen on all sources is a question to ask yourself. I had distortion once when my Mac mini got overheated. It wasn't obvious at first as it slowly occurred, but I wasn't enjoying the music as much as I normally did, possibly indicating there was a slight bit of distortion underlying already.

It can also be your speaker. They're fairly new. If there's an issue with speakers, it's more likely to show up in the first few months than later in its life. Swapping channels for a bit can help to sort that out.

Hope that helps.

[Delija]

I only use UPnP and from time to time analog input in HT bypass mode for surround system, but I haven't watched movies lately.

It went away after switching source to another one and switching it back to UPnP, so I doubt it has anything to do with the speakers.
"Source" for UPnP is UPnP server. I did try server and controller restart just in case - prior switching sources. As expected, it didn't help.

If it happens again after factory reset - the next step is to swap master and companion.

[Delija]

I swapped master and companion. 
It was tricky in my setup (took more than an hour ), but in the end - it's the only way to know for sure what is going on.

So now I'm in monitoring mode...



p.s. It's good to know that we have two fully functional stereo amps as part of the dual mono configuration. I'll probably try to find one more remote.