Timing Ref Signal not audible/detectable anymore

[graefell]

Hi all,

I have been using REM for over two years in combination with MSO, MiniDSP, UMIK-1 and three subs in my 7.1 system.
Until last Saturday not one single issue ever occured, thanks to you folks and your guides and valuable hints for REW.

What happened:
I got new surrounds and wanted to check the latest meaurements taken Dec 29th to figure out wether the new surrounds need adujstments since they show a slightly different X-over on paper and I had to move the one of the subs.

I was not able to make reliable measurements using an acoustig timing reference since the typical "chirp" at 5kHz was not audible/detectable, neither in the realtime graph nor by my ears.
Once in while a kind of a cranky clicking noise instead totally off the chirp was observed as the timing ref but I did not rely on that noise.

I could verify the old measuremrents and they are more or less the same, but new meaurements for the subwoofers with timing were impossible.

Mostly seen in REM measurement window :.....waiting for timing reference.......

Measurements, sounds sent to the NAD, leveling the speakers all worked but not the timing reference with the nice "chirp".

After 5h of unsuccessful trials, driver/software deinstallation, instaIlation and updates , I gave up very frustrated.

It is the same hardware with the same preferences compared December when I could conduct the last measurements :
HP spectre with Win11, FlexAsio (Asio4all never worked for me), NAD T778, Umik-1, two different 4k HDMI cables.

Well, some Win11 updates were done, though.

I can't enclose any prints from my preferences at the moment but still hope that someone can help me with that missing timing reference sound.

Thanks in advance
Andy

 

[John Mulcahy]

Which channel was selected as the reference output? Difficult to say much without seeing settings.

 

[graefell]

Hi John,

I tried with all, L/C/R/Surr but not the subs. All 7 full range speakers showed the same cranky noise (or nothing at all) instead of the chirp.
Connected the same notebook to my older Marantz and everything worked fine with the same prefs and and same hardware.

Will pull my older Win10 notebook still with the unchanged settings from June 2021 and test the NAD 778 again. I still have the graphs from that test.
I hope it is not an UTS (user too stupid) error......

Upon my return end of the week at home will attach the settings.

Thx

 

[John Mulcahy]

Connected the same notebook to my older Marantz and everything worked fine with the same prefs and and same hardware.

That seems pretty odd then. Does the NAD not play the timing signal even when you are measuring the same channel that is used for the timing reference?

 

[UKSPAWN]

measuring the right channel but the timing ref is Left but the left channel is muted in MINIDSP?

 

[JStewart]

Could it be the NAD is muted while it figures out the incoming signal is PCM? And by the time it does and unmutes, the chirp has passed or nearly passed?

Also If not done already, the “Listening Mode” for PCM should be set to “None” in the NAD.

 

[Chuck Gerlach]

I am in the process of trying to re-measure and made sure that bass mgt if off so the timing reference speaker is not adding bass that should not be there (I did not do this last time - I think). But now when I try to measure the subs, for some reason, I don’t hear (and neither does REW) the timing reference coming from my left speaker. It says “waiting for timing reference” or something close to that. I know the speaker is on and working, and I think I have checked all of the places that need to be checked. This has never occurred before so not even sure where to look?

 

[John Mulcahy]

Settings look right. Could check Audio Midi Setup to make sure the HDMI channel order is the same as in the REW output channel mapping. Could also select L as the output and see if the L speaker gets a signal then.

 

[Chuck Gerlach]

John:

I've rebooted REW, rebooted the Mac and rebooted my Trinnov. I've unplugged and re-plugged the HDMI cable. I've re-checked Audio Midi setup and it gets noise from the proper channels. I can get test signals from the left speaker and I can do a measurement of the left channel but still no timing reference.

I'm stuck!!

 

[John Mulcahy]

I'm afraid I don't know what to suggest. Can you get the timing reference to come from any other speaker?

 

[Chuck Gerlach]

No. What is so weird is that everything was working fine and now it just doesn't. I am going to try it on another Mac once I have a device (already ordered) that can accept the HDMI input and USB input. If it doesn't work on that machine, then I can only assume it is some setting on my Trinnov - but I have no idea where to look.. I have posted this issue on the Trinnov thread. Turns out one other guy (at least) is having the exact same issue, but no one has offered a solution.