Static / brief crackling when interacting with Peace GUI during playback (Equalizer APO + USB DAC)

[Alan Taffinder]

I’m using Equalizer APO with the Peace GUI on Windows with a USB DAC (FiiO K7). When EQ is enabled and audio is playing, I hear a brief static/crackling sound in my headphones (Arya Stealth Magnet) whenever I interact with the Peace GUI (for example moving the window or adjusting controls).

The behaviour is very consistent:

• It only happens while audio is playing.
• It only happens when EQ is active.
• If EQ is disabled, the noise disappears.
• If no audio is playing, interacting with the GUI causes no noise.

If I close the Peace GUI completely and don’t interact with it, playback is perfectly clean.

It sounds like a very short static burst or buffer interruption, rather than clipping.

For context, I recently switched headphones from Sennheiser HD660S2 to HiFiMAN Arya Stealth, and I never noticed this behaviour with the HD660S2. Everything else in the setup remains the same.

Things I have already tried:

• Enabling Prevent Clipping in Peace
• Ensuring Equalizer APO is attached only to the FiiO K7 in the Configurator
• Confirming the K7 is the default playback device in Windows
• Testing with and without audio enhancements enabled
• Loading the EQ profile and leaving it unchanged (the issue still occurs when simply moving the Peace window)

Any thoughts? Is this expected behavior? I spoke to Oratory1990 about it and asked if it had anything to do with the Arya's being fast headphones and very resolving and he said 'definitely not'.

[Peter Verbeek]

As Oratory1990 I don't think it's your Arya headphones, especially knowing that this is reported once on the Peace forum. Some user had cracklings whilst moving the Peace window. It's unfortunate that you're having the same issue. Commonly crackling happens when having one or more VST plugins and moving a slider or whatever audio changing thing on the Peace GUI's (main window, effects panel, command window, automation window and MIDI window). This is due to the nature of the Equalizer APO or better said, how the audio manipulation engine of Equalizer APO processes the changed config.txt file and included ones like peace.txt. So the first question is do you use VST plugins?

[Alan Taffinder]

Hey Peter!

I’m not using any VST plugins, only the parametric EQ filter's you provided for the Arya's. The crackling occurs when audio is playing and I interact with the Peace GUI (even just moving the window). If I close the Peace GUI completely playback is perfectly clean. It seems like the GUI interaction may be triggering Equalizer APO to refresh or reload the configuration while audio is streaming.

[Peter Verbeek]

I’m not using any VST plugins, only the parametric EQ filter's you provided for the Arya's.

That confirms it's basically the same issue as of this Peace ticket post. Initially I got the same cracklings/distortion when using a Peace config from the user who's made the ticket. But somehow the cracklings stopped after downgrading to Equalizer APO 1.2.1 and upgrading again to 1.4.2. That is pretty weird! Anyway, this user had delays and some COPY: commands going on in his Peace config on which I initially got some cracklings, even on moving the Peace window or even when using the Peace Setup Tool (another app built with the AutoIt programming language). And it all started happening on Windows 24H2 which made my audio get delays and mouse stuttering.

Anyway, could you attach your Peace config or configs if you have any on the automation window to your next post.

[Alan Taffinder]

Problem solved, I created a new preset and put in the values again, saved and it fixed the problem. I didn't need to uninstall or reinstall anything.

I checked the peace.txt config before doing this and it was full of delay and copy commands! How all these delays and copies found their way into the file I don't know, but the new peace.txt is clean.

Would you mind taking a look at my preset and checking it looks okay to you for the Arya stealth? See attached.

Thanks again for your help!

[Peter Verbeek]

Great to hear Alan. It could be that some effects were switched on. If so, this is visible by a green marker on the Effects button.

Looking at your screenshot everything seems in order. On the Peace AutoEQ interface there are 3 Hifiman Arya Stealth EQ's available. I've compared the EQ graph to the Oratory1990 one and basically they are quite similar.

[Alan Taffinder]

[Alan Taffinder]