What, my electronic music is skipping

[jbinbi]

I have a fusion audio system going thru my B&G for control as well. It has a usb input option. I have a few k songs on a usb stick that just continuously plays.

Just starting the season, each time the next song plays, it sounds crappy/staticey/scratchy if you are old enough to remember records.

This is for about 5-10 sec, then all sounds good. Of course there is nothing moving, but I have no idea why last November this worked fine, and now it doesn't?!?

Anybody have ideas on this?

[Shoalcove]

Did you add more songs since the fall? Is it possible you have more tracks than the Fusion can handle? I switched to one portable USB HD from a couple 256GB sticks and my car said “ no thanks” and skipped and sounded similar to what you describe. Did you try a different USB stick?

[Capt.Don]

The Fusion RA70 radio is limited to 16gb usb drives. I used a USB extension cable so I could swap out the USB drives. They don't tell you this when you buy the radio

[jbinbi]

Thanks for this, I haven't changed anything since the fall, I will check the size of the drive, but think it is less than 16gb.

The one thing I did do was to update the firmware of the B&G chartplotter.

A person on the boat said to clean the contacts on the drive, but that didn't make sense. It is only when a song changes to the next one for about 5 to 10 sec that it sounds bad. I really sounds like the firmware might being done something...

[Brian.D]

Your flash drive might be developing corrupted sectors. Might want to transfer to another flash drive. JMHO

[transmitterdan]

Some things happen when a song changes that are different than in the middle of a song. Basically the computer reads ahead of the play out to build up a buffer. Then if reading slows down for any reason the buffer holds enough music in memory to prevent gaps in the sound. When the song changes that buffer has to be refilled. So if the flash drive is iffy then for the first few seconds the song will have gaps until the buffer can finally be loaded up. So my money is on a flaky flash drive. Try another known good one and see if the problem remains or not. If it remains then the flash interface on the player may be dirty or salt contaminated. They are hard to clean. First try a can of dry air and the soda straw they come with. Blow air throughout the connector.

[Chotu]

"My Electronic Music is Skipping" - nah. That's just how Skrillex and Excision sounds.

[Bawlmer]

An amazing amount of computer related ailments can be cured by doing a hard reset. There may be instructions in your manual but also can be done by removing ALL power from the device(s) for about 30 seconds. This is not a hardware problem. As other stated a new USB stick may solve the problem. My money is on the system rather than the stick though.

[Blaine]

I had a similar problem with a Fusion MS AV-700. For no explicable reason my USB-based music started having what sounded like random drop outs and "skips." The exact same album played perfectly in the CD drive, via bluetooth, etc. This turned into a year-long ordeal with Fusion who did try to solve the problem but never could.

First they replaced my Uni-Dock -- same problem. Then they sent me a new stereo, an upgraded MS AV-750. Same problem. They had me send them my flash drive -- they found no problems. They recommended a smaller flash drive -- no difference. They had me send them audio recordings and even videos. No solutions. They sent me their own flash drive with music recorded in different formats -- same problem. My own electronics guru couldn't figure it out.

Fusion tech support said they escalated my case which came to mean they didn't want to deal with it anymore and almost a year passed without my hearing anything. (By this time I had my entire CD collection aboard.)

Finally, my local West Marine manager (the source of my purchase) who had been keeping notes on all of this the whole time, told me he'd send his own installer over to check it out if I'd like. Well, the guy solved the problem.

A former audio engineer, after testing multiple recording formats, the guy concluded that the chip set in the stereo was simply not up to the task, and suggested I keep the MS AV-750 and buy the new Fusion Apollo unit and see if it solved the problem -- if yes, I could return the MS AV 750. Well, it worked perfctly and the new stereo is absolutely awesome. (Using my original flash drive.) The MS AV 750 was returned to Fusion and my CD collection has been returned to my storage locker.

Good luck!

[ozdigennaro]

You need to isolate the problem. Test the separate pieces separately.
You'll see the problem piece right away.