diff --git a/vall_e/config.py b/vall_e/config.py
index 3723413..8383454 100755
--- a/vall_e/config.py
+++ b/vall_e/config.py
@@ -579,7 +579,7 @@ class DeepSpeed:
 			del ds_cfg[k]
 
 		if os.path.exists("./data/ds_config.json"):
-			ds_cfg.update(json.load(open("./data/ds_config.json", "r", encoding="utf-8")))
+			ds_cfg.update(json.loads(open("./data/ds_config.json", "r", encoding="utf-8")).read())
 		else:
 			ds_cfg.update(self.config)
 
diff --git a/vall_e/data.py b/vall_e/data.py
index 0bd23f6..e0d626d 100755
--- a/vall_e/data.py
+++ b/vall_e/data.py
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ from .emb.qnt import trim, trim_random, repeat_extend_audio, concat_audio, merge
 from .emb.g2p import encode as encode_phns
 from .utils.sampler import PoolSampler, OrderedSampler, BatchedOrderedSampler, RandomSampler
 from .utils.distributed import global_rank, local_rank, world_size
-from .utils.io import torch_save, torch_load
+from .utils.io import torch_save, torch_load, json_read, json_write
 
 from collections import defaultdict
 from functools import cache, cached_property
@@ -472,6 +472,7 @@ def _load_paths_from_metadata(group_name, type="training", validate=False):
 	metadata = {}
 
 	if cfg.dataset.use_metadata and metadata_path.exists():
+		#metadata = json.loads(open( metadata_path, "r", encoding="utf-8" ).read())
 		metadata = json.loads(open( metadata_path, "r", encoding="utf-8" ).read())
 
 	if len(metadata) == 0:
@@ -886,8 +887,9 @@ class Dataset(_Dataset):
 			return None
 		if len(reference_metadata["similar"]) >= offset:
 			offset = -1
-		
-		return reference_metadata["similar"][offset][0]
+		metadata_keys = list(metadata.keys())
+		index = reference_metadata["similar"][offset]
+		return metadata_keys[index]
 
 	def sample_prompts(self, spkr_name, reference, should_trim=True):
 		if not cfg.dataset.prompt_duration_range or cfg.dataset.prompt_duration_range[-1] == 0:
diff --git a/vall_e/emb/similar.py b/vall_e/emb/similar.py
index 32fb3a2..5f68877 100644
--- a/vall_e/emb/similar.py
+++ b/vall_e/emb/similar.py
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@
 """
 
 import os
-import orjson as json
 import argparse
 import torch
 import torchaudio
@@ -23,6 +22,7 @@ import torchaudio.transforms as T
 
 from ..config import cfg
 from ..utils import truncate_json
+from ..utils.io import json_read, json_write
 
 from .g2p import encode as phonemize
 from .qnt import encode as quantize, trim, convert_audio
@@ -255,7 +255,8 @@ def main():
 				faiss.write_index(similarities, str(metadata_path.with_suffix(".faiss")))
 				return
 
-			metadata = json.loads(open( metadata_path, "r", encoding="utf-8" ).read()) if metadata_path.exists() else {}
+			#metadata = json.loads(open( metadata_path, "r", encoding="utf-8" ).read()) if metadata_path.exists() else {}
+			metadata = json_read( metadata_path, default={} )
 			metadata_keys = list(metadata.keys()) if metadata else list(similarities.keys())
 
 			for filename, sim in similarities.items():
@@ -264,9 +265,13 @@ def main():
 				
 				metadata[filename]["similar"] = sim
 
+			json_write( metadata, metadata_path )
+
+			"""
 			with open(str(metadata_path), "wb") as f:
 				f.write( json.dumps( metadata ) )
 				#f.write( truncate_json( json.dumps( metadata ) ) )
+			"""
 
 		# training
 		for data_dir in tqdm(sorted(cfg.dataset.training), desc="Processing Training"):
diff --git a/vall_e/ext/retnet_hf/configuration_retnet.py b/vall_e/ext/retnet_hf/configuration_retnet.py
index b842606..d409c39 100644
--- a/vall_e/ext/retnet_hf/configuration_retnet.py
+++ b/vall_e/ext/retnet_hf/configuration_retnet.py
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ from transformers.configuration_utils import PretrainedConfig
 
 def load_config_from_json(config_file):
     with open(config_file, 'r') as f:
-        config = json.load(f)
+        config = json.loads(f.read())
         config = RetNetConfig.from_dict(config)
     return config
 
diff --git a/vall_e/utils/io.py b/vall_e/utils/io.py
index afc2033..cba071f 100644
--- a/vall_e/utils/io.py
+++ b/vall_e/utils/io.py
@@ -5,6 +5,33 @@ from pathlib import Path
 from safetensors import safe_open as sft_load
 from safetensors.torch import save_file as sft_save
 
+try:
+	use_orjson = True
+	import orjson as json
+except:
+	import json
+
+def json_stringify( data ):
+	return json.dumps( data )
+
+def json_parse( string ):
+	return json.loads( string )
+
+def json_read( path, default=None ):
+	path = coerce_path( path )
+
+	if not path.exists():
+		return default
+
+	with (open( str(path), "rb" ) if use_orjson else open( str(path), "r", encoding="utf-8" ) ) as f:
+		return json_parse( f.read() )
+
+def json_write( data, path ):
+	path = coerce_path( path )
+	
+	with (open( str(path), "wb" ) if use_orjson else open( str(path), "w", encoding="utf-8" ) ) as f:
+		f.write( json_stringify( data ) )
+
 def coerce_path( path ):
 	return path if isinstance( path, Path ) else Path(path)