[PROBLEM] Sound Quality Moodeaudio 6.0.0

[JST1963]

Is there a doctor in the house?

[Miss Sissy Princess]

Is there a doctor in the house?

Is there a psychic in the house?

[TheOldPresbyope]

I installed the new MoodeAudio 6.0.0. and rewritten all the settings I had in MoodeAudio 5.x manually, including the equalizer settings. It turned out that now, despite the identical settings, you can't listen to music!
The bass is heavily distorted, there is one big rumble and hoarseness.
I tried to set the output voltage level to -6dB, but it doesn't help!
It seems that the distortions arise via digital rather than analog.
I reduced the equalizer parameters to remove distortion, but then the sound gets flat!
I have started the old MoodeAudio 5.x again and the sound is very pleasant.
I have a question, was there anything combined with the equalizer in the new version 6.0.0?
Was there something changed in the settings of the audio card: HiFiBerry DAC + Pro?
Please help, I can't set the quality of the sound output from MoodeAudio 5.x.

Please provide the data I have to provide. Please be advised that I have manually entered data from Moode audio 5.x to 6.0.0. from screen scans (printscreen). There is no mistake, I have checked several times whether the manually transferred data are consistent.
MoodeAudio 4.x = poor sound
MoodeAudio 5.x = very good sound
Moodeaudio 6.0 - very poor sound.
This is a based on idenctical eqaulizer setting !

I installed a clean MoodeAudio 6.0.0 image from the official distribution, and then manually configured the settings exactly as I had in the last version of MoodeAudio 5.
What configuration files should I send to reproduce the problem?
I have Raspberry 3B + with HiFiBerry DAC + Pro.

Now I was backed to Moode 5.x, because sound quality on version 6.0.0. is not acceptable.

Maybe "programmers" make changes in system driver HiFiBerry DAC + Pro ??

This problem was resolved on update 6.1.0 or not ?

Candidly, I don't have a clue why you are experiencing problems like "[T]he bass is heavily distorted, there is one big rumble and hoarseness."

But I can give you a datapoint. 

I still own a HiFiBerry DAC+ Pro which I dug out of a drawer just a few days ago in response to an apparent problem expressed in another thread [1]. To gather diagnostic data for that thread, I plugged the HFB DAC+ Pro into a fresh moOde 6.0 installation on a Raspberry Pi 4B. It worked fine, sounding pretty much the same as I remember from moOde 4.x (can't remember what rev we were at when I got the board) on to what is now moOde 6.1.0. 

At various times during test-team activities I've had this DAC on RPi2B/2B+s, RPi3B/3B+s, and now RPi4B. It's likely I have tried it on an RPi3A+ at some point too but I can't say for sure. Until I got another DAC last winter, this one was my workhorse.

So, based on my own setups, I don't believe some mysterious driver issue has arisen between 5.x and 6.0.0/6.1.0.

Like several other respondents in this thread, I don't use the equalizers, either parametric or graphical, preferring "straight through" performance. As an experiment, I edited in the graphical "Hi-Lo Boost Plus" numbers I see in your attachment and turned on the graphical equalizer. The bass frequencies are boosted as I would expect from the settings. I don't care for this sound personally but it is definitely not "heavily distorted."

I have no idea what other moOde settings you may have or what your downstream audio reproduction system is or what kind of music you play, but all these can have an effect.

I can offer no further assistance.

Regards,
Kent

[1] I called it "apparent" because the problem discussed in the other thread turned out not to be with moOde.

[Jedrek]

Thank you for the explanation. As I wrote, the hardware environment has not changed, only the moodeaudio 6.0 installation has been clean. The current settings from version 5.x were manually transferred to version 6.0 based on the screenshots taken. There is no mistake, because I checked all settings several times.

[Jedrek]

@Jedrek
I don't have your dac, but I can't see above any mention of music source, files from a NAS? Spotify? Tidal via uPnP etc?  Alsa set to hardware or software? Could it be that you have a hardware and software volume?  I don't use EQ at all ever, intact I have a button on my pre amp that disables bass and treble controls, Moode sounds great here.
I have a headphone only system also playing sources from a NAS and Spotify. No distortion.
If you have screenshots of your EQ settings post them maybe someone with the same dac can try and help.

Step one:  Find out what it relates to.  Go back to a completely stock installation of moOde 6.x.  

Leave the EQ off.
Don't do any of the "it sounds better and I have no measurements to support that claim" tweaks or setting changes.
Put a revealing, well-recorded track on a local USB stick.  Use an uncompressed format like FLAC or ALAC.  
Play it.  Does it have audible problems?

If there are audible problems:

1.  Swap headphones, speakers, etc. to see if the problem tracks the transducers.
2.  Try another DAC.  Doesn't have to be a great one -- whatever USB DAC you have lying around (Audioquest Dragonfly, Objective DAC, Eiio, Topping, M-Audio, etc.).  See if that improves things.

If it sounds good, then start changing things.  

Turn on the EQ.  Does that degrade the sound? (I'm with grasshopper -- I never use EQ and have no tone controls in my audio system).
Point moOde to wherever you normally keep your music (NAS, external hard drive, network share, etc.).  Play the same track from there.  

etc., etc., etc.

I am sorry but I have the impression that you are writing nonsense. I don't have any USB DAC etc. etc.

I'm sharing expertise and debugging skills that you clearly lack. There is nothing 'nonsensical' about the steps I provided to isolate the problem that you think you hear.  

I've learned over the years that if someone just complains about a problem that no one else is reporting, and they are unwilling to do anything suggested to narrow down what is causing the alleged problem, they are unlikely to get much help.

I explain again that apart from changing the moodeaudio version, I did not change anything. The hardware environment remained the same, the settings were manually rewritten from versions 5 to 6. Currently, I have two SD cards (identical, so that someone does not complain that there is a problem here) and I have the opportunity to listen to the same music material with identical settings of moodeaudio 5 and 6. And the difference is clearly, as if moodeaudio 6 played louder from the very start but in my opinion at the digital level. Adjusting the analog or digital volume does not make the sound better at lower volumes. There are sound distortions as if it were distorted!

[Jedrek]

Actually I was back to previous version 5.x. Now i will search another solution, because i don't found it on this site