Intermittent loud ticks and no-audio using Spotify

[JasonLG1979]

Hi Jason,

Is it the app or is it ALSA that sets the period and buffer sizes?

Here is when MPD is playing. MPD is configured to output to hw:2,0

Code:

pi@rp3:~ $ cat /proc/asound/card2/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params
access: RW_INTERLEAVED
format: S16_LE
subformat: STD
channels: 2
rate: 44100 (44100/1)
period_size: 5513
buffer_size: 22050

I don't have a Spotify Premium account so not able to test librespot but here is when Airplay renderer is playing. The period_size is same as that reported for when librespot is playing. Shairport-sync is configured to output to plughw:2,0

Code:

pi@rp3:~ $ cat /proc/asound/card2/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params
access: MMAP_INTERLEAVED
format: S16_LE
subformat: STD
channels: 2
rate: 44100 (44100/1)
period_size: 256
buffer_size: 262144

-Tim

Looks like the airplay alsa backend suck too.

For my money a 1 sec buffer with 4 periods is a good safe starting point. MPD seems to be well behaved so it might not be a bad idea to route non-mpd outputs though a custom pcm to make them behave.