No sound from spotify when graphic equalizer active

[mister.k]

Hey guys,

new member, first post.
I recently moved from Volumio towards Moode looking for simpler GUI (for my wife ), and user friendy graphic equalizer.
And I found it. I like it very much, and EQ predefined curves work well for web radio. 

But there is no sound from spotify if graphic equalizer is set to any option other then "off".
It took me few days to detect the problem, first I thought complete Spotify renderer is broken, than I remebered problem appeared when I started playing with equalizer.
So when I turn graphic equalizer to "off", spotify is working again.

My configuration is:
Last version of Moode (7.01)
USB C to headphone jack (apple dongle) out

I looked for answers around, found how to turn on more detailed debugging from librespot, and this is what I've got in logs:

[2021-02-06T20:10:47Z ERROR librespot_playback::audio_backend::alsa] Alsa error PCM open ALSA function 'snd_pcm_hw_params' failed with error 'EINVAL: Invalid argument'
[2021-02-06T20:10:47Z ERROR librespot_playback::player] Could not start audio: Alsa error: PCM open failed
[2021-02-06T20:10:47Z TRACE librespot_playback::player] == Starting sink ==
[2021-02-06T20:10:47Z ERROR librespot_playback::audio_backend::alsa] Alsa error PCM open ALSA function 'snd_pcm_hw_params' failed with error 'EINVAL: Invalid argument'
[2021-02-06T20:10:47Z ERROR librespot_playback::player] Could not start audio: Alsa error: PCM open failed
[2021-02-06T20:10:47Z TRACE librespot_playback::player] == Starting sink ==


Am I missing something, some option that I should turn on or off if I want to use equalizer with usb output ?

Thank in advance for any info.

Greetings.

[Tim Curtis]

Works ok on my end.

It's no obvious to me whats going on in your setup but maybe try below.
- If you are running the 64-bit kernel switch back to 32-bit.
- Try w/o the apple dongle

[mister.k]

I didn't touch kernel type, and it's 32 bit as default.


Without Apple dongle, using headphone out with equalizer on, spotify renderer works.

The culprit is obviously combination : spotify renderer/equalizer/apple dongle.

Too bad, 'cause apple dongle is really cheap DAC solution with respectable sound quality.

[mister.k]

I forgot to mention in my original post, but I am also using Pi3.

New strange problem appeared yesterday, unrelated to Spotify and equalizer. After playing Radio Paradise whole day without problem, suddenly sound became distorted in the evening. Ironically, now problem was present only with web radio stream, airplay worked normally. Mixer type is set to disabled, so I don't know what could be reason for this.

I really like overall design and functionality of Moode player, but... is it Apple dongle or just bad karma, I don't know, but so far experience is pretty buggy...e.g. Volumio was plug and play with no problems since day one, for months.

[the_bertrum]

I don't have experience of much Apple product, and none of this dongle, but I think Apple tend to play very nicely with each other, but less nicely with anyone else. I suggest trying your system just using the the 3.5mm output on the pi to see if the problems occur then (I know it won't sound great). If you still see the issues then I suggest a fresh build, if the issue go away, then the dongle is the likely culprit.