[PROBLEM] Audio Glitches

[awrc68]

I’ve now got my player up and running - a Pi 3B with an IQAudIO DAC+ hat and all music files on an externally powered USB drive.  I made a couple of minor changes to config.txt to add support for the gpio_fan overlay and dropped the GPU mem to 16.  I’ve turned off a bunch of stuff I don’t need in the MoOde config like turning off WiFi and Bluetooth, and the audio volume is set to hardware.  I’m running the 64-bit version, for no particular reason, which I realize is a bit of a squeeze, but my audio collection is about 20K tracks, so I’m not dealing with huge databases.

As a test I’ve just put one title on the drive - I’d ripped it as a single FLAC with CUE but I’ve also tried it with the FLAC transcoded to individual files.  The music I’m playing is one of the hi-res audio DVDs from the recent deluxe release of Ultravox’s _Rage In Eden_, so it’s 24/96 stereo.

I’ll leave my confusion re naming and tagging stuff for another time, that’s definitely a problem with me, not the player (although any recommendations for a tagger that works on the Mac and is ideally free are welcome - I’m using Musicbrainz Picard and being driven nuts by certain aspects of it - my preference is still for one FLAC per album, but I’m not entirely clear re file naming and placement for something like the box set I’m testing)

However, every track I play has a clear pop/click right at the beginning and another at the end.  This happened both with playing back from the single FLAC, and playing the album as individual FLACs.  The audio is being played back over the DAC+ headphone jack connected via cable my Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones.  The actual audio is gorgeous, but the clicks are driving me to distraction.

[Tim Curtis]

Zip up a couple of the tracks and PM a download link to myself @TheOldPresbyope and @Nutul. One of us will see if we can repro the audio glitches.

If need be I have an old Pi-DAC+ that I can use for a repro.

[TheOldPresbyope]

@awrc68

In a quick test using moOde 8.2.2 on a Pi3A I can't repro your start/end glitch with either the Pi Headphone Jack -> wired headphones or a Creative Tech BT-W2 USB adapter -> Sennheiser wireless headset.

Somewhere I have HiFiBerry DAC+ and DAC+ Pro cards in a moving box---they are similar to the IQAudiO DAC+ (but don't have a headphone jack)---but rather that dig for them I'll wait to see if Tim can repro with his DAC.

The 'Rage In Eden' FLAC files pass the flac -t test, play without issue on my system, and the metadata look good.

Regards,
Kent

[awrc68]

@awrc68

In a quick test using moOde 8.2.2 on a Pi3A I can't repro your start/end glitch with either the Pi Headphone Jack -> wired headphones or a Creative Tech BT-W2 USB adapter -> Sennheiser wireless headset.

Somewhere I have HiFiBerry DAC+ and DAC+ Pro cards in a moving box---they are similar to the IQAudiO DAC+ (but don't have a headphone jack)---but rather that dig for them I'll wait to see if Tim can repro with his DAC.

The 'Rage In Eden' FLAC files pass the flac -t test, play without issue on my system, and the metadata look good.

Regards,
Kent

[Nutul]

Unfortunately I have no PI3 to test with...
They play and sound great with no glitch at all on my PI4, though.

Cheers, Al.

[awrc68]

@awrc68

In a quick test using moOde 8.2.2 on a Pi3A I can't repro your start/end glitch with either the Pi Headphone Jack -> wired headphones or a Creative Tech BT-W2 USB adapter -> Sennheiser wireless headset.

Somewhere I have HiFiBerry DAC+ and DAC+ Pro cards in a moving box---they are similar to the IQAudiO DAC+ (but don't have a headphone jack)---but rather that dig for them I'll wait to see if Tim can repro with his DAC.

The 'Rage In Eden' FLAC files pass the flac -t test, play without issue on my system, and the metadata look good.

Regards,
Kent

I’ve done a little more prodding and established that I’m getting the clicks at the beginning and end of even the stereo test file - and that they’re all playing without said clicks if I hook the headphones up to the Pi headphone Jack.

I found a couple of references via Google search that point the finger at the 5122 - including one person who was having this exact problem until he went into alsamixer and changed the left and right auto-mute time from 21ms to 2s or so.  

Of course, when I did that (the auto mute times were set that low) not only did it not fix the problem, it caused /boot/config.txt to disappear.  So I’ve reflashed the SD card, this time to the 32-bit version, and I’m going to see how it plays if I leave the config.txt completely alone - it can live without the fan for now while I test it.

Cheers,

Al
I will report further when I’ve done so.

[awrc68]

@awrc68

In a quick test using moOde 8.2.2 on a Pi3A I can't repro your start/end glitch with either the Pi Headphone Jack -> wired headphones or a Creative Tech BT-W2 USB adapter -> Sennheiser wireless headset.

Somewhere I have HiFiBerry DAC+ and DAC+ Pro cards in a moving box---they are similar to the IQAudiO DAC+ (but don't have a headphone jack)---but rather that dig for them I'll wait to see if Tim can repro with his DAC.

The 'Rage In Eden' FLAC files pass the flac -t test, play without issue on my system, and the metadata look good.

Regards,
Kent

I’ve done a little more prodding and established that I’m getting the clicks at the beginning and end of even the stereo test file - and that they’re all playing without said clicks if I hook the headphones up to the Pi headphone Jack.

I found a couple of references via Google search that point the finger at the 5122 - including one person who was having this exact problem until he went into alsamixer and changed the left and right auto-mute time from 21ms to 2s or so.  

Of course, when I did that (the auto mute times were set that low) not only did it not fix the problem, it caused /boot/config.txt to disappear.  So I’ve reflashed the SD card, this time to the 32-bit version, and I’m going to see how it plays if I leave the config.txt completely alone - it can live without the fan for now while I test it.

Cheers,

Al
I will report further when I’ve done so.

This just gets more and more confusing.  The 32-bit version, when I went to configure the audio hardware hadn’t auto-detected an I2S device.  Set it to I2S device, restarted, had to select the DAC+, wasn’t able to select Hardware volume, and changing software volume did nothing.  Switched off, installed the SD card with the 64-bit version, it saw the card, let me select hardware volume control and, yep, it plays, but the clicking is back.

I’m done with it for today.  I’ll try again tomorrow.

[TheOldPresbyope]

@awrc68

Some things you've written don't make sense to me.

I made a couple of minor changes to config.txt to add support for the gpio_fan overlay and dropped the GPU mem to 16. 

When you've come to this forum for help, first present the symptoms of the "default" system, not one with hand-edited changes to deep system parameters such as gpu_mem. It may seem innocuous but ....

I found a couple of references via Google search that point the finger at the 5122 - including one person who was having this exact problem until he went into alsamixer and changed the left and right auto-mute time from 21ms to 2s or so....  

I used the HiFiBerry-equivalent board, which also has the 5122 DAC chip, for more than a year without any clicks/glitches. Nothing found in an Internet search should be accepted at face value. I thought these settings were in the board driver and/or board itself.

...Of course, when I did that (the auto mute times were set that low) not only did it not fix the problem, it caused /boot/config.txt to disappear. 

No /boot/config.txt? That's very odd. I don't expect it and can't repro it by playing with alsamixer.

The 32-bit version, when I went to configure the audio hardware hadn’t auto-detected an I2S device. 

I don't understand what you mean. There's no auto-detection of i2S devices in either 64-bit or 32-bit moOde.

Set it to I2S device, restarted, had to select the DAC+

This seems backwards. I'd expect first to select a specific i2S type/driver and then after reboot see the output device has been set to "i2S audio device".

Good luck in your hunt.

Regards,
Kent

[awrc68]

@awrc68

Some things you've written don't make sense to me.

I made a couple of minor changes to config.txt to add support for the gpio_fan overlay and dropped the GPU mem to 16. 

When you've come to this forum for help, first present the symptoms of the "default" system, not one with hand-edited changes to deep system parameters such as gpu_mem. It may seem innocuous but ....

I found a couple of references via Google search that point the finger at the 5122 - including one person who was having this exact problem until he went into alsamixer and changed the left and right auto-mute time from 21ms to 2s or so....  

I used the HiFiBerry-equivalent board, which also has the 5122 DAC chip, for more than a year without any clicks/glitches. Nothing found in an Internet search should be accepted at face value. I thought these settings were in the board driver and/or board itself.

...Of course, when I did that (the auto mute times were set that low) not only did it not fix the problem, it caused /boot/config.txt to disappear. 

No /boot/config.txt? That's very odd. I don't expect it and can't repro it by playing with alsamixer.

The 32-bit version, when I went to configure the audio hardware hadn’t auto-detected an I2S device. 

I don't understand what you mean. There's no auto-detection of i2S devices in either 64-bit or 32-bit moOde.

Set it to I2S device, restarted, had to select the DAC+

This seems backwards. I'd expect first to select a specific i2S type/driver and then after reboot see the output device has been set to "i2S audio device".

Good luck in your hunt.

Regards,
Kent

[Tim Curtis]

@TheOldPresbyope advice is solid.

When things don't work it's best to start with a fresh image without any manual modifications or setting changes. Set the I2S device in Audio Config, reboot and try to play the included Stereo Test file.