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DAC+ Lite - Software volume control

Roman Spychala

September 26, 2015 10:03

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To add software volume control to HifiBerry DAC+ Lite board add following lines to /etc/asound.conf file.

pcm.hifiberry {
    type softvol
    slave.pcm "plughw:0"
    control.name "Master"
    control.card 0
}

and optionally

pcm.!default {
    type             plug
    slave.pcm       "hifiberry"
}

Then use newly defined hifiberry output device:

speaker-test -D hifiberry -c 2

and see new 'Master' control in mixer:

alsamixer

Modify also configuration of your player to use hifiberry playback device. If you use mpd /etc/mpd.conf file should be modified in audio_output section:

audio_output {
        enabled         "yes"
        type            "alsa"
        name            "HiFiBerry DAC+ Lite"
        device          "hifiberry"
        auto_resample   "no"
        auto_channels   "no"
        auto_format     "no"
        dop             "no"
}

For more details see How to use softvol to control the master volume and A close look at ALSA.

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4 comments

• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team September 26, 2015 10:06

  Hi Roman,
  
  thanks for this guide. DO you allow us to use this to create a separate web page for this as it might be of interest for other users?
  
  Best regards
  Daniel
• 0
  
  Roman Spychala September 26, 2015 16:13

  Of course I do.
  
  Does anybody know why exactly I must use plughw:0 instead of hw:0? It seems that softvol's output isn't compatible with HiFiBerry's input but I don't know more details of this incompatibility.
• 0
  
  Roman Spychala September 27, 2015 08:58

  Thanks to alsacap utility I slightly modified /etc/asound.conf file:
  
  

  pcm.hifiberry {
      type softvol
      slave {
          pcm {
              type plug
              slave {
                  pcm "hw:0"
                  format unchanged
                  channels unchanged
                  rate unchanged
              }
          }
      }
      control.name "Master"
      control.card 0
  }
  

  
  
  
  Now I am sure that hifiberry output does not perform any additional (and undesirable) sample rate conversion.
• 0
  
  Cdsaenz March 06, 2016 22:09

  Thanks for this tip, it works flawlessly for volumio, however it does not work for spotify-web-connect. Hope I can find a workaround with that software that otherwise works great.  URL: https://github.com/Fornoth/spotify-connect-web/