Hello,
I just set up this board using the standard Beocreate image. However when I start the system I hear two very loud pops. So loud that I am afraid it will damage my drivers. They come with a few seconds between them and then a third one when bluetooth connection is made.
I have tried using the Basic Fullrange, Beovox 100 and a custom DSP profile. Same results.
Do you have a solution for this?
So a small update,
The initial pops comes from when the Beocreate web interface is connecting to the board. If I don't have that open those pops doesn't come.
The third one is there when audio is played first time after start up and it doesn't matter if its from bluetooth, Airplay or Spotify Connect.
I have these issues on all my three boards from the beginning. I've tried serveral solutions (scripts for muting on/off, start-up delays) but none are satisfactory. Now, I'm only use the AMP2 with MoOde Audio software for making speakers active for my customers.
Hi all,
thanks for your reports and my apologies for the issue.
There appears to be some kind of issue with the mute logic in the DSP program. I'm not certain what it is but we'll investigate.
If you are getting pops when the web interface is connected, my theory is that these are caused when the system checks with the DSP if it's running the sound profile that the sound adjustment controls are set up for. This does seem to cause popping at least on some boards (I have a pre-release board here that does it, but it doesn't have mute control anyway). If this is the case here, you should be able to replicate this by issuing dsptoolkit get-checksum via SSH.
Are there different kinds of pops you hear? For example, when the system is first powered on, do you hear a deep "thunk" and when you first play music to it it's a much sharper "crack"?
All the best,
Tuomas from Bang & Olufsen
Hello Thomas. In my case, the first pop (after power on) is scary loud and indeed deeper. When I first play the pop is much sharper .
With regards,
Ronald
Hello Tuomas,
Thank you for the answer. I will try the command to see if it replicates the issue.
The sounds are different with the first play being very sharp as you described it.
Best Regards
I spent some more time with this. The dsptoolkit get-checksum does produce a sound, but nothing like the one I experienced when board is connecting to web interface.
I tried something different, I have added the mute to the board and then I run this script at start up:
sleep 10
play -n synth sine 1000 trim 0 2
gpio mode 2 out
gpio write 2 0
This solves the problem, but not really the optimal solution I feel. I haven't really looked much into this, but maybe the problem is that the AutoMute in the DSP doesn't work as intended - I use a 3B+ if that has anything to say.
There also seems to be a problem with Spotify Connect, it makes sharp clicks when changing songs
Hi both,
sorry for the delay. I just wanted to give you an update that we have identified the issue: it is caused by a misconfiguration in our profiles: the mute detection was working but the signal wasn't going through to the amplifier. In addition to fixing this, I have some improvements coming to the automatic source selection logic.
These fixes will be coming as an update to the existing sound profiles and once we release them, all you need to do is to reinstall your desired sound profile from the GUI.
@PalmDK: That's actually a clever solution and we used something like that ourselves (we played the startup sound silently) before we added the mute control to the DSP itself.
Best,
Tuomas from Bang & Olufsen
Hi Tuomas,
that is really good news. When do you expect the update of the sound profiles? I can hardly wait.... 😉
Hi Eric,
we are currently testing the new circuits. If everything keeps running smoothly, I'll have the sound profiles updated within a few days.
Stay tuned! 🔊
Best,
Tuomas
I have the same problem, so i will wait few days for new profiles. The new profile will be updated automatically, or do ihave to load it manually ?
Another question - many good speakers allow bi-amping connections. Basic fullrange profle is delivering fullrange output only on bass outputs, or ? Would it be possible to have in future something like "basic fullrange bi-amping" profile ?
:)
Hi ToJa,
it's not automatic, but very easy still. When you go to the sound profile selection screen and choose one of the profiles, you will then get the fresh version from HiFiBerry servers. I'll give you a heads-up over here and we can also put out word over Twitter and Instagram if you follow us on those 😊
Basic full-range profile delivers the full-range signal to all channels, and when you select stereo from the GUI, you will have the channels set up as two stereo pairs (L-R-L-R, when you look at the board from above with speaker terminals facing you). Is this what you're looking for?
Best,
Tuomas
Hi all,
thanks for your patience. All sound profiles have been updated and are now available to install from the Sound Profile screen in the setup interface.
Here's what's new:
Hardware-based amplifier mute now works correctly. This should prevent any loud pops in startup as well as when starting or stopping music playback. You will also no longer hear the quiet hiss from the speakers when nothing is playing.
Mute is controlled by a new input selection logic. Previously the optical input was prioritised over the Raspberry Pi, and some users reported that they were unable to play from the Raspberry Pi without manually disabling the optical input because the system mistakenly detected a signal from it. This arrangement has now been reversed: optical input will only activate if nothing is playing from the Raspberry Pi.
As always, please reach out if you encounter issues.
Best,
Tuomas from Bang & Olufsen
Hi Tuomas,
I have installed the new profile. Had to do that manually though, for some reason the Beocreate image refused to (re)connect.
But most important: loud pop-up at startup is gone. Good job. I already was a happy user, but now this even has improved.
Thank you for your efforts.
Update: there still is something unexpected. When i power up the set i hear a single popping sound, but only in one channel. Also when i stop streaming and restart again the same pop is heard, again in only one channel. But after some time (a few minutes) this effect disappears!
Second update (4-05): the pop at starting of streaming does not always disappear, unfortunately. I reverted the sound profile, to the 2019-01-26 version. Sharp click at power up is back again (suppressed with 'mute'), but the pop in one channel (right) at starting a track is gone.
It suggests that this pop has something to do with the new image, i would say.
Any thoughts on what may be the cause for that?
Eric
I also experience the "pop" sounds with the latest profile. It is a rather low tone, not a sharp crack or click.
I only use the optical input (without raspberry), it pops when I start playback, it pops also between songs when the input level gets low and pops again when the new songs start. Like this, it is pretty unusable.
I am confused about the role of the mute jumper. I have it removed. Should I try to close it?
I don't need the autosensing feature because I only use the optical inputs. How can I disable this feature?
I am using the CX50 profile and I really love them, if they would just stop to pop... :)
I wanted to check the new profile in Sigma Studio to understand your changes, but I did not see an update project file. Is it possible to release this?
Best, Peter
Hi Peter,
thanks for your report. To be clear, could the pop you hear be classified as "not very loud but definitely noticeable"?
I checked out the signal path we have in the current DSP programs, and the only place where I think we could be causing pops in the DSP itself would be the index-selectable multiplexer (changes routing between optical and Pi inputs), but there we are using hardware slew so that should be completely silent – moreover, the optical input should always be "preselected" when there is no signal from the Pi.
A possibility I see is that the amplifier output stage itself is causing the pop when it switches on and off. This is either difficult or impossible to fix in software, but we can try to make you experience it less often.
The hardware mute algorithm is controlled in part by a signal detector. When the signal has been below a threshold (currently set to -60 dB) for 5 seconds straight, the amplifier will mute. If you find your amplifier mutes too often, we can try lengthening this time. If you want to try this out without SigmaStudio, you can do the following (else, skip a bit further below):
1. Connect the Raspberry Pi to the board and log in via SSH.
2. Type dsptoolkit read-int 27 and press enter.
Verify that you receive the figure 240000 (if not, please let me know and don't proceed further). This is the time in amount of audio samples that the signal detector waits before calling for amplifier mute. To change this value, take the number of seconds you would like to use as the delay (2–120 seconds) and multiply it by the sampling rate of the DSP, in our case 48000. For example, to set the delay to 20 seconds, you would use 20 * 48000 = 960000 samples.
3. To try out the new value, type dsptoolkit write-mem 960000 and press enter. This will be in effect until you reboot the system.
The new SigmaStudio project files have also now been added to the GitHub repository – the file names end with 042019.dspproj (sorry about the delay). Here's how you can do the above in SigmaStudio:
1. Download and open the appropriate project for your speakers (the comment on the main board says "Generic full-range sound program", but don't worry, I just forgot to change this for each speaker model – each profile does have the appropriate filters in place).
2. There's a new board called Input Detection which houses the logic for mute and input selection – open that.
3. Directly next to the inputs you will see the signal detection blocks – Pi Signal Detect at the top and SPDIF Signal Detect at the bottom. In the trig time field you can enter a number of seconds as the mute delay (again, 2–120 seconds). You can also play with the threshold value (-150–0 dB) if you want.
4. Upload the project to the DSP.
I had not anticipated this being an issue as I did not run into it on my test system (where I have a lot of mixed use of both Pi and optical), but if you find that increasing the delay helps you, we should consider implementing this change to our profiles directly so that everyone can benefit.
Let me know how this goes for you. This is really valuable for us.
Best,
Tuomas from Bang & Olufsen
Hi Tuomas, for me, the issue is still the same. Output of dsptoolkit read-int 27 request is 0.
Regards,
Ronald
Hi Ronald,
for me: 
Regards, Eric
Hi Ronald,
are you sure the correct DSP profile is in use? You can check this with
dsptoolkit get-checksum
For the latest profiles, the checksum should be 18454E5C3033E17F5A11937BF90ED7E4. If you get something else, then there's a different program running. If you get None, this could be a DSPToolkit issue that may be resolved by running
sudo systemctl restart sigmatcp
Best,
Tuomas
Hi Tuomas,
I indeed get this:
Thanks for verifying this, Eric.
Best,
Tuomas
Hello Tuomas, I just did a complete new install with the CX50 profile and tested Volumio and MoOde Audio and all things are working without loud start pops or changing songs pops! Even the Volumio and MoOde Spotify Connect options are working out of the box without pops and without the playlist bug.
Here are the results:
You won't believe how happy I am. I've waited from the introduction of the Beocreate for this fantastic outcome.
Thanks Tuomas for all the work and thank you Eric for your test time!
Best regards,
Ronald
Hi Ronald,
super happy to hear that!
I believe you may have experienced an occurrence of an issue where the DSP program was not saved completely to the memory. I can't say what's causing it (it's not my area), but trying again usually seems to fix it.
I'll be here if you need any further assistance.
Best,
Tuomas from Bang & Olufsen
Hi Tuomas and Ronald,
I fully share Ronald's thoughts and expressions. The new profile has solved all my concerns and I also am a very happy Beocreate owner now.
The lesson we learned from this is that apparently a profile can be installed in memory with a small error. Is there a way to verify the content of the memory after completion of the installation? The checksum does not do that?
Regards,
Eric
Hi all and thanks for all the support.
I did a full reinstall and most of my problems are gone. I am using the latest cx50 profile, checksum is correct, the mute jumper is open. Currently, the raspberry is still connected to the board. I am playing sound through the optical input and that works very well now. No more pops during playback, no more issues with muting during low levels. That's cool!
However, during startup I know get a short time burst (a very loud beep). It happens immediately after giving power to the board. First, it lasted for several seconds while reducing the level in several steps before disappearing. Now it is just last some fraction of a second.
It is not a crack, I am not affeaid of destroying the drivers, but it is still quite annoying. Like a smoke detector....
Aany ideas?
Best Peter
Hi Peter,
How did you install the CX50 profile?
By selecting it in the setup tool. I did not try manually from the command line. Do you think this can help?
Thanks! Peter
I installed the image two times, with the dsptool. First time there were pops, second time it was perfect.
so, i would suggest to do a new installation of the CX profile
best
eric
Hi,
A short follow up on the startup pops. Today I had to reinitiate Volumio, after a lost WiFi problem. Not very successfull, so I had to do a fresh Volumio install. And then: bog shock, no sound anymore. Volumio was ok. After a long search I decided to reinstall the CX50 profile. And yes: sound was back again.
But so were the pops!. Installed the CX50 profile for the second time -> no pops.
Then I switched from wired connection to wireless -> pops back again.
I discovered the 'dpstoolkit reset' function. Did a reset -> pops are gone.
Interesting, isn't it?
Thought I should share this with you.
Regards,
Eric
Hi, I also have a short follow up.
I also needed a new installation for a CX50 profile. After that I've installed MoOde Audio 5.2. No pops or whatsoever but the volume control was much to loud. Volume 5 was sounding like volume 50. Tested also with Volumio. Only software volume control was possible. After that I've installed the dsptoolkit. And the same miracle happened: Volumio found hardware controle and a normal volume control with Moode is now possible.
Conclusion: It seems that installation of the dsptoolkit is needed in combination with third party software like Volumio and Moode.
Kind regards
Ronald