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DAC2 HD pops between tracks

Peter Drayton

August 06, 2020 00:47

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Getting static pops between tracks on Roon playback. Not every track skip, but about 2/3 of them. 

This is with a RPi4 and HFB DAC2 HD HAT, software is RoonBridge endpoint on DietPi OS. The RCA outs of the DAC2 HD are connected to an active speaker setup.

Figured the clicks might be related to power - so I tried a few power alternatives here, without success:
- USB-C power supply into the RPi4
- Added an AAmp60 to the HD2, powered through AAMP60 with a decent outboard power 18V power brick

Nothing fixes the pops.

I already have three other RPi4s each with an Amp2, powered by an external 18V brick into the Amp2, same software setup (DietPi/RoonBridge), running speakers around the house. So I know that RPi4, HiFiBerry amps and the external PSUs can be low noise/no static.

The DAC2 HD was supposed to be my "upgrade" from the Amp2, enabling me to make my better active speakers a Roon endpoint. Instead, the pops make the HD2 worse than using RPi4 as a DAC and just a small Amp2 HAT. 

What gives?

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54 comments

• 2
  
  Peter Drayton August 17, 2020 18:37

  Circling back here - the suggestion to use HiFiBerryOS definitely helped the inter-track pops. Turning off the power management governor on DietPi+RoonBridge also helped in that scenario.

  Very happy with the DAC2 HD (+ optionally the AAmp60 HAT-on-HAT) as a replacement for my BlueSound and BlueSound PowerNode gear - a fraction of the cost, more flexible, sounds better AFAICT and fits into my Roon setup more seamlessly too.

• 1
  
  HiFiBerry team September 28, 2020 07:22

  clivem Thank you for the feedback. We'll look into this!

• 1
  
  HiFiBerry team September 28, 2020 16:06

  Hi,
  
  Our software has been Roon certified already. All DACs will work with Roon.They all list as "DAC+".
  
  Best regards,
  Daniel

• 1
  
  clivem February 15, 2021 19:29

  Do any of you guys concerned by the pop/click on sample rate change have the capability of testing my modified/alternative driver on 32bit RPiOS with latest 5.10.11 kernel?

  wget http://www3.vacuumtube.org.uk/dac2hd_modified_5.10.11.tgz
  sudo tar zxvf dac2hd_modified_5.10.11.tgz -C /
  sudo depmod -a 5.10.11+ && sudo depmod -a 5.10.11-v7+ && sudo depmod -a 5.10.11-v7l+

  Edit config.txt and use.....

  dtoverlay=hb-dac2hd-audio

  NB. At any time, you can switch back to the original unmodified driver by changing config.txt back to ....

  dtoverlay=hifiberry-dacplushd

  .... and rebooting.

  journalctl -b | grep -e dac2hd -e pcm1796 |less

  journalctl (cmd above) will confirm that you are using the modified driver. LOL (Very verbose DEBUG logging.)

  I'll post source later in the week (need to remove some files I cannot include), if people want to try building for other distributions. But to be upfront, I really do not have much in the way of spare time to provide support. You're on your own.

  Edited by clivem February 15, 2021 19:30
• 1
  
  Homonto February 17, 2021 08:32

  clivem I applied the new module as you described - I am not finding anymore any pops ;-)

  and btw alsamixer looks different now - any clue what are the options here?

   

  

  thank you bro

  Edited by Homonto February 17, 2021 08:37
• 1
  
  Steven February 20, 2021 20:25

  Hi guys, currently I'm also experiencing the popping sounds when the bit rate is changed. I'm really pleased with my DAC2 HD, but if the popping continues I need to return the DAC since this is not acceptable for me. 

  I'm using the latest version of HifiBerryOS (20210203) on pi2b.

  I tried to install the the new modules but get errors. See below.

  Could someone please make a tutorial, or even better include it in a new release of HifiberryOS.

  Thanks for the great work.

  Steven

  
  # tar zxvf dac2hd_modified_5.4.83.tgz -C /
  boot/overlays/hb-dac2hd-audio.dtbo
  tar: boot/overlays/hb-dac2hd-audio.dtbo: Cannot open: Read-only file system
  boot/overlays/hb-dac2hd-gmute-audio.dtbo
  tar: boot/overlays/hb-dac2hd-gmute-audio.dtbo: Cannot open: Read-only file system
  boot/overlays/README.hb-dac2hd-audio
  tar: boot/overlays/README.hb-dac2hd-audio: Cannot open: Read-only file system
  boot/overlays/README.hb-dac2hd-gmute-audio
  tar: boot/overlays/README.hb-dac2hd-gmute-audio: Cannot open: Read-only file system
  lib/modules/5.4.83+/extra/clk-hifiberry-dac2hd.ko
  lib/modules/5.4.83+/extra/snd-soc-hifiberry-dac2hd.ko
  lib/modules/5.4.83-v7+/extra/clk-hifiberry-dac2hd.ko
  lib/modules/5.4.83-v7+/extra/snd-soc-hifiberry-dac2hd.ko
  lib/modules/5.4.83-v7l+/extra/clk-hifiberry-dac2hd.ko
  lib/modules/5.4.83-v7l+/extra/snd-soc-hifiberry-dac2hd.ko
  lib/modules/5.4.83+/extra/snd-soc-pcm1796-i2c.ko
  lib/modules/5.4.83+/extra/snd-soc-pcm1796.ko
  lib/modules/5.4.83-v7+/extra/snd-soc-pcm1796-i2c.ko
  lib/modules/5.4.83-v7+/extra/snd-soc-pcm1796.ko
  lib/modules/5.4.83-v7l+/extra/snd-soc-pcm1796-i2c.ko
  lib/modules/5.4.83-v7l+/extra/snd-soc-pcm1796.ko
  tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors

• 1
  
  TomRR February 27, 2021 11:03

  Douglas Gardner - many thanks for taking the time to provide the above.  Unfortunately, that hasn't fixed the issue for me.  I'll just have to wait until HifiBerry deal with this issue in the next release all being well

• 1
  
  Patrick September 13, 2021 19:06

  Same here, still having the issue. would be nice having this resolved..

• 1
  
  TomRR September 14, 2021 10:54

  Have tried a variety of things suggested to try and resolve this, all with no luck.  Whenever the sample rate changes between tracks loud pops occur - regardless of the software I've tried (Tidal, Roon, Audirvana).  Incredibly annoying and pretty disappointing that this hasn't been dealt with as a priority.

• 1
  
  Keith Gibson January 02, 2022 20:11

  I contacted Hifiberry support about the issue and they inform me that the popping is "by design" and not a fault so they will not be investigating and suggested I return the item.  Nice customer service! So if you are looking for a fix don't hold your breath

   

• 1
  
  R v Houten January 22, 2022 08:40

  Hi all, does any one has the same issue? I recorded the noise, check the link to youtube

  ps: I don't have the problem with MP3 but with flac files

  https://youtu.be/0EguKW_dYGE

  Solutions to fix this are much appreciated

  Best Rob

   

   

• 0
  
  Peter Drayton August 06, 2020 07:00

  Thanks, I'll try that.

  Also, I found some chatter on Linux forums about ALSA playback having pops if the card powers down, so maybe HiFiBerryOS is configured to turn off the audio subsystem power-save settings by default, which is why it works better.

  Edited by Peter Drayton August 06, 2020 07:01
• 0
  
  Douglas Gardner September 25, 2020 02:35

  I'm also experiencing pops but only when sample rate changes. As original post I'm using Roon with Ropieee XL and raspi 4B with display. I'm using Ropieee XL for the display so I can use the basic volume and play/pause features on the raspi display. Would be good to figure out settings that would make this work with out those pops. 

• 0
  
  David C. Snyder September 28, 2020 15:52

  Not directly related to this issue, but it would be really nice to see the DAC2 HD be Roon certified. Does Roon Labs already have one on-hand? If not, can one of us have you send one in to them for testing (once you've implemented Clive's OPE solution, perhaps)?

  

• 0
  
  David C. Snyder September 28, 2020 16:14

  That's good to hear. Just a cosmetic issue, I suppose. Someone who pays $99 for a DAC2 HD might prefer to see that show up in Roon as such instead of the $28.90 DAC+. Does Roon re-test/re-certify when you release updates to your software/drivers?

• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team September 28, 2020 16:28

  No, Roon does not re-test every release.

• 0
  
  Patrick February 15, 2021 16:19

  Hi all,

   

  Firstly +1 for Davids remark.

  Secondly I have the same issue, It seems to be whenever there is a change in audio format a loud "plop" is heard.

  I have a RPi4 with DAC HD running Hifiberry Os streaming through ROON. on that note it also seems that when streaming through Airplay this does not occur but then the bitrate is lower anyway...
  anyone has any suggestions?

   

  Patrick  

• 0
  
  Douglas Gardner February 15, 2021 17:16

  Patrick The only way I've been able to get those pops to stop happening is to set Roon to upsample everything to the max rate of the DAC 2. If I do that then the problem seems to go away. Yes, it's annoying and I wish that the HiFiBerry team would fix that. 

• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team February 16, 2021 06:34

  clivem We're not using 5.10 for now in HiFiBerryOS. If you can provide the source, we would definitely look into this and test it (I guess, back-porting to 5.4 also shouldn't be a big deal).

• 0
  
  clivem February 16, 2021 10:05

  wget http://www3.vacuumtube.org.uk/dac2hd_modified_5.4.83.tgz
  sudo tar zxvf dac2hd_modified_5.4.83.tgz -C /
  sudo depmod -a 5.4.83+ && sudo depmod -a 5.4.83-v7+ && sudo depmod -a 5.4.83-v7l+

  That was the last binary release I did for rpi-5.4.y.

  I'll post the source at the weekend, once I have removed all the stuff I cannot "release" from the "driver pack". (Mostly ESS related.)

  Edited by clivem February 16, 2021 10:05
• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team February 16, 2021 10:21

  Ah, that ESS stuff. Yes, they are very secretive about their register sets ;-) I'll wait for the sources.

• 0
  
  Patrick February 17, 2021 07:27

  Ones that is all settled let me know. I don't mind trying out.

• 0
  
  clivem February 17, 2021 20:16

  Homonto Thank you for your comments.

  You'll have to forgive me, but during the week I am away from home and won't have access to my notes until the weekend. When I publish the source, I'll document all the differences between the original HiFiBerry driver. Top of my head, I'm not sure what the differences are in the ALSA controls. Maybe the De-Em (De-Emphasis) filter ON/OFF switch, and De-Em Fq (De-Emphasis Filter Frequency) to select the de-emphasis filter frequency. There is very little CD content that requires that. I think I have 2 CD's out of 40,000 (which probably date back to when CD was first released) that has de-emphasis applied. InfZeroDetectMute is for auto-mute. ie. DAC detects zero samples it auto-mutes. Atten Rate, is the volume ramp-up/down on mute. Phase (Normal/Invert) and Filter (Slow/Sharp) - self explanatory. ;)

  I probably should have mentioned the ALSA CARD name is different, (hw:CARD=DAC2HD instead of hw:CARD=sndrpihifiberry).

  I'll need to document what has been improved. As much as could have been done in software, has been done, to completely avoid disturbances on the output when changing sample rate. I also need to document using the gpio mute, which if people want to go the extra mile, will take care of the last places where there can be disturbances, ie. booting Pi, when powering up/down the op-amps on the DAC2HD board, when the PCM1796 is RESET and the Si5351 clock is programmed / PLL RESET.

• 0
  
  Homonto February 18, 2021 04:32

  clivem you are a star for me! first: the switches in alsamixer really work. the De-Em: it opens the high frequencies - I always thought that DAC2 HD is warm - now I can have it "sharp" or "open" at high freq. The others, like mute - this I need to test more - at least now I know what to look for. Thank you a lot. Pity it does not go to main tree of the kernel - any upgrade of my Raspberry would mean I will lose the driver right?

  Anyway, for my project I disabled any other devices and keep only DAC2 HD:

   

  root@sundara-dac2hd:/# aplay -l
  **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
  card 0: DAC2HD [HiFiBerry DAC2HD], device 0: HiFiBerry DAC2 HD HiFi pcm1796-hifi-0 [HiFiBerry DAC2 HD HiFi pcm1796-hifi-0]
    Subdevices: 0/1
    Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

• 0
  
  Douglas Gardner February 20, 2021 21:46

  Steven Not sure what you are using for playback software. If you are able to set the sample rate, then you might try setting the sample rate to the max allowed by the board. I use Roon and the problem is mitigated by setting upsampling to the max bit rate. That might solve your problem until or if a fix is deployed. 

• 0
  
  Homonto February 20, 2021 22:16

  using hifiberry OS or Volumio like is very limiting

  why don't you use vanilla Raspberry OS?

  btw the messages you posted are quite self-explanatory:

  Cannot open: Read-only file system

  your /boot partition is mounted as read only or you might use "sudo" command

  when you work with vanilla OS you will not have issues with installing the modules

• 0
  
  clivem February 21, 2021 17:21

  https://github.com/DigitalDreamtimeLtd/ALT-HiFiBerry 

  This isn't intended for end users! Sorry, I don't have time to support or explain. These are what I personally use for DAC+, DAC+Pro and DAC2HD boards.

• 0
  
  Homonto February 21, 2021 18:31

  thanks clivem

• 0
  
  TomRR February 26, 2021 12:54

  I too am using DAC2 HD on HifiBerry OS with roon/Tidal and experiencing the loud popping when switching between sample rates eg MQA and regular cd quality. Douglas Gardner you say that you have mitigated this by by setting upsampling to the max bit rate - please could you share your settings?

  On the device info settings in roon for the HifiBerry I've set this to up to 192 and played around with 24/32 as well as upping the Resync delay to the max - all of which have had no effect

  Many thanks

• 0
  
  TomRR February 26, 2021 16:20

  Update: tried using with Ropieee instead of HifiBerry OS to see if could find any joy but no luck...the popping sound between tracks when changing bit rate is unbearable and a deal breaker for me.

  Any help resolving this is much appreciated