Please post your questions and feedback here.
Date
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141 comments
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Douglas Gardner Thomas I'm using the 12/13 OS build also with DSP add on board. When I run, "dsptoolkit get-volume", it returns "Volume: 0.1779 / 75% / -15db". That matches what I have set in Roon for the track that I'm playing. Roon shows, "75" as the current volume. Setting the volume in Roon to 100 yields, "Volume: 1.0002 / 100% / 0db", from get-volume.
Looks like the volume settings are operating correctly. At least they are matching the numeric valued shown in Roon to me. I thought I noticed the same thing with slightly lower max volume but memory is not a great measuring device. I wondered if there might be some headroom being added in the DSP chain to optimize the DAC. I recall that the specs for the chip used in the DAC 2 HD had slightly better measurements when run slightly below 0 db. Not audible but numerically better. It could also be that I'm just remembering poorly the max volume level the amp can produce.
Also wondering if future iterations of the board could allow for higher gain. Not sure what's possible with the amp chip. I think the Amp100 max gain is 24db according to the text by the jumper pins to set a lower gain.
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HiFiBerry team With the Amp100, the volume control should not be done by the DSP, but using the DAC's volume control. Therefore, dsptoolkit should say 100% volume
Douglas Gardner & Tomas. Can you both post the output ofcat /etc/hifiberry.state
This helps me to understand if the volume control in general is set correctly -
Douglas Gardner Thx for checking it out; pretty sure it's a flaw in my perception regarding max volume. Note that I'm using DSP add-on version 13 per earlier in this thread. Here's what I get:
# cat /etc/hifiberry.state
CURRENT_PIMODEL=4
CURRENT_MIXER_CONTROL="DSPVolume"
CURRENT_CARD="Amp100 + DSP Module"
CURRENT_HW="card 0"
CURRENT_HW_SHORT=0
CURRENT_SYSNAME="HiFiBerryOS"
CURRENT_PLAYERS=""
CURRENT_HATINFO="HiFiBerry Amp100"
CURRENT_FEATURES="pi bluetooth pi3orlater arm7 dsp spdifnoclock toslink localui"
CURRENT_DSPTYPE="DSP add-on"
PIVERSION=4Also note that alsa mixer shows that volume levels are all in agreement if that's of any use to you.
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Thomas Here comes my output
# cat /etc/hifiberry.state
CURRENT_PIMODEL=4
CURRENT_MIXER_CONTROL="Digital"
CURRENT_CARD="Amp100 + DSP Module"
CURRENT_HW="card 0"
CURRENT_HW_SHORT=0
CURRENT_SYSNAME="HiFiBerry"
CURRENT_PLAYERS=""
CURRENT_HATINFO="HiFiBerry Amp100"
CURRENT_FEATURES="pi bluetooth pi3orlater arm7 dsp spdifnoclock toslink localui"
CURRENT_DSPTYPE="DSP add-on"
PIVERSION=4
# -
daniel Hello,
I just installed the amp100 with the pi 3 and Volumio.
Everything is running except I am getting no sound.I added the dtoverlay but no success.
Can someone help me out getting it running?
Update: I can see the DAC with Alsa Mixer
But when Using speaker-test there is no Sound...
I would edit the dac config and try it with that.
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HiFiBerry team The overlay won't work as Volumio doesn't come with the drivers that are needed for it. Today these are only included on HiFiBerryOS, as we're still testing these. If everything looks fine (it looks like this today), we'll send a PR for the official Pi kernel beginnen of next year.
Until this is in the official kernel and the Volumio is upgraded, you need to reset the Amp100 by yourself:
https://github.com/hifiberry/hifiberry-os/blob/master/buildroot/package/hifiberry-tools/reset-amp100 -
HiFiBerry team Thomas To fix this, please do the following
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hifiberry/hifiberry-os/development/buildroot/package/dspprofiles/fix-dsp-profil
e > fix.sh
chmod +x fix.sh
./fix.sh
/opt/hifiberry/bin/reconfigure-players
This should update the DSP profile and adapt the volume controls to work correctly again. -
daniel Thanks it worked.
I havent used the bash script correctly. Thx
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Douglas Gardner Is there a way to increase the Amp 100 gain higher than 24db? Volume at 100 isn't loud enough with some recordings and some programming over SPDIF. Silk screening on jumper shows 18db (with jumper) and 24db (no jumper) options. Getting it to 27db would match my other power amps and 30db would be ideal since there's no preamp in the signal chain.
I plan to run the amp with a 28 volt, 150 watt power supply that should give it plenty of headroom. If there's a board modification I can make then I'm interested in that too if there isn't a jumper configuration.
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HiFiBerry team No, there isn't. There also isn't the need for a pre-amplifier. The DAC's output voltage is already 3V peak. Even with 24dB, a full-range signal could easily drive the amplifier into clipping (3V peak * 15 = 45V).
However, I see you problem with material that's not using full range signals. One way to change this would be changing the function of the SPDIF and Pi limiters on the DSP to also allow to set "negative" limits that would result in an amplification. I'll see if we can implement this in a future HiFiBerryOS release. While you could do this already from command line, the UI would overwrite this again on every start, which makes this not really a good option for now. -
Douglas Gardner HiFiBerry team Thanks for adding the negative limits capabilities to the queue of improvements. A lot of the source material doesn't seem to be full range. Mandalorian streamed through Amazon Fire TV with sound through SPDIF from my monitor is a recent example.
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HiFiBerry team Yes, that's a usual problem with TVs down-mixing multichannel to stereo - the volume is often very low.
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Douglas Gardner Re my post above on volume being too low, I took a look at alsamixer settings. I noticed that one of the volume sliders was at 50%. I think it was the slider labeled, "digital". Sliding that up had the expected effect of increasing the max volume output of the device. I don't recall going into alsmixer setting prior to this time checking it out so I'm not sure how it could have been set to that value.
I did notice that there are a few volume settings that effect the output volumes. Can you share how they should be set for maximum fidelity of output and for headroom to prevent digital clipping while using the EQ and room correction capabilities? Those settings are, "DSPVolum", "Analogue", "Digital", and "SoftVol". In my set up DSPVolum corresponds to the master volume on the web interface. Analogue volume seems to be a binary setting that subtracts 6db when off; guessing for balanced vs single ended inputs.
The adjustments I made in alsamixer survived reboot so that seems a reasonable way to configure.
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dr_mops Hello, I just wanted to ask whether I have to expect the AMP100 to change in hardware when it is out of beta or if "beta" is only referring to the software/driver side of things
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HiFiBerry team "Beta" is referring to everything. The beta is almost finished only a few boards are left. Once these are sold and we have enough feedback from users we'll decide if there will be any changes.
The "non-beta" version isn't expected before March/April next year. -
Vincent Hi, first of all I want to say that I really like the AMP. I haven't any expertise on HiFi equipmant what so ever but it works as expected and beyond. Soundquality seems great to me and the whole setup wasn't in any way as hard as I thought. All in all the best spent 150€ in a long time. :)
Currently I have two questions:
1) Is a fan necessary? I bought this one but haven't found a spot on the board to plug them in.
2) Is SPDIF working? I read the whole thread but I'm completely new to raspberry pi and on some points it's hard to follow. I tried to connect the raspberry to my Philips Android TV but had no success. Optical Input via hifiberryOS is enabled.
Happy holidays
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Douglas Gardner Vincent I'm not with HiFiBerry but chiming in on your post. I have the Amp100 in a small metal case with the only ventilation the whole that I cut for various ports and connectors. In that configuration the pi hasn't gotten above 60c. That's well under the 80c or so when the CPU is typically throttled. I wouldn't use a fan; they aren't silent.
Here's the command I use to check the temp from the command line:
awk '{printf("- CPU temp : %.1f'"'"'C : %.1f'"'"'F\n", $1/1000, 32+($1/1000)*9/5)}' /sys/devices/virtual/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp
The SPDIF is working in my configuration. As you've seen in the thread above there were a few things I needed to do and not sure if all of that is in the current OS release. My current configuration is HiFiBerry-OS version 20201213. I'm also using, what I'm calling DSP add-on Version 13. I'm not sure what official version it is but I edited the XML file and named it Version 13 so I could distinguish it from the Version 12 file that had the same name field in the XML file.
You can install that DSP add-on module with the following command:
dsptoolkit install-profile https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hifiberry/hifiberry-os/development/buildroot/package/dspprofiles/dsp-addon-96-13.xml.
If you know how to do file transfers to your pi then you can sftp that file into the directory: /opt/beocreate/beo-dsp-programs
Note that if you don't file transfer the file onto your pi then the DSP add-on module might show as unknown in the web interface under Sound/DSP Programs. If that's the case you may need to uncheck the box that says, "Mute Unknown Programs" so that the program can run.
Also note that you may need to reboot more than once. I had some hiccups and rebooting smoothed things out.
If still not working then it may be that the spdifclockgen isn't running by default. You can enable it with the command:
systemctl enable --now spdifclockgen
Good luck getting the SPDIF running. It works fine in my system.
Should have added on the outset that you need the DSP module for optical input/output.
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Vincent Douglas Gardner thanks for your great explanation! I did all the steps and now it's working. Volume is too low but I will try alsamixer.
Edit: Worked with alsamixer now it's perfect. I just had to increase "Digital".
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Douglas Gardner Vincent From your comment it looks like your, "Digital", volume was set similar to mine by default.
HiFiBerry team Can you clarify how we should set the various alsamixer volume controls for optimum sound quality and which we should be careful with so that we don't overdrive DSP or analogue stages? If that's something you'll be doing in future OS releases then that would be super.
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HiFiBerry team There is no "right" way to do it as we're dealing with 2 independent volume controls here:
- one on the DSP
- one on the Amp
One of both should be set to full volume, and the other one should be used to control the volume. I'll see that we improve this in the next HBOS release -
Thomas I am pretty happy with the SW stability on the AMP 100 so far. The Volume/Mixer assignment seems to be a tricky point but I am sure it can be addressed.
I have a wish for the display of meta data. There seem to be already a concept implemented to display Meta Data of the current player status (via HDMI screen or La Metric).
Since HBOS is supporting Docker is there an "easy" way to use a pydPiper container with a specific (maybe you already have a config in your shelf) configuration? I guess the MPD is not the central player entity in the HBOS but there is a specific Metadata entitiy (the RestAPI?) to be used.
I assume some of us who use HBOS would love to use these classic inexpensive I2C LCD/VFD 16x2 / 20x4 (or more modern OLED variants) Displays to visualize the current player state (e.g. Radio Station Names, Source, song information etc.).
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HiFiBerry team I know of one user that's working on an I2C LCD implementation, but I'm not sure if and when he will contribute code. Adding metadata display is quite simple by adding an extension to audiocontrol:
https://github.com/hifiberry/audiocontrol2/blob/master/doc/extensions.md -
Sylvain L Hi HiFiBerry team !
I just bought the Amp100 for testing and I really enjoy the product. But I have a little bug.
I know I am not using the product with the fully recommendation, I explain:
Raspberry 3B+ with Raspbian Strech
Amp100 without the DSP board
28V 2.57A power suplly I found in my desk drawer
Klipsch 160m (8ohm 100w)
I add the dtoverlay command line and do a reset amp100 script you provide at startup. The sound works good, but after a while (maybe 5 minutes) the left channel stops and the card lights on the D3 led.
Do you think it's a power supply problem (not enought to handle the system) ? (It's came too when the alsamixer digital out is low)
Software problem ? (I know it's better to use HifiBerry OS but I just wanted to test with a already configured raspberry I have without erasing his configuration)
I'm interested to know why and maybe it can help you with the beta test.
Best regards,
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Stijn1c Hello
Are any Raspberry Pi pins still available through the amp100? I'm looking for a 5V and ground pin because I would like to add a small fan to my setup
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HiFiBerry team If you don't use the DSP add-on, you can still access it via the DSP add-on header which has the same pinout as the normal Pi GPIO.
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Douglas Gardner Using Amp100 with DSP board I noticed that some of the controls on the web UI and from the HiFiBerry remote are not working with Roon. The, "skip track" forward and back buttons on the web UI aren't functioning. Same on the remote. Not sure if this is a general OS problem or specific to the Amp100. I noticed this a while back but wanted to log it here for visibility.
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HiFiBerry team This seems to be a problem with the latest HBOS release. We'll look into this for the next release
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Chrisdanamalone I am running into issues with Spotify Connect on my Amp100 + DSP + RP4B (OS: Hifiberry 20201213). My internet seems to be working fine but over the past few days the Hifiberry intermittently disconnects from Spotify and I have to manually turn Connect on and off for it work properly again. I have been running this Amp100 for the about three weeks and it was working perfectly up until a couple days ago. Can you please tell me if there is anything I can do to prevent this from happening in the future?
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HiFiBerry team No we can't. As Spotify doesn't provide any official protocol documentation or software for this, all open source Spotify implementations are based on reverse engineering. This might just break at some point.
While you can check the logs using
journalctl -u spotify
there might be no way to fix it. The Spotify implementation we're using at the moment is based on vollibrespot. This seems to be a lot more stable than spotifyd used before. But it might still break. -
Chrisdanamalone Ah ok thank you that clarifies things
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