Issue with Plexamp and airplay music streaming: skipping songs and extreme latency

[EgonHeuson]

@odinb1

the wiki already addresses this as of April this year

I agree I just wondered if you couldn’t not also add some instructions for the users that will use the official burning app as it might be easier for them

@odinb1

The furniture in your room probably affects sound more than the DIGI-HAT at this point!

On this I agree with you 100%. Especially as my room is far from perfect for sound and listening experience. I avoided this by the acquisition of a HD650, but again, not sure if my ears will be delicate enough to notice much difference.

@odinb1

Digital Coax pass through (SPDIF) is in my opinion preferred over the Optical (TOSLINK)

Ok good to know I thought optical transfer was better. I found such statement in an article, where they say that a short TOSLINK will be near perfect. But again, not sure if I will ear the diff

@odinb1

For the PSU, I use the ifi-PSU. Less noise with that one! But as stated, as long as it is not underpowered, you will probably be OK!

I will invest in a good power supply then It seems to me one of the most important part for the set-up in fine. Regarding the DAC, I found a second hand (I prefer as I saves a bit the environment send shipping it from China ^^) Pifi DAC+ v2.0 as advised on you blog. I should receive it this week I’ll keep you updated for sure!

[EgonHeuson]

@nibbles

They are both perfectly good for what we are doing

Ok thanks!

@nibbles

Adding in a USB to Optical Audio Output adapter that appears as a sound device to the Pi and costs only $20 but took me 3 weeks and $500 of the wrong things to find. Something like the Cubilux UCO-B1 which is a miracle and takes no special configuration. I use this from a Mac Studio for optical out.

Ahah this sounds good too!! Great idea! I could also try with my FiiO E10K just to see
You think that the AKM DAC would be better than a HAT DAC such as the Hifiberry ones? Anyway, I already know it sounds great as it is used, I guess, for decoding Airplay streams. Am I right?
[EDIT] No way to find the USB to Toslink adapter anymore as far as I can see

@nibbles

You might like to read about your Asahi Kasei DAC in this comparison Archimago’s Musings: Hi-Res THD(+N) vs. Output Level Measurements (ESS “HyperStream” vs. AKM vs. TI/Burr-Brown). And a bonus R-2R!

Thanks very much for the article! I’ll have a read today!
[EDIT] I guess that this article answers my previous question about AKM vs Ti-based DAC

[nibbles]

@EgonHeuson The Cubilux also gets me pass through for 5.1 AC3 and DTS which was my goal. I would be more inclined to go with a Chord rather than a FiiO if I was buying a DAC.

@odinb1 The new Plexamp 4.4.0 on Sept. 2022 Raspbian 64 Lite on a Pi 4B was a smooth manual install. You seeing the same thing in your tests?

Seems like good news for Elan

[odinb1]

@EgonHeuson the TOSLINK vs SPDIF these days more seems to be about preferences. TOSLINK cables can easily fall out if removed/re-inserted frequently, or by a soft bump, or by moving something. The SPDIF usually stays connected. If you have older equipment, one can be better than the other depending on the equipment and age! Read more here on AVSForum!

These days noise seem to be mostly from cheap non-shielded cables and cheap underpowered PSUs, not the other parts, like it used to! So better get a good quality PSU that is not underpowered, and decent shielded cables! The DA in the Marantz is excellent if you ask me!

@nibbles the 4.4.0 gave me some minor issues, think @elan changed something on the audio-side, since I got an error after upgrading, specifically the “ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1075:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave” error! This is fixed by re-selecting the DAC-HAT in settings via WebGUI. I updated the Q&A on the Github for it with steps to fix.

It might also be related to an update of “libasound” or similar related package.

root@plexamp4:~# cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [vc4hdmi0 ]: vc4-hdmi - vc4-hdmi-0
vc4-hdmi-0
1 [vc4hdmi1 ]: vc4-hdmi - vc4-hdmi-1
vc4-hdmi-1
2 [sndrpihifiberry]: RPi-WM8804 - snd_rpi_hifiberry_digi
snd_rpi_hifiberry_digi
root@plexamp4:~#

and:

root@plexamp4:~# aplay -L
null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default
Default Audio Device
sysdefault
Default Audio Device
lavrate
Rate Converter Plugin Using Libav/FFmpeg Library
samplerate
Rate Converter Plugin Using Samplerate Library
speexrate
Rate Converter Plugin Using Speex Resampler
jack
JACK Audio Connection Kit
oss
Open Sound System
pulse
PulseAudio Sound Server
upmix
Plugin for channel upmix (4,6,8)
vdownmix
Plugin for channel downmix (stereo) with a simple spacialization
hw:CARD=vc4hdmi0,DEV=0
vc4-hdmi-0, MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0
Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=vc4hdmi0,DEV=0
vc4-hdmi-0, MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0
Hardware device with all software conversions
default:CARD=vc4hdmi0
vc4-hdmi-0, MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0
Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=vc4hdmi0
vc4-hdmi-0, MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0
Default Audio Device
hdmi:CARD=vc4hdmi0,DEV=0
vc4-hdmi-0, MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0
HDMI Audio Output
dmix:CARD=vc4hdmi0,DEV=0
vc4-hdmi-0, MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0
Direct sample mixing device
usbstream:CARD=vc4hdmi0
vc4-hdmi-0
USB Stream Output
hw:CARD=vc4hdmi1,DEV=0
vc4-hdmi-1, MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0
Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=vc4hdmi1,DEV=0
vc4-hdmi-1, MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0
Hardware device with all software conversions
default:CARD=vc4hdmi1
vc4-hdmi-1, MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0
Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=vc4hdmi1
vc4-hdmi-1, MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0
Default Audio Device
hdmi:CARD=vc4hdmi1,DEV=0
vc4-hdmi-1, MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0
HDMI Audio Output
dmix:CARD=vc4hdmi1,DEV=0
vc4-hdmi-1, MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0
Direct sample mixing device
usbstream:CARD=vc4hdmi1
vc4-hdmi-1
USB Stream Output
hw:CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0
snd_rpi_hifiberry_digi, HifiBerry Digi HiFi wm8804-spdif-0
Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0
snd_rpi_hifiberry_digi, HifiBerry Digi HiFi wm8804-spdif-0
Hardware device with all software conversions
default:CARD=sndrpihifiberry
snd_rpi_hifiberry_digi, HifiBerry Digi HiFi wm8804-spdif-0
Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=sndrpihifiberry
snd_rpi_hifiberry_digi, HifiBerry Digi HiFi wm8804-spdif-0
Default Audio Device
iec958:CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0
snd_rpi_hifiberry_digi, HifiBerry Digi HiFi wm8804-spdif-0
IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
dmix:CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0
snd_rpi_hifiberry_digi, HifiBerry Digi HiFi wm8804-spdif-0
Direct sample mixing device
usbstream:CARD=sndrpihifiberry
snd_rpi_hifiberry_digi
USB Stream Output
root@plexamp4:~#

Update, found this also, so most likely related to an OS update!

[elan]

nothing substantial changed on the audio side.

[EgonHeuson]

@nibbles

I would be more inclined to go with a Chord rather than a FiiO if I was buying a DAC.

For sure, but it’s substantially cheaper AND I already have one

@nibbles

Seems like good news for Elan

Who/what is “Elan”?
[EDIT] OK I see “who” is Elan now

[EgonHeuson]

@odinb1

If you have older equipment, one can be better than the other depending on the equipment and age! Read more here on AVSForum!

Sir yes sir! I’ll try both anyway, just to know

@odinb1

The DA in the Marantz is excellent if you ask me!

Ahah! Great! I’ll git it a chance though! Thanks!!

[EgonHeuson]

Hello to all!
I hope you are well !
I finally received my DAC It’s great and it works like a charm ! Well, the installation of Plexamp headless was not easy, but with the help of @odinb1 and some small changes, I managed to get through it. It works great now . A big thank you to everyone for your help! Hopefully this thread will be useful to others
Have a good day!

[EgonHeuson]

Hey all! Just a quick update about this thread. I finally also received a Pifi Digi+, and sadly we discovered with @odinb1 that the actual version of the Pifi Digi+ is not compatible with the latest version of the Raspberry Pi 4 (v1.5). This was observed by the Hifiberry team on their product in early 2022, but never really reported of the Pifi. Thus I cannot advice this set up for people that are new to this. Instead, go for the Pifi DAC instead, or the Hifiberry Digi2 Pro v2.2 if you have the money or want a digital output. Hope this will help somebody else

[odinb1]

Yup, updated the Q&A on the wiki.
PlexAmp-installer & wiki

======

Q: My HifiBerry card (or clone) is not detected after installation and reboot with aplay -l command, what could be wrong?

A: On your Raspberry Pi, run the following command: cat /proc/device-tree/model. If it says “Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.5”, the HifiBerry card might not work as expected. The new Pi release uses a new power management circuit that doesn’t ramp up the voltages as clean as all previous versions did. This results in an inconsistent state of the circuit and the HifiBerry card isn’t detected by the Pi anymore.

Note that this affects only the Digi+ Pro and Digi2 Pro (and some clones of these cards).

For more information: https://www.hifiberry.com/blog/digi2-pro-raspberry-pi-4-1-5-incompatibilities/ https://www.hifiberry.com/blog/compatibility-issues-of-the-digi2-pro-and-raspberry-pi-4-rev-1-5/ Hardware changes in Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.5 ? - Raspberry Pi Forums

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