Plexamp issue

Plex Labs
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Is there a known issue with plexamp on android with volume at the moment? My in car android is very quiet (other audio apps are fine - just plexamp). Worse than this, the app is losing volume, after a fresh plexamp reinstall the app is improved but still quiet (it actually feels short of power if that makes sense - flat sounding), over some time of playing the app is getting quieter kinda like each time the volume is increased it is resetting the volume back to quieter so it’s making the volume control less effective at increasing volume. It is bad enough that after an hour of play I had the volume set 13 levels higher than normal on a control scale of 0-30. It is very very quiet now compared to any other app. And basically unusable. I will try and get versions later when I can but I updated to the newest version after noticing the issue this morning and it remains the same on the newest version.

Many thanks

Tom

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That doesn’t make a lot to sense, but there are two things you can try:

  1. You can disable loudness leveling in Plexamp settings.
  2. You can switch between AAudio and OpenSL which sometimes helps on “interesting” Android devices

Other than that, it’s just playing audio like any other app.

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Thanks Elan! The loudness levelling more or less sorted it, alongside pulling the RCA’s out and reattaching and a fresh install. It’s strange because I haven’t changed the settings and I know loudness levelling was always on. I’d say quality and volume are both slightly down on where they were before this issue but I’m more or less back to normal.

It may not be useful but in the interest of completeness; the amplifier background buzz has also been reduced a bit. If I had to guess on what the error might be, it seems like plexamp may aggressively reduce power when loudness levelling is on, causing the user to have to boost the volume (hense the additional amplifier buzz). Is it possible that something has been adjusted in this dynamic recently?

I am a massive plexamp fan, using it most days in car, in house and out running. I will do what I can to help any time and I can only apologise if my feedback ever sounds negative at all. The Plex user base needs what Plex is, I speak only for myself but we don’t want or need loads of new features, we just want what we have to keep doing what it does as happily and as stable as possible.

Thanks so much :folded_hands: :folded_hands:

Tom

I’m actually listening while reviewing this reply before I hit send and both volume and quality appear to be gradually creeping back up with each additional track that plays - almost exactly opposite to what happened when it went wrong - very strange.

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With loudness leveling off (and EQ), you’re getting digital audio out, without Plexamp doing anything to it. Anything else you’re experiencing is due to OS, preamp, amp, etc.

Nothing has changed in volume leveling in years. But loudness leveling typically does cause the average level to be a bit lower, which may lead someone to turning up other components in the signal chain.

I have no explanation for that, sorry. Unless something else is changing the volume of your device, but Plexamp doesn’t do any such thing.

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Does the head unit have a setting to adapt volume to car speed/environmental noise level? If so try disabling that.

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Nothing that I can find thanks… It’s pretty strange but I can’t find anything in any of the settings anywhere on device and other apps seem unaffected. I don’t use other apps much so maybe this is an issue with my perception and maybe the android system is doing something different.

I’ll likely spend some decent time listening on Sunday, I’ll update if I notice anything else but seemingly all is fairly well and I’m just pleased to have volume back.

Thanks both for the time and effort.

Tom