Re: Digital noise from USB DAC device
On 03/03/2015 01:14 AM, Teemu Likonen wrote: I believe this is either a hardware issue or some internal USB driver issue. The OP might want to check dmesg to see if there are any hard drive or other warning message related failures. That could cause stutter and hiss as well. Ric -- My father, Victor Moore (Vic) used to say: There are two Great Sins in the world... ..the Sin of Ignorance, and the Sin of Stupidity. Only the former may be overcome. R.I.P. Dad. http://linuxcounter.net/user/44256.html -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/54f5e1ee.1010...@gmail.com
Re: Digital noise from USB DAC device
On 2015-03-02 21:00, Teemu Likonen wrote: I got a new USB DAC device (digital to analog converter, a sound card) and I'm having problems with digital noise. What is the name of the DAC? Music goes directly to the device without any mixers, Does alsamixer show only one PCM slider? Is PulseAudio running? mplayer -af-clr -ao alsa:device=hw=1.0 -format s32le [...] Do you get distortion with a basic aplay command as well? aplay --device=hw:1,0 SomeFile.wav -- August -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/md2mbp$8qu$1...@speranza.aioe.org
Re: Digital noise from USB DAC device
On Mon, Mar 02, 2015 at 10:23:40PM +0200, Teemu Likonen wrote: Dan Ritter [2015-03-02 15:11:00-05] wrote: The static part could easily be introduced in mixing; check alsamixer that everything non-essential is turned down to zero. But there is no mixer, neither software nor hardware. I think the connection to the DAC is as bit-perfect as it can be. If you have an alsa output, there is a software mixer. Control it with alsamixer, and turn off all the inputs that aren't being used. -dsr- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150302212612.gd21...@randomstring.org
Re: Digital noise from USB DAC device
Dan Ritter [2015-03-02 16:26:12-05] wrote:
If you have an alsa output, there is a software mixer. Control it with
alsamixer, and turn off all the inputs that aren't being used.
ALSA can use to sound devices' hardware mixer but ALSA has its own
software mixer too.
I'm bypassing ALSA's software mixer (dmix module). Here's another way to
explain my ALSA connection:
# ~/.asoundrc
pcm.!dac {
type hw
card 1
}
And music goes to that device:
mplayer -af-clr -ao alsa:device=dac -format s32le music.flac
And there is not much hardware mixer either. Command amixer -c1 says
this:
Simple mixer control 'Clock 2',0
Capabilities: pswitch penum
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Mono:
Front Left: Playback [on]
Front Right: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'Clock 2',1
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
Those clocks can be turned on or off. The off position makes the
sound silent.
I believe this is either a hardware issue or some internal USB driver
issue.
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Re: Digital noise from USB DAC device
August Karlstrom [2015-03-02 22:57:15+01] wrote: On 2015-03-02 21:00, Teemu Likonen wrote: I got a new USB DAC device (digital to analog converter, a sound card) and I'm having problems with digital noise. What is the name of the DAC? Henry Audio USB DAC 128 mkII http://www.henryaudio.com/ Does alsamixer show only one PCM slider? Is PulseAudio running? Not even that because the device has no volume settings. See the post I sent a couple of minutes ago on this same discussion thread. Pulseaudio is not installed. mplayer -af-clr -ao alsa:device=hw=1.0 -format s32le [...] Do you get distortion with a basic aplay command as well? aplay --device=hw:1,0 SomeFile.wav Yes. It's the same. Could this be some internal USB driver issue? signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Re: Digital noise from USB DAC device
Could be noise coupled in over ground/power lines of the USB connection. This is very common, and depends a lot on the particulars of the hardware set up. See if you can isolate any other ground connections from the USB device. Isolate other peripherals from the PC. Test with headphones for any improvement. Can the USB device be powered independantly from the USB port? There are USB galvanic isolators, but they're not all good. Of course, look at the software mixer as well.
Re: Digital noise from USB DAC device
On 02/03/2015 19:45, Teemu Likonen wrote: But with high-dynamic classical music I need to turn amplifier's volume up more than usually and it reveals some sort of digital noise. Here's a short recording of the sound (file size 1.2MB): http://koti.kapsi.fi/~dtw/usb-dac-digital-noise.flac That's from my Debian 7.8 box. But when I use the DAC device in my Macbook Air (OS X) and play the same music files, there is no noise. So I think it must be my Debian software stack or a hardware issue. Gosh, that's a terrible noise. Sounds as though it has two components, as well. One noise sounds to me as though there might be another live 'input' feeding into the mixer stuff. Such an input might not be 'terminated' with a microphone (or might be, and is picking something up). Is your D7 box a 'system' box or a laptop? Presumably, the D7 box has some built-in 'soundcard', maybe on the mother board. I was wondering if it is possible to completely disable the built-in soundcard, in the BIOS. I also have a USB DAC but I haven't run it on D7, neither on a laptop nor on a system box. My DAC device also has 'inputs' (2 x RCA). If your device has inputs, can you check that the 'mixer' does not have the USB 'inputs' active? (Even if they are totally 'turned down', it would be better to have them 'off', if that is possible.) Summarising, check for other 'inputs', and make sure they are disabled and not being 'mixed in'. You could, also, plug the USB DAC inputs (if any) into some piece of HiFi so that they are actively 'terminated' - in case there is an issue with some kind of interference pick-up. (The higher tone in your file is similar to an interference I get with one of my audio devices.) I'm not great on the command line, so I cannot help with the CLI to needed to manipulate the sound stuff. regards, Ron -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/54f4c4a3.5000...@tesco.net
Digital noise from USB DAC device
I got a new USB DAC device (digital to analog converter, a sound card) and I'm having problems with digital noise. Music goes directly to the device without any mixers, like this: mplayer -af-clr -ao alsa:device=hw=1.0 -format s32le [...] And it plays nicely. But with high-dynamic classical music I need to turn amplifier's volume up more than usually and it reveals some sort of digital noise. Here's a short recording of the sound (file size 1.2MB): http://koti.kapsi.fi/~dtw/usb-dac-digital-noise.flac That's from my Debian 7.8 box. But when I use the DAC device in my Macbook Air (OS X) and play the same music files, there is no noise. So I think it must be my Debian software stack or a hardware issue. Any ideas about solving this? signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Re: Digital noise from USB DAC device
Dan Ritter [2015-03-02 15:11:00-05] wrote: The static part could easily be introduced in mixing; check alsamixer that everything non-essential is turned down to zero. But there is no mixer, neither software nor hardware. I think the connection to the DAC is as bit-perfect as it can be. signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Re: Digital noise from USB DAC device
On Mon, Mar 02, 2015 at 09:45:13PM +0200, Teemu Likonen wrote: I got a new USB DAC device (digital to analog converter, a sound card) and I'm having problems with digital noise. Music goes directly to the device without any mixers, like this: mplayer -af-clr -ao alsa:device=hw=1.0 -format s32le [...] And it plays nicely. But with high-dynamic classical music I need to turn amplifier's volume up more than usually and it reveals some sort of digital noise. Here's a short recording of the sound (file size 1.2MB): http://koti.kapsi.fi/~dtw/usb-dac-digital-noise.flac That's from my Debian 7.8 box. But when I use the DAC device in my Macbook Air (OS X) and play the same music files, there is no noise. So I think it must be my Debian software stack or a hardware issue. Any ideas about solving this? The static part could easily be introduced in mixing; check alsamixer that everything non-essential is turned down to zero. The tweedle noise sounds like hardware, though. -dsr- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150302201100.gc21...@randomstring.org
