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Hello all,
I got My VZW branded M8 on launch day and have been getting used to it and checking 20 times a day to see if a perm root solution has been found or better yet an S-Off method. On to my issue in the past few days I've had some time to listen to some mp3s from an SD card on the M8's stock music app and I have found that there is an audible stutter randomly occurring 3-5 times per song. The same mp3 played in poweramp plays smooth. The same SD card played the same songs smoothly in my DNA. So I'm lead to believe there some issue with the stock music app. I tested with screen timeout disabled, motion gestures disabled and still got the same thing.
Did anyone notice the same issue or is it just my phone.
It sounds like song skipped a beat or someone bumping a CD player, not really a sound but just the timing got out of sync for an instant. The first time I just thought it was a error in mp3 then I picked up that it was happening continually but could not be reproduced by replaying the same section of music. I love poweramp but the stock music player should function correctly on a flagship phone and IMO. I like the HTC stock music app as it lets me stream music from my DLNA server on my network, so I like it to function properly.
Kind Regards,
mc
Maybe try a factory reset since its obviously not a hardware issue if a third party app is working perfectly. Only music player i use is the stock HTC Music app and never had any issues with it across the board. Works perfect here even streaming over BT in the car or BT stereo headsets.
No stuttering here, but i've had tracks reset to start after short inactivity. I listen to audiobooks and had to go use Google Play Music because my chapters kept starting over after pausing them.
mc_365 said:
Hello all,
I got My VZW branded M8 on launch day and have been getting used to it and checking 20 times a day to see if a perm root solution has been found or better yet an S-Off method. On to my issue in the past few days I've had some time to listen to some mp3s from an SD card on the M8's stock music app and I have found that there is an audible stutter randomly occurring 3-5 times per song. The same mp3 played in poweramp plays smooth. The same SD card played the same songs smoothly in my DNA. So I'm lead to believe there some issue with the stock music app. I tested with screen timeout disabled, motion gestures disabled and still got the same thing.
Did anyone notice the same issue or is it just my phone.
It sounds like song skipped a beat or someone bumping a CD player, not really a sound but just the timing got out of sync for an instant. The first time I just thought it was a error in mp3 then I picked up that it was happening continually but could not be reproduced by replaying the same section of music. I love poweramp but the stock music player should function correctly on a flagship phone and IMO. I like the HTC stock music app as it lets me stream music from my DLNA server on my network, so I like it to function properly.
Kind Regards,
mc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've actually been having this issue but over Bluetooth only but my audio never skips when I have a 3.5mm jack plugged in. I'm getting a new Bluetooth device and I'll report back on my findings.
Have not had this issue with my Verizon M8. I have all my music (about 20gb) on the sd card, and normally play through the 3.5mm jack.
The one thing I did notice is, with my old htc phone, when playing music and a notification came in, it would interrupt the music and play the notification. I liked this because I would know to look at my phone. With this one, there is NO interruption of the music. So I can be in my car for a half hour playing music, and not know of any texts or emails unless I look at the phone. Anyone know a solution?
UPDATE: I tried using another Bluetooth device and the same problem occurred. Also to note, I'm having this issue with the stock music app & PlayerPro. However, if I reboot my phone the problem does not occur and I'm able to play music through my Bluetooth device without stutters.
@mc_365: Trying to see if we have anything in common. When music stutters, are you connected via Bluetooth? By any chance are you rooted & did you freeze any apps? Do you have the problem while connected to a 3.5mm jack?
UPDATE (9:32a PT): I just tried a factory reset & I'm still having the problem. Anybody have any other suggestions?
compir99 said:
UPDATE: I tried using another Bluetooth device and the same problem occurred. Also to note, I'm having this issue with the stock music app & PlayerPro. However, if I reboot my phone the problem does not occur and I'm able to play music through my Bluetooth device without stutters. I have not tried a factory reset yet.
@mc_365: Trying to see if we have anything in common. When music stutters, are you connected via Bluetooth? By any chance are you rooted & did you freeze any apps? Do you have the problem while connected to a 3.5mm jack?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not rooted and trying to play music through my Camaro bluetooth from Play Music it just constantly skips. I am running on ART and will switch back to dalvik to see if that fixes it. If not, I'm going to exchange my phone or return it all together.
UPDATE:
I switched back to Dalvik and did a factory reset to make sure everything was done properly. Now Google Play Music doesn't skip when I play music through my car. Are any of you on ART runtime by chance?
I just came back from Verizon & exchanged my M8; I'll have to check to see if that helped.
mc_365 said:
Hello all,
I got My VZW branded M8 on launch day and have been getting used to it and checking 20 times a day to see if a perm root solution has been found or better yet an S-Off method. On to my issue in the past few days I've had some time to listen to some mp3s from an SD card on the M8's stock music app and I have found that there is an audible stutter randomly occurring 3-5 times per song. The same mp3 played in poweramp plays smooth. The same SD card played the same songs smoothly in my DNA. So I'm lead to believe there some issue with the stock music app. I tested with screen timeout disabled, motion gestures disabled and still got the same thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trying to see if we have anything in common. When music stutters, are you connected via Bluetooth? By any chance are you rooted & did you freeze any apps? Do you have the problem while connected to a 3.5mm jack?
deeznuts said:
Maybe try a factory reset since its obviously not a hardware issue if a third party app is working perfectly. Only music player i use is the stock HTC Music app and never had any issues with it across the board. Works perfect here even streaming over BT in the car or BT stereo headsets.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you playing music from your SD card or internal memory?
bloodiedwraith said:
I'm not rooted and trying to play music through my Camaro bluetooth from Play Music it just constantly skips. I am running on ART and will switch back to dalvik to see if that fixes it. If not, I'm going to exchange my phone or return it all together.
UPDATE:
I switched back to Dalvik and did a factory reset to make sure everything was done properly. Now Google Play Music doesn't skip when I play music through my car. Are any of you on ART runtime by chance?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never messed around with changing Dalvik/ART; I checked and I'm running Dalvik. Are you playing music off your SD card or internal memory over Bluetooth when you're having this problem?
I'm just playing mp3s from SD card on a regular pair of earphones. I think maybe my issue is the HTC decoder just doesn't like the CD rip I was playing, maybe the bitrate or the error handling within the app or something like that. I've played other mp3s now and can't say that this is something that is consistently happening.
I have all my songs on external sd card. I can try streaming Pandora in my car and see if any stuttering If that makes a difference? I did though download a few so to internal storage and played over Bluetooth in my car on the way home without stuttering. Played the same as the songs on my external sd card.
I have an obnoxious stutter on the Netflix app through speakers and headphone jack. Noticed it through play movies today also. Reset did nothing. Sadly it isn't noticeable for it to pass through the replacement check
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk
I get the occasional skip when streaming over bluetooth from my SD card. I'd suspect it has more to do with the I/O read ahead or scheduler than anything. It seems to happen whether or not the screen is on, so I don't think it's a processor hang or anything like that.
I hope this update helps anyone with the same issue. :fingers-crossed:
*knock on wood
I noticed that the skips were less and far between if I was playing music over Bluetooth using the internal memory. So what I did is take another SD card and played music on that. This resulted in no skips that I could tell. Perhaps it might be a defective SD card or bad format so I reformatted the SD card completely (full not quick) and so far I'm having less skips in music. I ordered up the 128 GB SanDisk card & hopefully I won't have any skips using that card.
I'm thinking once we get a permanent root & S-Off we can try putting AOSP on our M8s & see if that eliminates the issue completely. :fingers-crossed:
If anybody else can share any suggestions on what to try, that would be great!
sitlet said:
Have not had this issue with my Verizon M8. I have all my music (about 20gb) on the sd card, and normally play through the 3.5mm jack.
The one thing I did notice is, with my old htc phone, when playing music and a notification came in, it would interrupt the music and play the notification. I liked this because I would know to look at my phone. With this one, there is NO interruption of the music. So I can be in my car for a half hour playing music, and not know of any texts or emails unless I look at the phone. Anyone know a solution?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the problem I'm experiencing that brought me to this thread. Did you ever find a solution? Both Google Play Music and Stock HTC Music play over the notification. My podcast app, Pocket Casts, appropriately gives focus to notification sounds every time.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2732264
same problem, fix seems to be something to do with viper rom.
broprah said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2732264
same problem, fix seems to be something to do with viper rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In sum, the potential fix is to change the read-ahead buffer from 512 to 1024, and the guy said it worked for several days with no further updates. He happened to be running Viper when he made the changes... apparently it uses the stock kernel. I am running CleanROM with stock kernel, so I just installed trickster and changed my read-ahead buffer to 1024. I'll report back if that makes a difference. There was one follow-up comment that it didn't make a difference in the stock ROM (edit - ahh... from broprah... any update to that?).
FWIW, I have been noticing this issue a lot BUT I only get it when streaming to my BT earbuds (with HTC Music, Google Play Music, and Pocket Casts). This stuttering does not happen when I use wired earbuds or playing over BT in my car. I understand the scenarios are different for everyone, but that's my own situation.
furious78 said:
In sum, the potential fix is to change the read-ahead buffer from 512 to 1024, and the guy said it worked for several days with no further updates. He happened to be running Viper when he made the changes... apparently it uses the stock kernel. I am running CleanROM with stock kernel, so I just installed trickster and changed my read-ahead buffer to 1024. I'll report back if that makes a difference. There was one follow-up comment that it didn't make a difference in the stock ROM (edit - ahh... from broprah... any update to that?).
FWIW, I have been noticing this issue a lot BUT I only get it when streaming to my BT earbuds (with HTC Music, Google Play Music, and Pocket Casts). This stuttering does not happen when I use wired earbuds or playing over BT in my car. I understand the scenarios are different for everyone, but that's my own situation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I ended up flashing Viper and I haven't experienced any stuttering since. In poking around, I see that changing the read ahead in the built in system tools only changes the internal read ahead. Further poking revealed that the external read ahead is preset to 4096kb, which could be the solution in the end.
broprah said:
I ended up flashing Viper and I haven't experienced any stuttering since. In poking around, I see that changing the read ahead in the built in system tools only changes the internal read ahead. Further poking revealed that the external read ahead is preset to 4096kb, which could be the solution in the end.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't see a differentiation in Trickster. Do you know if that's just a Viper setting?
I was using FauxTool to check and change settings, regardless of kernel.
No such luck with my read ahead change. :/
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk
One of the quirks of our idol 3 is that when playing music from sd card it occasionally hiccups which can be very annoying. I'm told that Poweramp has the ability to "adjust audio priority" and get around this issue. I'd like to know if there are any free players that can also get around this issue? It's VERY annoying in the car both for music and audiobooks.
i listens to songs everyday to and back from work but yet to hear stuttering with default player. could it be sd card?
saw the other thread your on bluetooth. havent tried that yet.
Sent from my 6045I using XDA Free mobile app
gavolo said:
i listens to songs everyday to and back from work but yet to hear stuttering with default player. could it be sd card?
saw the other thread your on bluetooth. havent tried that yet.
Sent from my 6045I using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guess I need to plug some headphones in and listen for a while to nail down bluetooth as the contributing factor. Thanks for the reply!
Possibly Bluetooth issue
famewolf said:
Guess I need to plug some headphones in and listen for a while to nail down bluetooth as the contributing factor. Thanks for the reply!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It may be a Bluetooth issue. I had the exact same issue with my OnePlus One when it was connected to Bluetooth on my Pioneer FH-X700BT stereo in my car. That is a good description of the audio playback "hiccuping". I actually have never tried using an Aux line from the audio jack to this same stereo, but I don't recall it skipping during playback on headphones, but I don't use headphones much either. I have an Aux cable at home. I'll try it later or maybe tomorrow and let you know what I find.
Just found this on Reddit about the same thing happening to others using Galaxy Note 4 and other phones when using Bluetooth as well.
https://www.reddit.com/r/galaxynote4/comments/364vo3/has_anyone_had_any_bluetooth_hiccups_especially/
I use MixZing for static MP3's and I like it. I use Pandora One for streaming audio and love it. Listen everyday. Speaking of Pandora, they just updated their app this weekend and they returned the lock screen widget! I think it was not included on the lockscreen within Lollipop? My KitKat phone had and still has it.
sjketchen said:
It may be a Bluetooth issue. I had the exact same issue with my OnePlus One when it was connected to Bluetooth on my Pioneer FH-X700BT stereo in my car. That is a good description of the audio playback "hiccuping". I actually have never tried using an Aux line from the audio jack to this same stereo, but I don't recall it skipping during playback on headphones, but I don't use headphones much either. I have an Aux cable at home. I'll try it later or maybe tomorrow and let you know what I find.
Just found this on Reddit about the same thing happening to others using Galaxy Note 4 and other phones when using Bluetooth as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting.. I have the same unit in my car and have experienced this as well. I noticed it would do this with my LG Volt when streaming Spotify on BT. I haven't really tested it with this phone yet so I'm not sure if the issue will still be there. I'll have to check it out.
I read some articles indicating you can either 1) keep screen on or 2) keep wifi off to prevent the skip. Something about bluetooth priority dropping while in sleep mode.....now they may be on to something...the battery saver I use doesn't keep wifi on all the time but it does occasionally turn it on to look for familiar hotspots to connect to....it's possible my skips are occuring when wifi is coming on.....another user reported calls had issues as well on bluetooth when wifi was on.
I listen to media on my sd card through headphones and speakers and I'm still noticing the stuttering when WiFi is off. I have noticed that it's a lot less frequent after the update though.
I use n7player, and what I found out about it amazes me.. The actual sound is better with this app than any other on stock rom, and I tried over 20 players including poweramp,shuttle (similar sound q with no folder search in free ver), equalizer+, google music, jbl music app and all the apps you can find in google play store from 0 to 100 in top section..
The menu is intuitive with name chose method, and also looks nice.. Features like equaliser, play on when headphones plugged in, etc are also here..
Sent from hell
Nikola Jovanovic said:
I use n7player, and what I found out about it amazes me.. The actual sound is better with this app than any other on stock rom, and I tried over 20 players including poweramp,shuttle (similar sound q with no folder search in free ver), equalizer+, google music, jbl music app and all the apps you can find in google play store from 0 to 100 in top section..
The menu is intuitive with name chose method, and also looks nice.. Features like equaliser, play on when headphones plugged in, etc are also here..
Sent from hell
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting. I'll have to experiment with this a little. I used N7Player for awhile a couple of years ago, but I didn't like the excess of it and all the files it left strewn in every audio directory I had. Mostly, I use Music Folder Player Full and have most of the time over the last few years. It's clean, simple, to the point. What it doesn't offer, I don't want, anyway. But I don't think I've compared audio quality between different apps.
I may install Viper 4 Android on a different phone and see what that does. That's not a player, of course.
This phone + viper4 + music app in your choice is a win combo.. Just wondering if we ever get viper4
Sent from hell
Nikola Jovanovic said:
This phone + viper4 + music app in your choice is a win combo.. Just wondering if we ever get viper4
Sent from hell
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's stopping you?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2191223
I'm waiting for custom rom for now
Sent from hell
Nikola Jovanovic said:
I'm waiting for custom rom for now
Sent from hell
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've flashed installable zip's of viper4android on some of my other devices....as long as you take a backup first there shouldn't be any issues.
Viper 4 A works on idol3, before that you have to change build.prop lines, selinux to permissive and istall busybox.
EDIT : Now can used without selinux set to permissive, just flash the zip trough recovery
http://forum.xda-developers.com/note-4-tmobile/general/viper4android-stock-kernel-easy-steps-t3130806
famewolf said:
One of the quirks of our idol 3 is that when playing music from sd card it occasionally hiccups which can be very annoying. I'm told that Poweramp has the ability to "adjust audio priority" and get around this issue. I'd like to know if there are any free players that can also get around this issue? It's VERY annoying in the car both for music and audiobooks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had this problem with my OnePlus One device and the only thing that completely fixed the "hiccuping" was to go to Bluetooth and disable "Phone", only having "Media" selected. It's like it was receiving interference from the phone via bluetooth.
One of the disappointing trends for me with new phones is the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jacks. However, given the popularity of wireless headphones and the large market share of Apple devices I expect the trend to continue and headphone jacks to be found on fewer and fewer phones in the future.
I imagine that I'm in the minority of users who use neither streaming services or Bluetooth headphones. My music is usually high bit rate FLAC, ACC or MP3 depending on when I ripped it. My initial listening on the included 3.5mm DAC was not promising. A lack of dynamic range and low volume even on efficient in ear monitors (IEMs) made me think about finding a replacement.
The problem is there aren't at lot of options for small passive DACs. And my bet is that most of the current phones with no 3.5mm jack use the same chipset that Essential uses - the Conexant CX20985 for their headphone adapters. (For more info - see the AnandTech article - Conexant Introduces USB-C Digital Audio Compliant Chips.)
So that lead me to see if perhaps there was something that could be done in software. Based on my limited research it would appear that Android above version 5.0 has a built in USB to DAC driver. It also appears that this is what Essential uses to access the USB adapter. However, this driver is quite limited. Consistent with what I heard, the driver resamples everything to 16-bit 48kHz and limits the dynamic range. (For more info see extreamsd.com and their USB audio driver page.)
Good news! There are several music player applications on GooglePlay that are capable of natively recognizing the Essential DAC over USB. The difference in sound quality, volume and dynamic range is like night and day. The most polished one I've used is the paid application Onkyo HF Player. However, the free application HibyMusic also works, but has few rough edges. The Onkyo application sounds good enough for me to make finding a better DAC no longer necessary.
One WARNING on both programs and the Essential DAC - when the DAC is recognized by the programs they frequently turn the initial volume level to 100%. If you do this while you've started music playing and have the headphones on you will be in for a very rude surprise. Trust me I learned this the hard way - plug everything in with no music playing and be sure to lower the volume first.
Update from comments - Apps that support the Essential DAC directly:
1. Onkyo HF Player
2. HibyMusic
3. USB Audio Player Pro
4. Neutron Music Player
USB Audio Player Pro has a custom driver that supports bit-perfect on android. I use it with external DACs such as the Meridian Explorer 2 (MQA works perfectly) and the AudioQuest Dragonfly Red - hardware volume control works.
TimboC2000 said:
One of the disappointing trends for me with new phones is the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jacks. However, given the popularity of wireless headphones and the large market share of Apple devices I expect the trend to continue and headphone jacks to be found on fewer and fewer phones in the future.
I imagine that I'm in the minority of users who use neither streaming services or Bluetooth headphones. My music is usually high bit rate FLAC, ACC or MP3 depending on when I ripped it. My initial listening on the included 3.5mm DAC was not promising. A lack of dynamic range and low volume even on efficient in ear monitors (IEMs) made me think about finding a replacement.
The problem is there aren't at lot of options for small passive DACs. And my bet is that most of the current phones with no 3.5mm jack use the same chipset that Essential uses - the Conexant CX20985 for their headphone adapters. (For more info - see the AnandTech article - Conexant Introduces USB-C Digital Audio Compliant Chips.)
So that lead me to see if perhaps there was something that could be done in software. Based on my limited research it would appear that Android above version 5.0 has a built in USB to DAC driver. It also appears that this is what Essential uses to access the USB adapter. However, this driver is quite limited. Consistent with what I heard, the driver resamples everything to 16-bit 48kHz and limits the dynamic range. (For more info see extreamsd.com and their USB audio driver page.)
Good news! There are several music player applications on GooglePlay that are capable of natively recognizing the Essential DAC over USB. The difference in sound quality, volume and dynamic range is like night and day. The most polished one I've used is the paid application Onkyo HF Player. However, the free application HibyMusic also works, but has few rough edges. The Onkyo application sounds good enough for me to make finding a better DAC no longer necessary.
One WARNING on both programs and the Essential DAC - when the DAC is recognized by the programs they frequently turn the initial volume level to 100%. If you do this while you've started music playing and have the headphones on you will be in for a very rude surprise. Trust me I learned this the hard way - plug everything in with no music playing and be sure to lower the volume first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this, I was searching just today for something that would be compatible with the USB-C output and I didn't want to waste money on anything that won't work on the Essential. And I have an Onkyo receiver for my living room to boot. I wonder how the Iron Maiden flavored version of the app works? I am a Maiden fan as well. Maybe I'll try that version and report back on this thread.
A quick update. For $9.00 I figured I’d give the Google Pixel DAC a try. It only samples at 48kHz. It also provides no identifying information as to manufacturer. So it works, but the Essential DAC is superior.
For a small compact passive DAC the new Razer Phone DAC at $20 would be the one to try. It is 24bit and THX certified, but as yet untested on the Essential Phone. So it may only work on the Razer.
How do you know if the app has native support?
Sent from my PH-1 using XDA Labs
avd said:
How do you know if the app has native support?
Sent from my PH-1 using XDA Labs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Onkyo program will identify the DAC and tell you the sampling modes. Both programs bring up a dialog box noting a USB device when it is plugged in.
But you have to rely on the program author and description to see if they support DACs natively.
Personally I have been using Neutron Music Player on the Play Store, and it has been working great.
I picked it up years ago on sale and downloaded it on my PH-1 to see if it added a setting to support USB DACs, and it turns out it did
However, it did not use the external DAC by default, you have to enable it in the settings. The setting was specifically under Audio Hardware, as 'Direct USB Driver' to allow direct access to the USB device. I am on Nougat and after closing and reopening the app, the background hiss/static I could hear while using the default output is now gone and my Essential USB-C DAC has been working great.
oken735 said:
Personally I have been using Neutron Music Player on the Play Store, and it has been working great.
I picked it up years ago on sale and downloaded it on my PH-1 to see if it added a setting to support USB DACs, and it turns out it did
However, it did not use the external DAC by default, you have to enable it in the settings. The setting was specifically under Audio Hardware, as 'Direct USB Driver' to allow direct access to the USB device. I am on Nougat and after closing and reopening the app, the background hiss/static I could hear while using the default output is now gone and my Essential USB-C DAC has been working great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And this has a trial version, perfect. I will give it a try. After I get some files on my PH-1. Had to order a cable to connect to my PC since Essential doesn't include one! I am guessing that none of these apps work with Tidal,Spotify,Pandora etc?
chiadrum said:
And this has a trial version, perfect. I will give it a try. After I get some files on my PH-1. Had to order a cable to connect to my PC since Essential doesn't include one! I am guessing that none of these apps work with Tidal,Spotify,Pandora etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes a "regular" USB to USB C. Monotone had it on sale this week.
Out you can use software like synching.
Sent from my PH-1 using XDA Labs
chiadrum said:
And this has a trial version, perfect. I will give it a try. After I get some files on my PH-1. Had to order a cable to connect to my PC since Essential doesn't include one! I am guessing that none of these apps work with Tidal,Spotify,Pandora etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use a UPnP source, or ftp/webdav, but yea, no option to use any of those natively, without downloading the songs to local storage as far as I know
Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk
Initially was very disappointed with the supplied dac. I can hear static n audio breaking up. Then i realised that the issue only appear when I'm on low volume with equalizer turned on. Bumping up the volume fixed the static n breaking up issue. So my current setup is supplied dac + portable amp. The amp is to control the volume as connecting directly to the dac is too loud for my preference. It is the best sounding setup i have thus far. Sounds better than pairing my old mp3 player with the same amp. I'm using poweramp to play my songs.
oken735 said:
Personally I have been using Neutron Music Player on the Play Store, and it has been working great.
I picked it up years ago on sale and downloaded it on my PH-1 to see if it added a setting to support USB DACs, and it turns out it did
However, it did not use the external DAC by default, you have to enable it in the settings. The setting was specifically under Audio Hardware, as 'Direct USB Driver' to allow direct access to the USB device. I am on Nougat and after closing and reopening the app, the background hiss/static I could hear while using the default output is now gone and my Essential USB-C DAC has been working great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am using Neutron Trial version (which is a full version limited to 5 days) and I don't see much of a difference between its direct USB driver vs generic driver. Could you please check in the settings Audio Hardware, what is the bitrate listed? For me when I enable "Direct USB Driver" its fixing the bitrate to 48kHz, is it the same for you as well?
Has anyone tried the Essential DAC with PowerAMP? I know it supports USB DACS pretty well.
mvadu said:
I am using Neutron Trial version (which is a full version limited to 5 days) and I don't see much of a difference between its direct USB driver vs generic driver. Could you please check in the settings Audio Hardware, what is the bitrate listed? For me when I enable "Direct USB Driver" its fixing the bitrate to 48kHz, is it the same for you as well?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The direct USB driver, to my knowledge, is the setting that enables direct DAC driver. The generic driver is a setting that says to use a less specific version of the direct DAC driver that should work with more USB DACs. Each of these settings have submenus that you can play with that should allow you to change the format, frequency, mode, and other settings you might want.
When I have both direct USB driver and generic driver selected, my driver shows up as conexant USB audio, and my bits show up as 32, and frequency 44100. I haven't tryied to tweak the bitrate/frequency as I am happy with the sound from the stock settings with some small EQing for my headphones.
cgprats said:
Has anyone tried the Essential DAC with PowerAMP? I know it supports USB DACS pretty well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used PowerAmp for a while sound was OK, but it did not appear to be loud enough some times. also tweaking the settings, EQ, etc. seem to make it worse for me.
I had paid for Power amp back with my nexus 4 and loved the app, but it just does not sound right for me know.
Also I'm definitely not an audiophile just want to hear my music.
I have been testing Vinyl Music Player and it seems to sound better to me. This is from the Fdroid repository.
Free, No adds and no extra permissions, but no extra settings also.
oken735 said:
The direct USB driver, to my knowledge, is the setting that enables direct DAC driver. The generic driver is a setting that says to use a less specific version of the direct DAC driver that should work with more USB DACs. Each of these settings have submenus that you can play with that should allow you to change the format, frequency, mode, and other settings you might want.
When I have both direct USB driver and generic driver selected, my driver shows up as conexant USB audio, and my bits show up as 32, and frequency 44100. I haven't tryied to tweak the bitrate/frequency as I am happy with the sound from the stock settings with some small EQing for my headphones.
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Makes sense.. Have you been able to use the headset to receive to calls while you are listening to music? I can't hear the incoming calls, and if I make a call, it goes to device speaker. Both cases it stops the music though.
mvadu said:
Makes sense.. Have you been able to use the headset to receive to calls while you are listening to music? I can't hear the incoming calls, and if I make a call, it goes to device speaker. Both cases it stops the music though.
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I think it depends on the Rom you are running. When I was on nougat, receiving phone calls while music was playing was a crapshoot.
On Lineage OS, the few times I have received or made a call with the headphones plugged in, it worked fine, I could hear them and it came through the headphones, and it even switched to earpiece when I unplugged the adapter. :good:
I'm not sure how it is on the current official Oreo 8.1 release as I haven't used it for enough time where I would have ran into a situation where I was making or taking a call with headphones in.
cgprats said:
Has anyone tried the Essential DAC with PowerAMP? I know it supports USB DACS pretty well.
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When I wrote this originally I tried the paid version of PowerAMP and its beta version. Neither was able to natively recognize the Essential DAC. I'd used PowerAMP for years.
I haven't bothered to try it since I switched to Onkyo HF
Maybe you want to add BlackPlayer EX to the list. I proved with the Onkyo HF Player, HibyMusic and USB Audio Player Pro and I can hardly find any significant difference.
Also I tried with the LeEco LeMax 2 headphones (the only one with usb- c port I have) and the ubs-c to 3.5mm adapter. The LeEco headphone are way much better. Better bass, better clarity, greater sharpness. Even at louder music. So, if you want to recomend a cheap but great usb-c headphones, the LeEco option is wonderful.
So glad I found this thread. we just got two essentials in the house and I am interested in some of the add-ons but really just wanted the USB to mini adapter to work a bit better.
I'd forgotten about USB audio pro, which I bought some time back for a tablet and outboard DAC.
works great with the usb-c to mini, and it lets you browse Tidal and, iirc, upnp libraries.
For those interested, just now essential is offering 3 months of Tidal for free.
Under the settings for Audio I see something for Audio Delay. Does that apply to audio only files or will it work on videos also?
Is there a way we can get an audio delay where I can enter a negative value.. like have the audio start XX seconds before the video?
I don't play music when I drive in my car, I only play videos I've downloaded off YouTube. The problem? Video starts around 2 seconds before audio, so nothing is synched up properly on Bluetooth.
yuppicide said:
Under the settings for Audio I see something for Audio Delay. Does that apply to audio only files or will it work on videos also?
Is there a way we can get an audio delay where I can enter a negative value.. like have the audio start XX seconds before the video?
I don't play music when I drive in my car, I only play videos I've downloaded off YouTube. The problem? Video starts around 2 seconds before audio, so nothing is synched up properly on Bluetooth.
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It will work on video files too. It may not work in HW decoder on some devices. You can just set HW+ as default decoder on such conditions.
If you want to set the audio delay only to Bluetooth devices, You can just set the Bluetooth audio delay instead of General one.
Thirumalai.K said:
It will work on video files too. It may not work in HW decoder on some devices. You can just set HW+ as default decoder on such conditions.
If you want to set the audio delay only to Bluetooth devices, You can just set the Bluetooth audio delay instead of General one.
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I cannot get it to work at all. It doesn't seem like the setting does anything. I tried -2.0 and 2.0, neither did anything. Then I tried 20.0 as a test.. that didn't do anything either.
yuppicide said:
I cannot get it to work at all. It doesn't seem like the setting does anything. I tried -2.0 and 2.0, neither did anything. Then I tried 20.0 as a test.. that didn't do anything either.
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Kindly collect a bug report & share with us. It may help us to understand the issue better.
I have a LG CM2440 micro hifi system that can play audio from an Android phone over USB using AOA2.0. I'm trying to use this feature and it plays fine but only 1 or 2 minutes and then goes silent. On the phone the app playing somehow freezes for a while and then continues without audio until USB is unplugged or playback paused and resumed. Anyone had a similar issue? I tested two phones and both behave the same so I belive it is the hifi system. I see nothing to tweak in regards to AOA2.0 in the hifi system or in the phones. Is there some secret menu that would allow to tweak AOA2.0?
Thank you!
Sounds like power management is shutting it down. Not sure what LG is using globally for that. Start there and make sure the app(s) battery setting is set to allow background usage.
I don't let it sleep and it plays fine when not plugged to USB. I think not likely to be power management.
Is there some way to test the AOA USB audio besides the hifi system? Some way to have a PC behave like an audio endpoint?
NixieJP said:
I don't let it sleep and it plays fine when not plugged to USB. I think not likely to be power management.
Is there some way to test the AOA USB audio besides the hifi system? Some way to have a PC behave like an audio endpoint?
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I doubt it's hardware unless the DAC you're using is incompatible or defective. You can transfer large folders to the PC? Either a settings or firmware issue, more likely settings.
Maybe a bad 3rd party app. May have altered hidden user settings even if it was uninstalled.
You want verification? Factory reset would rule out a settings issue including hidden settings.
However if you don't find the root cause (and avoid it) it likely will reoccur.
Play with it. Google search for others with the same issue, doesn't necessarily have to be the same model or OS version.
Thank you for suggesting!
Yes, I tried that, phone freshly reset behaves the same. Two different phones behave the same. I googled but find nothing relevant.
The USB connection remains operative because even when the audio fails the player still responds to the hifi buttons (play, stop... the player in the phone can be controlled by the buttons in the hifi system).
I opened the hifi system to see the route of the signal, the USB plug goes to a BX8805 IC that looks like an ARM processor and it outputs a PWM signal to the amplifier. Nothing to do there, likely a firmware issue. Maybe I could try some ADB debug but not sure how could I attach the phone USB to a PC and the hifi system at the same time.
USB playback apparently not fixable so I will stick with bluetooth playback (it seems to me that USB playback sounds better).
For future reference after some investigation I found the following "LG bluetooth remote" app that works properly. This app allows control of the hifi system from the phone.
Free download btc 4 APK for Android
Download free LG Bluetooth Remote 4 1.3 for your Android phone or tablet, file size: 7.35 MB, was updated 2017/30/06 Requirements:android: 2.3.3 Gingerbread or above
apk.house
File name: LG_Bluetooth_Remote_4-1.3.apk
It is no longer available on google play but can be downloaded and installed enabling external sources. All functions that are supposed to work do work!
On Google play there is a LG XBOOM app that does not work very well with this hifi. Volume control broken (goes to MAX), missing equalizer option and hangs when CD or USB functions selected.