[PLUGIN] Audiophonics EVO Sabre

[PhilipC]

Hi There,

I do have another Isue with the DAC.
While playing an Playlist from Spoty there is always a “KNACK” between the songs. It happens also when i`m changing to the next song. Does anybody has / had this with his DAC?

OS info
Version of Volumio: 3.396
Hostname: jimi
Kernel: 5.10.92-v7l+
Governor: performance
Uptime: 0 days, 2 Hrs, 15 Minutes, 54 Seconds
Audio info
Hw audio configured: Audiophonics I-Sabre ES9028Q2M
Mixer type: Hardware
Number of channels: 2
Supported sample rate: 44100 48000 88200 96000 176400 192000
Board info
Manufacturer: Raspberry Pi Foundation
Model: Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.5
Version: b03115
Firmware Version: Jan 20 2022 13:56:48 - bd88f66f8952d34e4e0613a85c7a6d3da49e13e2

The Audiophonics is the only one doing this her @ my home.
I run 3 other DAC with Raspi (Pi 4 with OKTO dac8 Stereo, Pi4 with HiFi Berry DAC Pro + DSP, Pi2 with HiFiberry DAC), none of them shows this Problem with my Playlist.

Salut
Philip

[egal]

Hi Philip,

it seems, @ your replay the volumio statuspage send identical info, but with seek <> 0,
so my dirty hack does not work.

you can test it (client with bash console, replace 10.10.11.122 with your volumio ip):

while true; do wget -O - http://10.10.11.122/api/getState; sleep 1; done

and check the json-payload returned.

changing refreshrate only chagnes the pollingtime like the sleep above,
disabling the comparsion (===) changes everything @ every poll, so the information/text resets.

[snuka]

@philipC regarding the “knack”, I have this issue as well

another issue I have is the de-synchronization of the volume levels when switching from Spotify to the web radio interface (in a browser). I almost blew my ears and loudspeakers when I touched the volume slider in the web interface ! the slider was in a 100% position (to the right) but volume levels where at the same level as in Spotify. As soon as I touched it the volume slider, the actual volume shot to 100% (over 250W) until I immediately moved the slider to the left to reduce the output. This could be quite dangerous, especially when using a powerful amp. It gave me quit a fright to be honest and luckily, no one was in the house at the time.

Greetings

[snuka]

I would like to elaborate on what happened with the volume in my previous post as I consider this a issue which could have physical consequences for equipment (loudspeakers) but also to the hearing devices of people (ears) and maybe even provoque a malaise (heart attack) if the person has issues with that.

I am using the Audiophonics Evo DAC connected directly to the power amplifier. The DAC controls the volume (i.e. “hardware” setting). Also, volume control by users was deactivated.

But, somehow it was not, since just nudging the volume slider in Spotify or the web interface pushed the volume instantly to 100%. This can’t be right and I hope there will be a fix so the volume is synchronised over all the different services like Spotify, Web interface, etc.

I’ve just installed the latest build and tried it again with the same result as in my previous post.

So, I just wanted to warn you all. If your DAC is controlling the volume directly, be aware. I’ve switched to Dietpi for fear it might happen again until this is fixed.

Thanks and Greetings.

[Mismo]

@snuka It is horrible but I guess this is a Volumio Spotify plugin issue

New Volumio Spotify Plugin Open Beta-Testing

UPDATE 5 NEW VERSION 3.0.6 What this changes: Disabled volume sync to avoid volume jumps and excessive API call request Clear queue when Spotify Connect starts (avoid skipping) Require extended scopes tokens only if user is logged in Known issue: If you are playing from within Volumio and start another Spotify session from your mobile or PC, the track will skip to the next. Just click again to the track you want to play, and it will play. NOTE: Queue will be cleared if it contains spotif…

[Mismo]

Since I updated to the latest Volumio version and installed the EVO Sabre plugin my screen is not working anymore. It was with the custom image before.

[olivier_audiophonics]

Could you log in ssh and copy / paste me the service status so we can check what’s going on ?
Through SSH : sudo systemctl status evo_oled2.service

[olivier_audiophonics]

Well that’s odd. According to this output, the software is running as expected. Sorry for asking this, but are you sure you are using the correct device? It should look like this.

[Mismo]

Haha sorry for my stupidity. If tried it with a raspdac mini lcd.

AUDIOPHONICS RASPDAC MINI LCD Kit DIY Streamer for Raspberry Pi 4 & DAC...

[olivier_audiophonics]

No problem.
3 Solutions for you (ordered by ascending complexity) :

1st option : You can find a “relatively” recent image for this here. Just flash it on a card and you are good to go.

2nd option : If you want the very latest version of Volumio, you can do a manual install on a standard Volumio image following those instructions.

3rd option : If you want it to work as a plugin (with options available in Volumio webUI), I have also been trying to build a Volumio plugin for the RaspDac Mini LCD. It has not been really tested nor deployed anywhere yet, but if you are a bit linux-savy and not afraid of reading a big documentation, you could give it a try.

Everyone else reading this, please do not use any of this on an Evo Sabre.

[freddie1]

Having been through the process - taking many hours I have the following walk through comments:

1. Point to instructions for setup of wi-fi of EVO sabre - this is nowhere to be found!
2. A screen shot of the OLED screen after booting of EVO-sabre would help.
3. Under 6 - put open a volmio account top of the list
4. More empahsis needed (bold?) and explanation of "enable plug in test mode - there are many options on the screen - whicf are needed?
5. Add that until 4 is compelte you will not see the "Audiophonics Evo Sabre "plug in under system hardware. Do NOT use the Audiophonics ON/OFF plug in - this is not the required plug in
6. Befroe leaving the plug in screen click “enable”
7. Reboot the EVO-sabre - the term “remote” is unhelpful
8. Point to a online file to test (any relevant sound file)
   I hope these cooments may ghelp others?

Ian

[arbitrabbit]

So recently bought this Evo-Sabre. On the whole it’s a very good setup. However, whenever I try to play a 192Khz 24Bit FLAC (tried via both Tidal and Qobuz), while Volumio shows that it is getting the 192Khz track, the DAC OLED shows 96Khz. Seems that the track is being downsampled. Any ideas why is that? I thought the device is capable of 384Khz over I2S?

P.S. Downsampling is off in Volumio settings

Edit: Yeah, definitely downsampling. Here is what the outputput from /proc/asound/card2/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params looks like

access: RW_INTERLEAVED
format: S32_LE
subformat: STD
channels: 2
rate: 96000 (96000/1)
period_size: 1200
buffer_size: 9600

When on Volumio it is:

{“status”:“play”,“position”:0,“title”:“In A Sentimental Mood”,“artist”:“Duke Ellington”,“album”:“Duke Ellington & John Coltrane”,“albumart”:“https://static.qobuz.com/images/covers/49/62/0060254786249_600.jpg",“uri”:“qobuz://song/35031475”,“trackType”:“qobuz”,“seek”:141166,“duration”:257,“samplerate”:"192 kHz”,“bitdepth”:“24 bit”,“channels”:2,“bitrate”:“5590 Kbps”,“random”:null,“repeat”:null,“repeatSingle”:false,“consume”:true,“volume”:100,“dbVolume”:null,“mute”:false,“disableVolumeControl”:true,“stream”:false,“updatedb”:false,“volatile”:false,“service”:“qobuz”}

[arbitrabbit]

Found the culprit. It was the Fusion DSP plugin that downsamples to 96KHz in case someone has similar issue.

Edit: I must have enabled resampling there but then didn’t remember it.

[balbuze]

FusionDsp doesn’t resample anything unless you activate resampling…

[arbitrabbit]

Yes, you are right - I must have accidentally enabled it. But was a pain to find that was what was causing it - until I happened to look at asound.conf.

[balbuze]

resampling can’t be seen in asound.conf…

[snuka]

Hello !

not quite on subject but I would like to know if anyone else is getting popping sounds between each song change while using the spotify plug-in on the Audiophonics Sabre DAC ? Not a big issue but it would be nice to have silent changes

PS. currently using the 4.0.2 version of the plug-in (4.0.4 had the same popping sounds) and the latest volumio distro.

[snuka]

Update: Called Audiophonics, who stated that the “pops / knacks” between songs is a known issue when the EVO-DAC is used with a direct connection over the I2S GPIO (pinout RPI-DAC) to the Raspberry Pi. Other connections apparently don’t have the issue but that kind of defies the whole idea of having the RaspiPi in the the same box as the DAC pcb.

According to Audiophonics there unfortunately seems to be no software fix.

So, the issue is not linked to the Spotify plug-in or in fact any other plug-in, playback system, etc.

[snuka]

Just thinking but If enough users of the EVO Sabre DAC call Audiophonics maybe they will release a fixed version of the EVO. In any event, the crackling sound between tracks is way more noticeable in Volumio + Spotify plug-in than in Dietpi + Spotify plugin… so, it leaves me wondering what the heck the real problem is ! Software or Hardware ???