Pops & Clicks during music playing on hi-res audio files

Volumio Information

Volumio Version: 2.779
Hardware: Raspberry Pi 3 model B
DAC: Topping DX7s

Hi,
I am experiencing an issue of clicks & pops during playing music in hi-resolution such as FLAC files
of 24bit / 352.8kHz or DSD files (DSD128, DSD256 and so on).
the frequency of the clicks is about each 10 seconds. I have tried to search on the web about the issue,
and found a lot of people which suffering from the same issue, and I didn’t saw a real solution.

I have tried to change the buffer size and so on, but with no luck.
I want to notice that it not an hardware issue, because I installed RuneAudio (which is the Volumio alternative), and the clicks and pops are gone.
I would be happy if someone can help me solving this issue

Thanks a lot!
Assaf Aviv

How is that DAC connected to the R Pi?

I have connected the Raspberry Pi to the DAC using USB cable
the same way it was connected when I tried to use RuneAudio, and played Hi-Res music without any issue.
the problem is only when I am playing these files using Volumio.

All R Pi models below the 4 have USB deficiencies for audio use.
You’d be better off getting a HAT that gives you a coaxial S/PDIF output to feed your DAC.
https://www.allo.com/sparky/digione.html

I can’t explain why you’re getting issues with Volumio that you didn’t get with RuneAudio, but the hardware setup is sub-optimal.

Thanks for your answer,
but as far as I know, coaxial or optical cable (S/PDIF) is limited up to 24bit / 192khz
and the connection over USB with this DAC is up to 32bit/768khz and especially DSD isn’t supported by S/PDIF but only via USB

That’s true, USB has higher potential.
Do you have volume control set to Hardware in Volumio?
Do you have the volume set to 100 in Volumio?

As far as I can tell RuneAudio is old and no longer developed.
Screenshots I saw looked like it too used the MPD base player that Volumio uses.
Moode does too, I wonder if you could create a Moode micro SD card to boot from and test your setup. If Moode doesn’t give you the click and pop issue you could be confident that it is something specific to Volumio that is causing the issue.

There are I2S hat boards like this one
https://www.aliexpress.com/i/32970532323.html
that provide an IIS output on a HDMI conector.
If you were willing to change from your DX7s to a DX7 Pro you’d get IIS input on a HDMI connector.

The volume is canceled. I don’t use it.
I will try the Moode …
And I don’t want to buy another DAC :slight_smile:
It should work without any issues like in RuneAudio.

Hi, I have checked with Moode, and there are no issues like clicks and pops

Then use Moode, it’s very similar to Volumio (and based on the same player).
Some say it sounds better than Volumio too.

The GUI is bad and the Spotify integration is also not working well…
I thought maybe to upgrade the MPD player of the Volumio into a newer version… Need to understand how to do it… And check if it will solve this issue

Agreed, I don’t like it as much as Volumio.
Apparently, if you start tinkering with Volumio (updating components, or updating the underlying kernel, it tends to break and not update again using the in-built OTA updater. So I’d be cautious about trying to update the MPD component.

So, as I understand, I need to accept it as is :frowning:
there is no option to talk or to open a ticket on Volumio R&D team in order to solve this issue?

thanks

@volumio sometimes comes along with suggestions and/or information.
I don’t know why it is only sometimes, perhaps this mention will bring the issue you’re experiencing to his attention and you’ll get help or at least an explanation that it’s a know issue and may be fixed in a future release.