Hardware volume

Good evening. I received my new Khadas tone (generic) from audiophonics. I hooked it up on my x86 volumio machine through usb, selected hardware volume, dsd direct and connected RCA output to my power amplifier. Problem is I have no sound output at all! Only when raising near 100 there is faint sound output. When I chose a DSD 64 file I got loud white noise and my amplifier clipped (thank god both my speakers and amp have protection circuits). I tried again with no mixer (none) selected (volume constantly on 100) and through my integrated amplifier. Again low volume output barely audible when my amp pot near max and white noise on DSD playback.

Any ideas?

Hi Koozoop,

I also got a pb with dsd rendering with my raspberry 3b+ and Tone board.
I made the xmos firmware upgrade to get the hardware volume gestion, it works perfectly for all stream except dsd (like you), where i got loud and harsh white noise at 100% of the volume as soon as i hit play…

Fabien

I’m on latest firmware. Is there anything else to do? I’m quite disappointed at the moment…

I did not the upgrade and can play dsd64 with no problems so far. If you did the upgrade the issue could be related to the fact that DSD by definition requires 100% volume (max) so look for the setup in your system and make sure DSD volume is setup at 100%.

I’ll make a try with volume set to 100%.
I have to find a preamp, i got active speakers i use with software volume usually…

Fabien

UPDATE: I tried the TB (tone board) with my Windows 10 PC and I got perfect playback from flacs to native DSD256 through foobar 2000. So the board is ok.
Then I tried a new Volumio setup on my Odroid C1+ and TB through USB. Perfect playback of flacs and DSD256 both with “none” mixer" and “hardware” mixer. DSDs playback wonderfully and volume is perfectly controlled from Volumio interface when in hardware mode! I had to resample setting only the sample rate to 384kHz otherwise I get “clicks”. “pops” and stuttering on DSD above 64.
Then I plugged it back to my main x86 Volumio player: same problems, ie no volume and white noise on DSD. So I tried a new Volumio installation though a USB key and voila, everything worked well!

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Hello,

You mean that would be just an Os installation bug ?

Fabien

Exactly! An upgrade bug basically because I had the previous version of x86 Volumio installed an then upgraded to 2.555. So something went wrong during the update. Or maybe because I had three different DACs under test on this machine the conf file got “confused”. Anyway, it’s working perfectly now and I’m preparing my diy Volumio player based on an Intel NUC and the Khadas TB installed inside.

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Ok, that’s interesting.
Thanks ! :wink:

What’s the status on this, I would love to be able to use a volume knob or be able to use various different options for volume control.

It’s Draft

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“It’s Draft”
You can call it that if you like I call it excellent :wink:
Needs a 3.5mm Headphone socket

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Nice, but please conder that some people will want to put an amp on top of that box…
Will be possible to buy / install it on “old” tone boards or this will be a finished product only?

Will work for existing Tone Board.

Can you specify more details on this?

Have fun!

… And some will want to integrate it into their own box, player or amplifier, and connect their own custum rotary controller.

Offering single components and detailed documentation is best for everyone.

Possible to have a cable of some description from tone board to VIM maybe future design to consider ?

Thinking out loud
Like and IDE cable, more groovy looking of course :wink:

I usually have my amp (Arcam rHead) on top of the dac. From the picture it seems that if I will do that I will not be able to operate the volume control, besides the fact that the top doesn’t seem “plane”. Maybe a conventional “box” would be more usefull, I don’t know…

Wow. That is gorgeous. Excellent design work here. You could easily sell these for $300.

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We tend to label with half price :wink:

I do some tests with moOde OS (similar with Volumio) and there is no hardware control.
It is possible to have an update of firmware, like it was done before for Volumio?