Mint audio

l0rddarkf0rce · 05-01-2023, 03:11 AM

I started using Mint as my main D2D distro about 6 months ago and so far I am extremely happy with it, but i want to get a little bit more out of it if possible in terms of audio performance.

I have a USB dongle DAC that shows what bit rate the music is being played at, from PCM 44.1 kHz all the way to DSD 256/512. In any case. Here's my test scenario... Using the same FLAC file on my phone and on the computer show the different bit rates. On my phone it shows as being played at 192 kHz but on the computer is plays at 48 kHz.

I tried connecting the DAC to all of the different USB ports on the system (USB-A 2.0 and USB-C) all with the same result the DAC shows that it is playing at 48 kHz, while the phone (Android) 3 different models (S8, S10, and S23) show that it is playing at full 192 kHz.

I converted the FLAC file to WAV and used aplay to the output from aplay is (yes I did kill pulseaudio before using aplay)

Quote:

aplay --device default:CARD=S9Pro -v 02.\ Grace.wav
Playing WAVE '02. Grace.wav' : Signed 24 bit Little Endian in 3bytes, Rate 192000 Hz, Stereo
Plug PCM: Rate conversion PCM (48000, sformat=S32_LE)
Converter: libspeex (builtin)
Protocol version: 10002
Its setup is:
stream : PLAYBACK
access : RW_INTERLEAVED
format : S24_3LE
subformat : STD
channels : 2
rate : 192000
exact rate : 192000 (192000/1)
msbits : 24
buffer_size : 65536
period_size : 4096
period_time : 21333
tstamp_mode : NONE
tstamp_type : MONOTONIC
period_step : 1
avail_min : 4096
period_event : 0
start_threshold : 65536
stop_threshold : 65536
silence_threshold: 0
silence_size : 0
boundary : 4611686018427387904
Slave: Direct Stream Mixing PCM
Its setup is:
stream : PLAYBACK
access : MMAP_INTERLEAVED
format : S32_LE
subformat : STD
channels : 2
rate : 48000
exact rate : 48000 (48000/1)
msbits : 32
buffer_size : 16384
period_size : 1024
period_time : 21333
tstamp_mode : NONE
tstamp_type : MONOTONIC
period_step : 1
avail_min : 1024
period_event : 0
start_threshold : 16384
stop_threshold : 16384
silence_threshold: 0
silence_size : 0
boundary : 4611686018427387904
Hardware PCM card 1 'Hidizs S9Pro' device 0 subdevice 0
Its setup is:
stream : PLAYBACK
access : MMAP_INTERLEAVED
format : S32_LE
subformat : STD
channels : 2
rate : 48000
exact rate : 48000 (48000/1)
msbits : 32
buffer_size : 16384
period_size : 1024
period_time : 21333
tstamp_mode : ENABLE
tstamp_type : MONOTONIC
period_step : 1
avail_min : 1024
period_event : 0
start_threshold : 1
stop_threshold : 4611686018427387904
silence_threshold: 0
silence_size : 4611686018427387904
boundary : 4611686018427387904
appl_ptr : 0
hw_ptr : 0

Any help on how to set the system to properly use the full range of the DAC will be appreciated.

l0rddarkf0rce · 05-01-2023, 04:26 AM

Some additional information if I do aplay -L I get...

Quote:

aplay -L ─╯
null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default
Playback/recording through the PulseAudio sound server
samplerate
Rate Converter Plugin Using Samplerate Library
speexrate
Rate Converter Plugin Using Speex Resampler
jack
JACK Audio Connection Kit
oss
Open Sound System
pulse
PulseAudio Sound Server
upmix
Plugin for channel upmix (4,6,8)
vdownmix
Plugin for channel downmix (stereo) with a simple spacialization
hw:CARD=S9Pro,DEV=0
Hidizs S9Pro, USB Audio
Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=S9Pro,DEV=0
Hidizs S9Pro, USB Audio
Hardware device with all software conversions
sysdefault:CARD=S9Pro
Hidizs S9Pro, USB Audio
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=S9Pro,DEV=0
Hidizs S9Pro, USB Audio
Front output / input
surround21:CARD=S9Pro,DEV=0
Hidizs S9Pro, USB Audio
2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=S9Pro,DEV=0
Hidizs S9Pro, USB Audio
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=S9Pro,DEV=0
Hidizs S9Pro, USB Audio
4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=S9Pro,DEV=0
Hidizs S9Pro, USB Audio
5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=S9Pro,DEV=0
Hidizs S9Pro, USB Audio
5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=S9Pro,DEV=0
Hidizs S9Pro, USB Audio
7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=S9Pro,DEV=0
Hidizs S9Pro, USB Audio
IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
dmix:CARD=S9Pro,DEV=0
Hidizs S9Pro, USB Audio
Direct sample mixing device
usbstream:CARD=S9Pro
Hidizs S9Pro
USB Stream Output
hw:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC256 Analog
Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=PCH,DEV=3
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 0
Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=PCH,DEV=7
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 1
Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=PCH,DEV=8
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 2
Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=PCH,DEV=9
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 3
Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=PCH,DEV=10
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 4
Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC256 Analog
Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=PCH,DEV=3
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 0
Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=PCH,DEV=7
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 1
Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=PCH,DEV=8
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 2
Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=PCH,DEV=9
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 3
Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=PCH,DEV=10
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 4
Hardware device with all software conversions
sysdefault:CARD=PCH
HDA Intel PCH, ALC256 Analog
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC256 Analog
Front output / input
surround21:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC256 Analog
2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC256 Analog
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC256 Analog
4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC256 Analog
5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC256 Analog
5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC256 Analog
7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
hdmi:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 0
HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=PCH,DEV=1
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 1
HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=PCH,DEV=2
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 2
HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=PCH,DEV=3
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 3
HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=PCH,DEV=4
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 4
HDMI Audio Output
dmix:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
HDA Intel PCH, ALC256 Analog
Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=PCH,DEV=3
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 0
Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=PCH,DEV=7
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 1
Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=PCH,DEV=8
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 2
Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=PCH,DEV=9
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 3
Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=PCH,DEV=10
HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 4
Direct sample mixing device
usbstream:CARD=PCH
HDA Intel PCH
USB Stream Output

If I use either of the following PCMs

* hw:CARD=S9Pro,DEV=0
* plughw:CARD=S9Pro,DEV=0

the file is played in its full 192 kHz. So I guess the correct question now is... How the heck do I tell the system use either one of those 2 PCMs? I found that those worked properly by changing the PCM in Audacious. Once I told Audacious to use the correct PCM, if I use audacious everything plays fine, but I want this to be my default system wide, not just in one application.