Mailing List Archive

Audible POP from speaker on starting playback
I'm feeding the analog 'line out' from my frontend into an audio amplifier
and stereo speakers.

On starting playback of a recording there's a pop from the speakers. Not
loud enough to damage them but irritating nonetheless.

This is a rebuilt frontend moving from Myth 0.25 to 0.32 and Fedora
something to v32. It's using the same hardware as before and I didn't get
the pop sound before the rebuild, which makes me think there's a chance of
a fix?

I could of course go digital. I can play sound directly to my TV over the
HDMI cable and that works fine without popping, but the TV speakers are
crappy compared to my stereo setup, so I'd have to invest in an AV Amp.

All help appreciated.

D
Re: Audible POP from speaker on starting playback [ In reply to ]
On 30/10/2020 14:23, David Watkins wrote:
> I'm feeding the analog 'line out' from my frontend into an audio
> amplifier and stereo speakers.
>
> On starting playback of a recording there's a pop from the speakers.
> Not loud enough to damage them but irritating nonetheless.
>
> This is a rebuilt frontend moving from Myth 0.25 to 0.32 and Fedora
> something to v32.  It's using the same hardware as before and I didn't
> get the pop sound before the rebuild, which makes me think there's a
> chance of a fix?
>
> I could of course go digital.  I can play sound directly to my TV over
> the HDMI cable and that works fine without popping, but the TV speakers
> are crappy compared to my stereo setup, so I'd have to invest in an AV Amp.
>
> All help appreciated.
>
> D

Audiophiles with golden ears will shudder, but I get 'good' playback by
connecting the TV headphone output to my stereo amp input. No pops
heard - but changing the headphone volume setting is clumsy. Perhaps I
should look deeper in the Myth settings. Current master, F32.

John P


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Re: Audible POP from speaker on starting playback [ In reply to ]
On Fri, 30 Oct 2020 at 15:49, John Pilkington <johnpilk222@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 30/10/2020 14:23, David Watkins wrote:
> > I'm feeding the analog 'line out' from my frontend into an audio
> > amplifier and stereo speakers.
> >
> > On starting playback of a recording there's a pop from the speakers.
> > Not loud enough to damage them but irritating nonetheless.
> >
> > This is a rebuilt frontend moving from Myth 0.25 to 0.32 and Fedora
> > something to v32. It's using the same hardware as before and I didn't
> > get the pop sound before the rebuild, which makes me think there's a
> > chance of a fix?
> >
> > I could of course go digital. I can play sound directly to my TV over
> > the HDMI cable and that works fine without popping, but the TV speakers
> > are crappy compared to my stereo setup, so I'd have to invest in an AV
> Amp.
> >
> > All help appreciated.
> >
> > D
>
> Audiophiles with golden ears will shudder, but I get 'good' playback by
> connecting the TV headphone output to my stereo amp input. No pops
> heard - but changing the headphone volume setting is clumsy. Perhaps I
> should look deeper in the Myth settings. Current master, F32.
>
> John P
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
That's a good idea and it's 'thinking outside the box' - I like that.

I have to say I haven't noticed a headphone socket on my Samsung TV but I'm
going to go look.

D
Re: Audible POP from speaker on starting playback [ In reply to ]
Den 30.10.2020 18:32, skrev David Watkins:
>
>
> On Fri, 30 Oct 2020 at 15:49, John Pilkington <johnpilk222@gmail.com
> <mailto:johnpilk222@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> On 30/10/2020 14:23, David Watkins wrote:
> > I'm feeding the analog 'line out' from my frontend into an audio
> > amplifier and stereo speakers.
> >
> > On starting playback of a recording there's a pop from the
> speakers.
> > Not loud enough to damage them but irritating nonetheless.
> >
> > This is a rebuilt frontend moving from Myth 0.25 to 0.32 and Fedora
> > something to v32.  It's using the same hardware as before and I
> didn't
> > get the pop sound before the rebuild, which makes me think
> there's a
> > chance of a fix?
> >
> > I could of course go digital.  I can play sound directly to my
> TV over
> > the HDMI cable and that works fine without popping, but the TV
> speakers
> > are crappy compared to my stereo setup, so I'd have to invest in
> an AV Amp.
> >
> > All help appreciated.
> >
> > D
>
> Audiophiles with golden ears will shudder, but I get 'good'
> playback by
> connecting the TV headphone output to my stereo amp input. No pops
> heard - but changing the headphone volume setting is clumsy. 
> Perhaps I
> should look deeper in the Myth settings.  Current master, F32.
>
> John P
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
> That's a good idea and it's 'thinking outside the box' - I like that.
>
> I have to say I haven't noticed a headphone socket on my Samsung TV
> but I'm going to go look.
>
Your ears should always have the final say. If the DA converter in your
TV is OK, go for it. Look for line out on the back of the TV though.
Send that to an amp. and use the amp for volume control.

Alternatively make myth use a mixed output (e.g. alsa dmix or
pulse-audio), and have the computer "keep the audio circuit open" (for
want of a better term). The pop is from your computer's output turning
on. Again, your ears have the final say.

Distortion can come from many sources. My TV has a digital optical out.
Should be the best, rigt? Wrong. I get a faint scratchy noise from
jitter in the signal, so analog out from my TV is way better. Make sure
you are not feeding too weak signal in to the next link in your audio
chain, you'll get a background hiss. Make sure you are not feeding to
/strong/ signal in to the next step, you'll get distortion on the loud
parts.


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Re: Audible POP from speaker on starting playback [ In reply to ]
> Alternatively make myth use a mixed output (e.g. alsa dmix or
> pulse-audio), and have the computer "keep the audio circuit open" (for want
> of a better term). The pop is from your computer's output turning on.
> Again, your ears have the final say.
>
>
> That's the sort of solution I’ve been searching for. I am using
pulse-audio and I’ve been playing around with alsa-mixer but I don't really
know where to go from there. Any tips?
Re: Audible POP from speaker on starting playback [ In reply to ]
On Sat, 31 Oct 2020 at 10:40, David Watkins <watkinshome@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
>
>> Alternatively make myth use a mixed output (e.g. alsa dmix or
>> pulse-audio), and have the computer "keep the audio circuit open" (for want
>> of a better term). The pop is from your computer's output turning on.
>> Again, your ears have the final say.
>>
>>
>> That's the sort of solution I’ve been searching for. I am using
> pulse-audio and I’ve been playing around with alsa-mixer but I don't really
> know where to go from there. Any tips?
>

This looks similar to my issue....

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1525104
Re: Audible POP from speaker on starting playback [ In reply to ]
On Sat, 31 Oct 2020 at 18:13, David Watkins <watkinshome@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On Sat, 31 Oct 2020 at 10:40, David Watkins <watkinshome@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>
>>> Alternatively make myth use a mixed output (e.g. alsa dmix or
>>> pulse-audio), and have the computer "keep the audio circuit open" (for want
>>> of a better term). The pop is from your computer's output turning on.
>>> Again, your ears have the final say.
>>>
>>>
>>> That's the sort of solution I’ve been searching for. I am using
>> pulse-audio and I’ve been playing around with alsa-mixer but I don't really
>> know where to go from there. Any tips?
>>
>
> This looks similar to my issue....
>
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1525104
>

Trial and Error seemed to support that something was turning the sound card
off when not in use and the pop was caused by the card being turned on
again.

If I start playing a recording within 10s of stopping a previous one then
no 'Pop'. Wait longer than that and I hear the pop.

This link discusses the issue:

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/565886/how-to-disable-the-power-saving-for-snd-hda-codec-realtek

,,,and the suggested workaround appears to have worked for me. Namely

As a workaround, you can comment out the following line in /etc/pulse/
> default.pa:
> load-module module-suspend-on-idle
> Afterwards, restart PulseAudio with systemctl restart --user pulseaudio.
Re: Audible POP from speaker on starting playback [ In reply to ]
On 11/2/20 5:28 AM, David Watkins wrote:
>
>
> On Sat, 31 Oct 2020 at 18:13, David Watkins <watkinshome@gmail.com
> <mailto:watkinshome@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>
>
> On Sat, 31 Oct 2020 at 10:40, David Watkins <watkinshome@gmail.com
> <mailto:watkinshome@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> Alternatively make myth use a mixed output (e.g. alsa dmix
> or pulse-audio), and have the computer "keep the audio
> circuit open" (for want of a better term). The pop is from
> your computer's output turning on. Again, your ears have
> the final say.
>
>
> That's the sort of solution I’ve  been searching for.  I am
> using pulse-audio and I’ve been playing around with alsa-mixer
> but I don't really know where to go from there.  Any tips?
>
>
> This looks similar to my issue....
>
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1525104
>
>
> Trial and Error seemed to support that something was turning the sound
> card off when not in use and the pop was caused by the card being
> turned on again.
>
> If I start playing a recording within 10s of stopping a previous one
> then no 'Pop'.  Wait longer than that and I hear the pop.
>
> This link discusses the issue:
>
> https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/565886/how-to-disable-the-power-saving-for-snd-hda-codec-realtek
>
> ,,,and the suggested workaround appears to have worked for me.  Namely
>
> As a workaround, you can comment out the following line in
> |/etc/pulse/default.pa <http://default.pa>|:
> |load-module module-suspend-on-idle
> |Afterwards, restart PulseAudio with |systemctl restart --user
> pulseaudio|.
>
>

I had a number of audio quality issue with Mythtv and Kodi on a system
that had to use the mini audio analog plug to get the signal to an amp
without digital connection. I found a number of solutions like HDMI
splitters that pass on the HDMI, but split out the audio into mini plug,
Optical, and Coaxial digital.  I've notice no noise or popping on that
solution.

Jim A
Re: Audible POP from speaker on starting playback [ In reply to ]
On 11/2/20 2:28 AM, David Watkins wrote:


On Sat, 31 Oct 2020 at 18:13, David Watkins <watkinshome@gmail.com> wrote:


On Sat, 31 Oct 2020 at 10:40, David Watkins <watkinshome@gmail.com> wrote:



Alternatively make myth use a mixed output (e.g. alsa dmix or pulse-audio), and have the computer "keep the audio circuit open" (for want of a better term). The pop is from your computer's output turning on. Again, your ears have the final say.


That's the sort of solution I’ve  been searching for.  I am using pulse-audio and I’ve been playing around with alsa-mixer but I don't really know where to go from there.  Any tips?

This looks similar to my issue....
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1525104"]https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1525104 

Trial and Error seemed to support that something was turning the sound card off when not in use and the pop was caused by the card being turned on again.
If I start playing a recording within 10s of stopping a previous one then no 'Pop'.  Wait longer than that and I hear the pop.
This link discusses the issue:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/565886/how-to-disable-the-power-saving-for-snd-hda-codec-realtek"]https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/565886/how-to-disable-the-power-saving-for-snd-hda-codec-realtek

,,,and the suggested workaround appears to have worked for me.  Namely
As a workaround, you can comment out the following line in /etc/pulse/http://default.pa"]default.pa:
load-module module-suspend-on-idle
Afterwards, restart PulseAudio with systemctl restart --user pulseaudio.



I never had a pop, but I missed the beginning of things like "You have mail" (I would hear "ave mail").  Maybe my driver/audio system has something on startup/resume to suppress the pop?  Anyway, that suspend-on-idle module is more for battery-operated devices (laptops) and not real significant in a media center, so I commented out the load line and I no longer miss the beginnings of sounds.

Dave D.
Re: Audible POP from speaker on starting playback [ In reply to ]
On Mon, Nov 2, 2020 at 4:42 PM DaveD <mythtv@guiplot.com> wrote:

>
> Trial and Error seemed to support that something was turning the sound card off when not in use and the pop was caused by the card being turned on again.
>
> If I start playing a recording within 10s of stopping a previous one then no 'Pop'. Wait longer than that and I hear the pop.
>
> This link discusses the issue:
>
> https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/565886/how-to-disable-the-power-saving-for-snd-hda-codec-realtek
>
> ,,,and the suggested workaround appears to have worked for me. Namely
>
>> As a workaround, you can comment out the following line in /etc/pulse/default.pa:
>> load-module module-suspend-on-idle
>> Afterwards, restart PulseAudio with systemctl restart --user pulseaudio.
>
>
> I never had a pop, but I missed the beginning of things like "You have mail" (I would hear "ave mail"). Maybe my driver/audio system has something on startup/resume to suppress the pop? Anyway, that suspend-on-idle module is more for battery-operated devices (laptops) and not real significant in a media center, so I commented out the load line and I no longer miss the beginnings of sounds.

As is often the case, the archlinux community has
a prefered/recommended/better fix (which involves
a user override) documented at:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio/Troubleshooting#Pops_when_starting_and_stopping_playback

No matter your opinion of the archlinux distro itself,
their documentation, especially around the desktop
experience, is a really excellent resource.
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