96khz not working on Sony WF-1000XM4 and Samsung Galaxy A12

[Adam Kruszynski]

I just bought a pair of WF-1000XM4 earbuds and realized both it and my phone have LDAC codec capabilities. However, despite it showing as enabled through my phone's developer options, Poweramp doesn't seem to want to play with LDAC codec enabled unless I set it somewhere under 96 kHz; setting it to 96 kHz results in dead silence. I'm not sure what to do in this case.

[Adam Kruszynski]

Is there any other information I should provide here? I'm kinda new to PA so I wasn't sure how to ask for help

[maxmp]

@Adam Kruszynski Poweramp just shows the codec in use, player can't change it. The codec is decided by the phone and the BT device. You can see codec in Audio Info popup (long press on meta info line on player screen, or search it in Settings). 

[Adam Kruszynski]

@maxmpyes, and I have the earbuds' audio quality set to LDAC through the phone's bluetooth settings. the Sony headphones app verifies it's enabled, and developer options indicate audio should be playing at 96 kHz and 32 bits. Unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean, I thought this meant I could have hi-res playback.

The problem is that, whenever I try to play music with the Hi-res codec in the Poweramp app, it won't process music at 96 kHz unless I set down a notch to 48 kHz. 

[CrimsonSky]

Do you have a "Defined by device" option for sample rate such as in my screenshot? Is that also silent?

 

[Adam Kruszynski]

@CrimsonSky yes that's an available option, and yes it is also silent when I select it

[CrimsonSky]

After looking at your screenshots again, I think Poweramp may be overriding the 48khz selected and outputting to 96khz regardless. The fact that Poweramp states it's using 96khz is a good thing. Like Max said, if you long press the bitrate in the main screen you can see what the resampler is actually doing. If your content is already 96hz it would state there's no resampling. If your music is sourced from a regular CD and is 44.1khz it would show it being resampled to 96khz. Otherwise something funky is going on. The output screen you're looking for will look something like this (except not outputting 44.1khz):

Edited August 21, 2022 by CrimsonSky
I'm bad at proofreading

[Adam Kruszynski]

@CrimsonSky this is what it shows with a 96 kHz file on my end while 48 kHz sample rate is selected. When I select 96 kHz sample rate there's nothing under Resampler, but that's also when it goes completely quiet.

[Adam Kruszynski]

worth noting that when I do enable 96 kHz in the PA app, alongside the silence, the music scrubber skips forward randomly.

[Adam Kruszynski]

Any updates regarding fixing this issue? Worth noting that I'm currently running Android 11 on this phone, and that I'm using build 939 off the Google Play store, rather than the 942 build on the forum.

Edited August 26, 2022 by Adam Kruszynski
Extra details I forgot to include

[Adam Kruszynski]

minor update: I tried updating to the newest build available for beta testers, which is 942.

A few things I noticed: Sample Format now only goes up to 24 bits, and specifically when it's set to 96 kHz (which I still can't hear anything with). Setting it to 48 kHz still produces sound, but changes the Sample Format to 16 bits, unlike before when it was 32 bits in general ("Using" sample rate now changes to match "Selected" sample rate though).

I'm honestly at a bit of a loss on what to do, because unless I'm misunderstanding, updating may have made things worse.

Edited August 26, 2022 by Adam Kruszynski

[maxmp]

@Adam Kruszynski can you please make 2 screenshots of Audio Info dialog (bottom of it, where output settings are visible):

• one with 96kHz selected in Hi-Res output for BT
• the one with 48kHz selected in Hi-Res output for BT

Also, does 96kHz result in no sound at all, or in very very low sound volume?

Samsung Hi-Res support, including LDAC is solid and stable, but I guess low end devices may have hi-res modes specifically disabled/limited.

Thanks!

[Adam Kruszynski]

@maxmp Here's the two screenshots.

96 kHz has no sound at all, even when turned up to 100. although it's worth noting that the little visualizer in the EQ pages indicates that something is playing, as pictured in the third screenshot.

As far as I can tell, in my phone's developer options and the Sony Headphones app, LDAC 32 bit playback should be fine. The only thing is that Android 11 keeps resetting my LDAC playback quality to Adaptive Bit Rate, rather than Optimized for Audio Quality (990kbps/909kbps) whenever I reconnect the earbuds. Beyond that, I haven't noticed a problem with playback on other apps. Though that may just be because Poweramp is the only one I use to listen to Hi-Res music (I uninstalled Spotify awhile ago and I've only tested these earbuds with YouTube besides).

Should I try reinstalling Build 939?

 

[maxmp]

@Adam Kruszynski thanks for the info. Can you please check your exact phone model (system settings / About phone / Model number) - I'll try to get one for tests.

[Adam Kruszynski]

@maxmp Sure, sorry for the delayed response.

My phone is a Samsung Galaxy A12, and the specific model number is SM-S127DL.

[Adam Kruszynski]

@maxmp I was playing around with audio output settings, and I noticed that AAudio Output allows me to use 96 kHz with working sound, but limits the sample format to 16 bits. Thought that might be helpful to know. (For reference, the previous build's Hi-Res worked with 48 kHz and 32 bit set),

[Adam Kruszynski]

I haven't received a response from maxmp in awhile. While I wait for them, does anyone else have any input on this issue?

[maxmp]

@Adam Kruszynski I would advise the latest 943 build (beta on Play) or apk from this forum, but still, Poweramp doesn’t choose the codec and the codec parameters. Some limited adjustments are possible via Developers settings.

From my experience and instrumented tests by audio capturing the output of LDAC enabled Fiio BTR3, codec constantly changes 96khz sampling rate back to 48khz (this is not visible anywhere on the phone or the device as audio system still runs on 96khz), or do not even initiate 96khz if interference is detected or your phone is in pocket. Successfully you can’t hear difference as humans do not hear above 20khz.

[Adam Kruszynski]

@maxmp I updated to 943 build earlier. This is the what I get with High-Res now; 96 kHz still results in silence, but the output results for 48 kHz (the last two images) are different now (and seem like progress to me?)

[Adam Kruszynski]

Since I was having so much trouble, I ended up exchanging these earbuds for a different set. May be okay to leave this topic as is now.

[andrewilley]

So are the new earbuds working better for you? What connection methods do they use?

Andre

[Adam Kruszynski]

@andrewilley
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Update: after a lotta trial and error, I finally settled upon a pair of Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro. these go up to 24bit/48kHz, but afaik there's no noticeable difference from 96kHz. Using these with OpenSL ES Output and Float32 Sample Format enabled allows me to use 24bit/48kHz in the PA app. 

Edited September 20, 2022 by Adam Kruszynski
Update on earbuds