Using Fiio BTR5 as a USB DAC.

[7ni4F_]

I'm using a Type-C to Type-C cable but it doesn't route to the DAC and just stays on speaker, the phone doesn't prompt me with anything so I'm wondering if I'm missing something or if there's a way I can manually set it.

[andrewilley]

Is this a general problem with your phone and this DAC, or is the issue specific to playing music from Poweramp? Not all USB-C cables are created equal, was this cable supplied with the DAC? If it's a general issue though, you'd probably be better taking it up with either FiiO or your phone manufacturer - or ask in their user support forums.

Andre

[7ni4F_]

33 minutes ago, andrewilley said:

Is this a general problem with your phone and this DAC, or is the issue specific to playing music from Poweramp? Not all USB-C cables are created equal, was this cable supplied with the DAC? If it's a general issue though, you'd probably be better taking it up with either FiiO or your phone manufacturer - or ask in their user support forums.

Andre

My cable is working fine, and I was able to use it as a USB DAC on their official music player app. I see the option for a USB DAC on the audio output on Poweramp but it never routes to it.

[andrewilley]

What I was asking is does Android support this output device for other media playing apps. Obviously FiiO's own app will work as it presumably drives the hardware directly via their own code.

Andre

[7ni4F_]

I'm using Android 12 and no, I don't think so. I've tried a different music app, and it doesn't detect my USB DAC or gives me any prompt to use it.

Also, this is a separate thing but why does RG sound quieter in the app than when playing it on say, foobar2000. How much pre-amp should I adjust in the app to match it with that loudness?

[andrewilley]

If Android does not detect and use your USB DAC then neither will Poweramp, as PA is an Android app which sends its audio output through the standard specified Android audio path. That routing should be visible in PA's Audio Info display. PA does not have any separate dedicated code for every DAC product on the market, that's up to the DAC and Android to define.

As far as ReplayGain goes, the RG system is designed so the peak moment found in any given track is played at a specific volume level. This will mean louder tracks will become quieter, while quieter tracks will get boosted. In general, most recordings will tend to get quieter. The RG spec sets the target level at -14dB lower than digital maximum to allow for any reasonable amounts of subsequent EQ boosting to not cause over-saturation, but PA doesn't push it down quite that far as with DVC and floating point processing it's much less likely to end up clipping.

In my own purely subjective listening tests it seems to reduce 100% peak tracks down by about -8.5dB, so I've set my RG preamp to +6dB and the non-RG level to -2.5dB (so 100%-level non-RG tracks are at played at about the same level as RG tracks).

Andre