Please Add Full Support To USB DAC!!

[Lazarus]

I've been using Poweramp Pro for over 10 years. It is by far the best music player in the app store. I only have one issue! A few months back I purchased a USB DAC to listen to lossless flac music. Unfortunately the USB DAC isn't usable with Poweramp. The reason being is that the sound is really low, even at max volume. As a result, I had to resort to using other music player apps like "USB Audio Player Pro", which does use their own exclusive driver. As a paying user, I'm requesting for the developer to add exclusive driver support. Thank you.

[andrewilley]

Without knowing the hardware in question, that would be impossible to answer.  I have a cheap Ugreen USB-C to 3.5mm DAC which works fine with my new Samsung A54-5G for example.

Well, it works fine apart from an annoying very low level hiss in the analogue output stage, which is only really audible when I'm listening late at night with the audio playback volume set down to about 2 (of about 100 steps). Going to have to investigate an alternative.

Andre

[Fitzian]

Wild guess, this has something to do with DVC or 'No DVC Headroom Gain" option, at least for OP's chosen output method (they did not specify...)

[Lazarus]

I have a Helm Bolt DAC/AMP. I already went through the troubleshooting. Checked all the settings, nothing changes. The volume is still low. It's the same for pretty much all music players in the app store. Note: I'm using a Galaxy S23 Ultra. I also had the same issue with the Galaxy S22 Ultra. About 3 music player apps in the Google app store support my Helms DAC with no problem. My issue is I don't like their user interface. I prefer Poweramp's user interface. All the Poweramp developer has to do is add support for an exclusive driver that would allow my DAC to work properly.

[andrewilley]

How "low" is the volume? Could something like ReplayGain (which generally reduces volume in most cases) be affecting it? Or also try enabling or disabling DVC for that output method. But you don't want to push the internal gain in PA up too far in case you introduce distortion or clipping in other parts of the audio chain.

But if most other apps produce the same volume, I would suggest that Helm's Android drivers are the culprit, not the players. I can't say for sure, but I would think it's rather unlikely that Max would consider spending the time writing a custom driver to correct issues with one specific company's hardware.

Andre

[maxmp]

It can be also DVC issue, so try No DVC option for the appropriate Settings / Audio / Output / <your output> / <your device> settings page.

 

[andrewilley]

Apple's USB-C to 3.5mm DAC adapter also has the same problem. Whether it's by EU interference, lower voltage levels, or just Apple being Apple, I found its audio output was about 25dB lower than anther comparable adapter (UGreen). Going to try Samsung's own in-line adapter next, there's gotta be one out there that gives a decent output level but with no background hiss.  

Andre

[Ibrahimbo101]

On 9/11/2023 at 10:16 AM, andrewilley said:

Apple's USB-C to 3.5mm DAC adapter also has the same problem. Whether it's by EU interference, lower voltage levels, or just Apple being Apple, I found its audio output was about 25dB lower than anther comparable adapter (UGreen). Going to try Samsung's own in-line adapter next, there's gotta be one out there that gives a decent output level but with no background hiss.  

Andre

Sadly it's a known issue  android not able to fetch the driver correctly and directly unless you are rooted messing with ALSA at linux level, it can fetch dacs made for these phones or some brands standards normally tho like samsung or pixel's dongle but google made some implementation in kernel here in pixel for android https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/google-modules/aoc/+/32b45e2e08bcb3b6306ec9796d1f50ef44d0d514

https://www.xda-developers.com/pixel-6-direct-usb-access-android-12l/

This what uapp and other players using for now having such an implementation for Poweramp max doesnt see it a convenient way to go he mentioned there is new apis he will look at so i hope we get to see in the near future

Cuz these app communicates with dac and sets vol to max once you exit the driver remains mounted at same vol till replugged again and the request is done by app triggering some system dialog which is not convenient either as its not systemwide implementation but another trick to go around

About apple dacs its already reported there is some dirty fix i tried to compile kernel for but it didnt work using the quirks mixer

https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/242221770

 

One of testers in audiosciencereview showed that with this implementation it only works in the app that have direct access at 100% voltage and once switched to other apps around 90% voltage

Still better than the default 50%

So i hope users to be patient about it if the new apis Max has mentioned serve us any good would be better than doing the job twice and waste time cuz there is around 10secs of no audio between initializing direct access to dac and might throw some crackling here and there in some apps and in some not

Edited September 13 by Ibrahimbo101