[HamburgerJungeJr]

Hi,

we are using Kodi as our main radio. Therefore we connected an Hifiberry Amp2 to the Pi.

Everytime we start an radio stream (It doesn't matter wheter we are using the IPTV Simple PVR or the radio.de plugin) we hear a loud crack .

This does not happen when we are starting mp3 tracks from a network share.

Is there a configuration to stop this cracks at the beginning?

Greetings
HambugerJungeJr

[HamburgerJungeJr]

No ideas?

Slowly it's getting on my nerves.

[cequejevois]

Hello,

I have the same configuration here (RPi3B+ with LibreElec+ hifiBerry Amp2), with the same problem.

I would be interested in any solutions you might have.

[popcornmix]

If the problem is related to HifiBerry Amp2 then asking HifiBerry may be best option.

If it only affects some sources, then it may be sampling rate related (e.g. device makes a crack when switching clocks).
You may want to experiment with system/audio settings to force sample rate to a specific value to see if that provides a workaround.

[cequejevois]

If the problem is related to HifiBerry Amp2 then asking HifiBerry may be best option.

True. I did post a message on their forum but no answer yet (i shall wait a bit longer though).

If it only affects some sources, then it may be sampling rate related (e.g. device makes a crack when switching clocks).
You may want to experiment with system/audio settings to force sample rate to a specific value to see if that provides a workaround.

I tried many things in the audio menu to see if it changed something -> nope.
On your recommandation, i've tried all the different fixed sample rate as well as "optimised" and the third one -> i sometimes hear a slight difference in the volume of cracking sound depending on the radio source but still a big crackling sound each times.

I am disappointed.

Thank you for your help though.

Do you feel it is necessarily related to the hifiberry amp2 ?

[popcornmix]

Do you feel it is necessarily related to the hifiberry amp2 ? 

 If two people reporting the issue both have hifiberry amp2 and many other users with different audio don't have crackling, then that would be my best guess.

Try connecting headphones to the analogue socket (or use hdmi audio) and see if you still get crackling in the same way to be sure.

[cequejevois]

Humm , strange : when i change the audio output from hifiberry to HDMI and play any sound source nothing happens ; i cannot hear anything. I need the amp2 to power the Rpi. I remember it worked well on the HDMI before i plugged the speaker "lines" into amp2 though.

[cequejevois]

Humm , strange : when i change the audio output from hifiberry to HDMI and play any sound source nothing happens ; i cannot hear anything. I need the amp2 to power the Rpi. I remember it worked well on the HDMI before i plugged the speaker "lines" into amp2 though.

Well. I re-installed everything from scratch (LibreElec and so on) and recovered my HDMI sounds again to perform the test. It's strange that once connected to the amp2 interface i could not manage to switch to HDMI again.

So i've tried to listen to the radio sources again and i must say that the crackling effect is still here indeed. Far less audible on HDMI speakers but still it is there. When back to amp2 and my two JM Lab speakers, the crackling sounds are loud. The less volume i set, the less i hear the crackles.

HifiBerry answered me that they don't have any experience with the Kodi radio plugins i used (Radio, Shoutcast2 and Icecast) and advised me to contact them directly . But i have to admit that since i hear the crackles also on the HDMI output, it is probably not related to amp2 then...

Setting a fixed sample rate (whatever it is) did not fixed that neither.

I am confused with the fact that i will probably have to live with that crackles. It doesn't seem normal to me.

[solarisx64]

Humm , strange : when i change the audio output from hifiberry to HDMI and play any sound source nothing happens ; i cannot hear anything. I need the amp2 to power the Rpi. I remember it worked well on the HDMI before i plugged the speaker "lines" into amp2 though.

Well. I re-installed everything from scratch (LibreElec and so on) and recovered my HDMI sounds again to perform the test. It's strange that once connected to the amp2 interface i could not manage to switch to HDMI again.

So i've tried to listen to the radio sources again and i must say that the crackling effect is still here indeed. Far less audible on HDMI speakers but still it is there. When back to amp2 and my two JM Lab speakers, the crackling sounds are loud. The less volume i set, the less i hear the crackles.

HifiBerry answered me that they don't have any experience with the Kodi radio plugins i used (Radio, Shoutcast2 and Icecast) and advised me to contact them directly . But i have to admit that since i hear the crackles also on the HDMI output, it is probably not related to amp2 then...

Setting a fixed sample rate (whatever it is) did not fixed that neither.

I am confused with the fact that i will probably have to live with that crackles. It doesn't seem normal to me.  

Hi cequejevois,

did you manage to solve this issue? I run into the same issue as you describe... I run on a pi3B with Hifiberry APM2. 

Thanks upfront for sharing your solution...

[cequejevois]

Hi solarisx64,

No i did not manage to do anything since my last message.

So i still have this crackling sounds everytime i want to listen to a web radio stream.

I still don't get used to it.

Sorry for having no solution. I would be interested in yours if you found one and post it here as well.

Good luck.

[solarisx64]

Hi solarisx64,

No i did not manage to do anything since my last message.

So i still have this crackling sounds everytime i want to listen to a web radio stream.

I still don't get used to it.

Sorry for having no solution. I would be interested in yours if you found one and post it here as well.

Good luck.

ok will do, thanks for responding...

[kkbaf]

I have got the same problem.  LibreElec 9.2.4 on Asus ChromeBox

Narrowing down things:
Crackling occurs on left speaker.
Crackling occurs on all different outputs: USB DAC (worst), HDMI, headphone jack via internal sound.
Crackling occurs approximately 3 out of 4 times when streaming mp3 or aac (but never on  flac!).
Crackling occurs in webradio plugins and DLNA but not via local tvheadend-plugin (tested for identical streams of course).

So everyone with this problem could you please check using different codecs and report back?

Here are some links for testing:

Code:

#EXTM3U
#EXTINF:-1,Schwarzwaldradio MP3 192k
http://str0.creacast.com/schwarzwaldradio
#EXTINF:-1, FIP Rock AAC 192k
http://icecast.radiofrance.fr/fiprock-hifi.aac
#EXTINF:-1,Frequence3 FLAC
http://frequence3.net-radio.fr/frequence3.flac
#EXTINF:-1,The Cheese FLAC
http://thecheese.ddns.net:8004/stream
#EXTINF:-1,IntenseRadio FLAC
http://secure.live-streams.nl/flac.flac

[RaspiSnow]

Same issue here RPI 4 + AMP2
Observed in SOMA FM and Radio Plugin. ill try to test what you suggested as soon as i figured out how. i am new to kodi

[abagos]

I can confirm thee crackling noise with an RPi 3 and a USB DAC. It happens with a MP3 radio station. A radio station with AAC does not produce this sound. Moreover if I use the bluetooth audio to a bluetooth speaker it is much less (does not bother).

In my case it comes from the right speaker and it is very annoying so I try to remember to mute and unmute when I start the stream.

I don't know if this makes any difference but these two stations are stored in my Favorites from the Radio Add-on. When I start the non-offending station (AAC) it jumps to the "Now Playing" screen. When I start the offending station (MP3) it stays in the Favorites tab.

[abagos]

I can confirm thee crackling noise with an RPi 3 and a USB DAC. It happens with a MP3 radio station. A radio station with AAC does not produce this sound. Moreover if I use the bluetooth audio to a bluetooth speaker it is much less (does not bother).

In my case it comes from the right speaker and it is very annoying so I try to remember to mute and unmute when I start the stream.

I don't know if this makes any difference but these two stations are stored in my Favorites from the Radio Add-on. When I start the non-offending station (AAC) it jumps to the "Now Playing" screen. When I start the offending station (MP3) it stays in the Favorites tab.

Correction, it comes from the left speaker. Apparently my raspberry pi switches the channels.