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picoreplayer alsamixer gain

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Posted on March 24, 2021 at 07:00:57
awsjr
Audiophile

Posts: 235
Location: Austin, Tejas
Joined: November 30, 2006
 raspberry pi4 using picoreplayer connected to an mhdt dac...
lms server on a mac mini using sqeezepad or ipeng to control...

is there a way to lower the gain in alsamixer through ssh ?
thanks

 

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RE: picoreplayer alsamixer gain, posted on March 24, 2021 at 08:31:14
mlsstl
Audiophile

Posts: 1079
Location: Midwest
Joined: September 1, 2015
 Yes, you can do that.

From a terminal (command line) window on your PC, enter the following:

$ ssh tc@192.168.... (replace the IP address with the correct one for your player. Also note the "$" is the prompt line from my Linux PC. Haven;t done this from Windows so you may see a different prompt.)

The default password for the Picoreplayer is "piCore" (without quote marks) unless you've changed it at some point.

At the prompt, run the "alsamixer" command. If you get an error message, try running the "export TERM=xterm" command first.

Use F6 to select the correct sound card (internal RPi or external) and then adjust the mixer volume. Note that this will probably need to be done again if the player is rebooted. Use the F1 command for help options.




 

RE: picoreplayer alsamixer gain, posted on March 24, 2021 at 10:45:29
awsjr
Audiophile

Posts: 235
Location: Austin, Tejas
Joined: November 30, 2006
 thank you for the info... thats the way I was doing it but get a messge indicating my selected device (my pagoda dac) has no features to control ... not exactly the message but for sure it indicates there are no adjustments that can be made.. thanks again

 

RE: picoreplayer alsamixer gain, posted on March 24, 2021 at 13:14:17
mlsstl
Audiophile

Posts: 1079
Location: Midwest
Joined: September 1, 2015
 Not sure what to tell you. I run Picoreplayer 7.0 and I made the notes in my first post from logging on to the player from with my laptop.

 

RE: picoreplayer alsamixer gain, posted on March 25, 2021 at 08:19:10
soundchekk
Audiophile

Posts: 2426
Joined: July 11, 2007
 Hi.

alsamixer is a tool that communicates directly with your DAC hardware.
It lets you control features that are available on your hardware.
The actual features you're able to control with alsamixer are defined by the manufacturer though. The manufacturer has to make them available through the DAC firmware and the host device driver.

alsamixer accesses the device driver, if it finds any features it'll list them. If there are no features, nothing will be listed.
In your case, the manufacturer simply didn't integrate any remote control option via USB.

It happens all the time.

They rather get you another $5 IR control, that's cheaper, instead of letting the firmware talk to the host via USB driver properly.

Simply request it!!! They are able to do it. They are aware of it. There's simply no pressure from the market to get it implemented.

The more people request it the better the chance we all get such features sooner or later.

I hope one day they all make certain basic functions - such as volume control, filter selection and input/output selection accessible via driver towards the host.

Example: ESS Sabre based DAC chips allow to control the volume also on DSD material. But that requires access to the internal DAC chip volume control. If your manufacturer skips the USB access, you can forget about DSD volume control. We had that discussion with the Khadas people. On the Tone1 it doesn't and won't ever work properly. They now seem to have it properly implemented on the Tone2. Great. They listened.
The Allo Revolution has it implemented. And there are probably more DACs out there.

Just go for a DAC that offers, these features.

Enjoy.




-----------------------------------------------------------------

blog latest >> The Audio Streaming Series - tuning kit pCP

 

RE: picoreplayer alsamixer gain, posted on March 25, 2021 at 08:47:01
awsjr
Audiophile

Posts: 235
Location: Austin, Tejas
Joined: November 30, 2006
 thanks for the messgae..
yes sir, that seems to be the case with my mhdt pagoda...
also a BIG thanks for all your work with the "audio streaming series" you have out together.... excellent

 

Thanks for the info!, posted on March 25, 2021 at 09:07:27
mlsstl
Audiophile

Posts: 1079
Location: Midwest
Joined: September 1, 2015
 Guess I've been lucky enough that every DAC I've used with my RPis (HAT or external) has been correctly configured to recognize alsa.

 

RE: picoreplayer alsamixer gain, posted on March 31, 2021 at 17:30:38
tvr2500m
Audiophile

Posts: 1687
Location: Boston
Joined: February 2, 2003
 This may be related to issue I'm experiencing that I came here to post a question about. Occasionally, booting into PCP/LMS/SL (RPi 4B), perhaps changing output device, I get no/little gain/volume.

Specifically, this time I got very low gain/volume with a Meridian Explorer2 using the software volume control in the player.

Sorting through the settings and trying different things, I couldn't restore a useful volume control. I tried different SL outputs, resetting the ALSA settings, ...

Is there an ALSA control/s I could be looking at to fix this?

 

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