[fritsch]

Post your Debug Log - when playing those samples.

[theFan667]

Debug Log will tell and after some of those drops: dmesg | pastebinit

I think it's a problem with your usb connection and not Audio Engine related.

Here's the debug log:
http://xbmclogs.com/show.php?id=394961

And dmesg:
http://sprunge.us/HNXL

This line appears a few times in dmesg. There could be other clues but i'm no expert..

[fritsch]

23:31:18 T:139942814123904 NOTICE: Device 7
23:31:18 T:139942814123904 NOTICE: m_deviceName : iec958:CARD=MDAC,DEV=0
23:31:18 T:139942814123904 NOTICE: m_displayName : Audiolab M-DAC
23:31:18 T:139942814123904 NOTICE: m_displayNameExtra: S/PDIF
23:31:18 T:139942814123904 NOTICE: m_deviceType : AE_DEVTYPE_IEC958
23:31:18 T:139942814123904 NOTICE: m_channels : FL,FR
23:31:18 T:139942814123904 NOTICE: m_sampleRates : 44100,48000,88200,96000
23:31:18 T:139942814123904 NOTICE: m_dataFormats : AE_FMT_AC3,AE_FMT_DTS,AE_FMT_S24NE3

It only has one non passthrough format, which is S24NE3, so 16 bit won't directly work.

[theFan667]

Thanks fritsch.

My understanding, and please correct me if i'm wrong, is that my dac only supports 24 bit samples and this is a problem because Kodi's AudioEngine is decoding my 16 bit flac and storing in 32 bit samples. These 32 bit samples are sent to the dac which tries it's best, but fails to correctly play the audio.

This explains why a 16 bit flac file, when played, is reported by my dac to be 24 bit.

Do you have any suggestions to solve my issue?

[fritsch]

Nope, AudioEngine decodes your samples to 32 bit float, this happens on every hardware, no matter what soundcard you have.

From there we search a matching format on your soundcard, as yours only has one(!) 24 bit ... we use this. That's it.

[theFan667]

and then there's the complication of S24NE3 vs S24NE4.

Here's the same issue, but for windows, from 2 years ago and it appears it was fixed:
http://trac.kodi.tv/ticket/13200

[theFan667]

Nope, AudioEngine decodes your samples to 32 bit float, this happens on every hardware, no matter what soundcard you have.

From there we search a matching format on your soundcard, as yours only has one(!) 24 bit ... we use this. That's it.

This is crazy, it should work! Any idea of what i can try?

I currently use this dac with optical out from bluray player, optical from TV and coax from Sonos ZP90. Was using it with win7 and ASIO drivers. All work(ed) perfectly.

[fritsch]

I have no idea of what you can try - I only told you that your DAC only supports this 24 bit format, nothing else and this nothing kodi can change, it's a driver thing.

[theFan667]

To conclude:

It appears to be a linux kernel issue.

There are plenty of threads around with people reporting their usb audio working with one version of the linux kernel and not with another, then it gets fixed, then broken. I guess usb dacs aren't common enough to encourage thorough testing when the audio area is modified.

The options i can see:
- downgrade to older kernel that is known to work
- fix the issue myself
- bug other people to fix it

[Klasw]

I am also interesting in this topic. My view is that Kodi/PAPlayer sound system is doing something with the file . read my configuration off my dac. I got bit perfect with mplayer, but not in Kodi:

http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=229044

My Kernel is: 3.19.0-18-generic

[NKK64]

I uninstalled pulseaudio and use alsa with my XMOS usb DAC that has led indicators showing current sample rate.

Kernel versions 3.19 and 4.05 (both lowlatency)

There are no problems playing e.g. 24 bit 192 khz files with the DAC box led showing correct sample rate if I use Deadbeaf player or VLC,
However with Kodi (either 14.2 or 15 beta2) if I choose Analog audio device led always shows 48K and
S/PDIF correctly shows 44.1 for 44.1 files and 48 for 192.

Not that I care much - to me those (same file played with deadbeef or vlc or kodi) sound identical, but it seems kodi does some extra resampling that it should NOT.

[fritsch]

No it does not.

But without your Debug Log nothing we can do at all.

[NKK64]

Well, here it is (playing 192khz file):

http://pastebin.com/bXnvH1Kd

[fritsch]

23:25:46 T:140679129753536 NOTICE: m_deviceName : @:CARD=HIFIRef,DEV=0
23:25:46 T:140679129753536 NOTICE: m_displayName : HIFI-Ref
23:25:46 T:140679129753536 NOTICE: m_displayNameExtra: Analog
23:25:46 T:140679129753536 NOTICE: m_deviceType : AE_DEVTYPE_PCM
23:25:46 T:140679129753536 NOTICE: m_channels : FL,FR
23:25:46 T:140679129753536 NOTICE: m_sampleRates : 48000
23:25:46 T:140679129753536 NOTICE: m_dataFormats : AE_FMT_S32NE
23:25:46 T:140679129753536 NOTICE: Device 6
23:25:46 T:140679129753536 NOTICE: m_deviceName : iec958:CARD=HIFIRef,DEV=0
23:25:46 T:140679129753536 NOTICE: m_displayName : HIFI-Ref
23:25:46 T:140679129753536 NOTICE: m_displayNameExtra: S/PDIF
23:25:46 T:140679129753536 NOTICE: m_deviceType : AE_DEVTYPE_IEC958
23:25:46 T:140679129753536 NOTICE: m_channels : FL,FR
23:25:46 T:140679129753536 NOTICE: m_sampleRates : 44100,48000,88200,96000,176400,192000,384000
23:25:46 T:140679129753536 NOTICE: m_dataFormats : AE_FMT_AC3,AE_FMT_DTS,AE_FMT_S32NE

For the analog out - we only see 48 khz and 32NE format - not much we can do about it. Stop kodi and verify with speaker-test -c2 -D plughw:X,Y -r 96000 and see what works

[FernetMenta]

INFO: CActiveAE::ApplySettings - limit samplerate for SPDIF to 48000