Volume Really Low

[adammhaile]

Hi there, I just found your library and have been playing with it a bit. Very nice work. I needed something super simple to play MP3s that this definitely fits the bill. I'm having a weird issue with the volume though. Your code defaults to 60% but at that level it's barely audible at all (I'm using headphones). Was there some other configuration you made to alsa or elsewhere that tweaked the system output volume?

Thanks!

[DaemonInformatica]

Greetings adammhaile,

First of all: Thanks for the compliment. :) I basically started this project to get to grips with Python and it's nice to hear that somebody thinks it's nice work.

Personally, I defaulted the setup to 60% so my ears wouldn't bleed so much if I switched it on... If you up it to 100%, will your audo actually play at max-volume? If not, there's probably some other mixer process doing its own evil to your sound level. If you intend to use the volume options in this library, I suggest finding the other mixer process / driver / whatever and set thát to 100% and then tweak the 60% in this library to your personal favorite. (Come to think of it, I might make it a config value....)

I wrote the software for this project: http://hackaday.io/project/491-DIY-Raspberry-Pi-MP3-player Are you using a Raspberry Pi also? If so: have you specifically set the audio output to headphones? (If not, it might default to HDMI port..)

[adammhaile]

Yeah... I've used alsamixer to make sure the global volume was at max so I could control it from software. But even with it globally at 100% and in code at 60% it's barely audible. Are you using any amplification in between the Pi and your speakers? Maybe the Pi just isn't cutout for direct drive of speakers... And yes, mine is going over the 3.5mm jack.

[DaemonInformatica]

Hmmz.. Personally, I use a set of 'in-ears'. With the volume at 100%, I nearly jumped out of my skull.. :P 60% was perfect. If you're driving a set of unamplified speakers directly from the jack, I can imagine that this is an entirely different configuration. 60% might not cut it.

Still, the question is valid. I've changed the initialization of the sound to be read from the settings file. So instead of having to hardcode the sound default, you can now simply update it in settings.cfg.

Let me know if it fixes the issue, so I can close the comment. :)

[adammhaile]

Nice addition :) Less hard coded is always good. Turns out, from a whole bunch of research, that the Pi just has REALLY cheap audio hardware and that the 3.5mm jack was never meant to be anything more than line-level output for amplified speakers. But I was using large headphones with 60mm drivers, so it just couldn't keep up. So, for the final version of this particular project, I've acquired some USB powered mini speakers meant for a laptop or something. That way they are amplified by an external power source.

Thanks!

On Thu, Mar 27, 2014 at 6:48 AM, DaemonInformatica <notifications@github.com

wrote:

Hmmz.. Personally, I use a set of 'in-ears'. With the volume at 100%, I nearly jumped out of my skull.. :P 60% was perfect. If you're driving a set of unamplified speakers directly from the jack, I can imagine that this is an entirely different configuration. 60% might not cut it.

Still, the question is valid. I've changed the initialization of the sound to be read from the settings file. So instead of having to hardcode the sound default, you can now simply update it in settings.cfg.

Let me know if it fixes the issue, so I can close the comment. :)

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/DaemonInformatica/DIY-MP3player/issues/1#issuecomment-38788979 .

[DaemonInformatica]

Then I'll mark the issue as closed. Let me know if you have more questions.