Crackling sounds when playing

Support
1

Issue description:

When I play my ALAC songs, Symfonium generates high-pitched crackling sounds.
This is perfectly audible in my Sennheiser Momentum 4 headphones, which are quite top-notch when it comes to sound precision !

What makes this a bug ? If I play the exact same file in substreamer, the sound is perfectly clear.

That happens with the system equalizer (set to “Music” or “Automatic”) on the Oppo A72.
BUT if I disable all equalizers, same issue.
I can’t really use the built-in Symfonium equalizer, because when I enable it, the sound becomes stuttering like with a bad bluetooth connection. And anyway the crackling persists.

For the time being, I’m reluctantly back to using substreamer.

Logs:

debug-20230506_140024.zip (338,1 Ko)

Additional information:

Here is a song that replicates the issue everytime I play it. Especially after the crescendo, crackling starting at about 2:00 min and getting worse for the next 30 seconds.
https://ds.kandalakcha.com:5001/sharing/crE5ElIYP

Thanks for your help !

2

Additional logs (built-in EQ)

debug-20230506_140619.zip (9,7 Ko)

3

Sennheiser Momentum 4 headphones, which are quite top-notch

Well I know quite a few people who would disagree with this :wink:

If I play the exact same file in substreamer, the sound is perfectly clear.

I’m pretty sure that substreamer does not support alac and that it would be transcoded.

You can enable transcoding and see what happens.

BUT if I disable all equalizers, same issue.

Requires a complete restart of the app after kill to be sure the OS does not do stuff specially on Oppo.
Be sure to read https://dontkillmyapp.com/ to disable all Oppo optimizers too for the app.

I can’t really use the built-in Symfonium equalizer, because when I enable it, the sound becomes stuttering like with a bad bluetooth connection.

You can change the Advanced settings equalizer block size to a lower value to reduce cpu usage if your device libraries are not performant enough.

Again to be sure on those device, after changing the setting force kill the app.

4

Well I know quite a few people who would disagree with this :wink:

It has to work with Active noise suppression to give its best - and then it’s great. Otherwise it can sound like crap, indeed.

I’m pretty sure that substreamer does not support alac and that it would be transcoded.

Actually, I can happily select to not transcode in substreamer and it plays the ALAC just fine.

Requires a complete restart of the app after kill to be sure

OK, will restart the phone after each settings change to the EQ, to be sure.

disable all Oppo optimizers

Yeah, already done. Symfonium happily survives forever in its media notification and is not stopped.

You can change the Advanced settings equalizer block size to a lower value to reduce cpu usage

Oh that’s very good to know ! Will do immediately ! Thanks !

Will report soon.

5

THAT unblocked the rest.
Now I can use the built-in EQ and was able to suppress the cracks.
Thank you very much !

I had no idea the block size had an effect on CPU usage (nor on what else to be honest).
Maybe can you add a small text to that regard with the setting itself ?

For me, problem solved.

6

It’s written when you click on the setting and in the doc too :slight_smile:

But I’ll add a line in the default EQ doc too.