Alternate Music Players - Sound Issues

[pico]

I've installed PowerAMP to get over track sorting issues in the Cowon Music Player; PowerAMP has sorting options which is great - It's sorting my Albums as I would expect.

I was almost about to start using the D3 as a music player, when I was trying to use the Media buttons to goto next/previous song - it was not working. Then I pressed the play/pause button and the Cowon Media Player kicked in and started playing over the top. This was a easy fix of disabling the Media Buttons in the options of the Cowon Music Player. Now the Media Buttons work in PowerAMP.

However, after fixing this, I've discovered that there are sound issues when playing with PowerAMP that resolve themselves if you are looking at the Playing Screen of the Cowon Media Player.

When navigating away from the paused Cowon Media Player playing screen, there is a brief spike in volume that dies and I can hear background fuzz/static when the volume goes back down (use good Headphones to hear the static/fuzz). You should notice the static/fuzz more in quieter parts of your music or at start/end of songs.

I noticed this spike in Volume when I was using Rockbox on 4.27, but was not using Headphones and didn't notice the static/fuzz. I'm using firmware 1.29 now.

So in short, can someone confirm that Alternate Media Players sound better whilst looking at the Playing screen of the Cowon Media Player?

Attached is screen shot of the screen where PowerAMP sounds better Here PowerAMP is playing and the Cowon Media Player is not; navigating away from this screen causes the Volume spike, and then static/fuzz.

[pico]

Its definitely doing something funky with the ALSA settings. LOL

At least I can control PowerAMP with the Media Buttons while looking at the Cowon Music Player

[pico]

It appears to be the BBE settings that are the cause of fuzz/static, but only really noticeable on some settings. Using 'Normal' = never fuzz/static, still get the volume spike.

Crystal Clear seems to be the worst, try it out.

And this mysterious property gets set to 0 (probably cause of vol spike by its name);

[cowon.aud.volume.mode.by.app]: [0]

when on the above screenshot screen.

It goes to 1 when exiting that screen - However if the Cowon Media Player is being used, it stays 0 in any screen and no above mentioned symptoms.

So i suggest the Cowon Player is intricately related to BBE

[Milic]

+1 with my new Z2, there is definately something going on with interaction between 3rd party players and the stock one, whether it is on or not.
It is not even a temporay fix since you need to see what you are doing when selecting music in the 3rd party player, not possible if looking at the stock player screen!

[Weaves]

Pico,

Good work finding that code. I wonder if the 0 and 1 could be tied to the EU volume limit?

Then you could clearly state that Cowon is restricting the volume on all 3rd party apps.


Milic,

Open Mic app.

Press the Home button on the player.

Play your 3rd party app. You will notice the volume is increased.

[Kizune]

Originally Posted by Weaves

Good work finding that code. I wonder if the 0 and 1 could be tied to the EU volume limit?

Then you could clearly state that Cowon is restricting the volume on all 3rd party apps.

I have a Korean Z2 and use the Korean firmware - it happens to me too, so I doubt this issue is related to EU restrictions.

[Milic]

Originally Posted by Weaves

Milic,

Open Mic app.
Press the Home button on the player.
Play your 3rd party app. You will notice the volume is increased.

When you manage to have the stock app "active", the 3rd party app does sound clean, and you can even switch to it ... if for some unknown reason, the stock app gets "unactive", fuzz and static is back!

thats too bad really, how come they didnt fix it yet, unless they dont care about having 3rd party used ...?

[Weaves]

Originally Posted by Kizune

I have a Korean Z2 and use the Korean firmware - it happens to me too, so I doubt this issue is related to EU restrictions.

Ahhh, my bad then.

Hopefully, someone will figure out what the 0 and 1 mean then. And whether it can help with all volume.