volume control Qobuz - bubbleupnp - neutron - fiio ka11

[Michael Waldor]

I'm now using bubbleupnp & neutron on a new (refurbished) google pixel 9 pro xl together with the DAC fiio ka11. This seems to be a long chain of software, and each step might touch the output volume. Just today I've encountered a bad experience during Qobuz playback from within bubbleupnp - volume jumped from 6 (out of 100) to 100 when I've switched from neutron app to bubbleupnp. I like to avoid such a volume jump to protect my ears.

As a first step I did reduce the maximum volume by the fiio control app by 30units. As a consequence the typical listening volume is now at 40units (instead of 6 before).

I use the hardware volume buttons to change the volume. But I might do this either when bubbleupnp or neutron is "visible" as current app. Not always are the volume changes reflected within the other app, and on rare occasions it jumps to 100 when switching from neutron to bubbleupnp. That 100 is first only shown on bubbleupnp's volume slider, but applied if one presses any hardware volume botton. I've also seen that the volume values reported by neutron or bubbleupnp are off by 1 step.

Typically I avoid to go to the neutron app. But I have to when I want to change neutron's audio processing, e.g. engage crossfeed.

Currently everything works really perfect because I avoid to change neutron settings (I seem to have selected proper values within neutron - optimization suggestions welcome).

To conclude -my main question is thus: howto use hardware volume buttons to safely avoid 100unit volume?

Regards, Michael

[Michael Pujos]

Hi,

Than you for the report.

UPnP renderers volume range is usually in the 0-100 (although it can technically be anything), although internally they might use a different range.

BubbleUPnP does not change the volume (here to 100) on its own.

This 100 value is communicated by the Neutron renderer to BubbleUPnP, hinting at a bug in Neutron if its actual volume value is not 100 (whatever internal volume value it uses, mapped to the UPnP 0-100 range).

In BubbleUPnP, there is no way to limit the max volume (say to 30 or 50) but the app do its best to prevent accidental volume scares. But that only works if the renderer

reports to the app its current volume properly, which is not the case here.

I will see I can reproduce this issue with the Neutron renderer to eventually report it to its developers.

[Michael Waldor]

Coming back to this topic - volume control. Today I've seen the maximum volume 100 within bubbleupnp utilizing neutron renderer once again. I guess this happens randomly after powering on my Pixel phone AND after using the fiio control app. I just wanted to check for firmware updates - there are none. Then I've started neutron, which requested USB DAC access - granted. And now bubbleupnp jumped up to volume 100.

I guess that there is a communication problem between bubbleupnp and neutron renderer for volume control. E.g. if I change the volume from within neutron, bubbleupnp displays the same value as expected. If I change volume when bubbleupnp is active (now playing screen) using the hard buttons or the slider, the volume is changed, but the volume value stays at its old value. Tapping the loudspeaker icon will mute playback, but unmute does not work from within bubbleupnp. Within neutron mute stays engaged, and I can unmute within neutron.

Hope you can fix that within bubbleupnp, Michael

[Michael Pujos]

From your description it looks like Neutron accepts volume commands from BubbleUPnP but does not transmit back the volume value (or mute state) to BubbleUPnP.

I will have a look but likely a Neutron bug.