TOPIC: Volume control is out of control

Hi all

I nearly made myself deaf twice tonight. The use-case is as follows. I use Mconnect on my iPhone to stream Tidal to my SHD studio/volumio used as a UPNP renderer. Until the last FW update it used to be that the volume control in the iphone/Mconnect had no effect whatsoever on the volume of volumio/SHD studio. Since the last FW udpate, the volume in Volumio is linked to the master volume of the SHD, and as pointed out by others not in a very good way.

The deeper issue is that while adjusting the volume on my iphone/Mconnect always lead to a change of volume on volumio/SHD, the opposite in not true. That is, if I use the remote control to change the volume on the SHD, my iphone/Mconnect does not know that. And that my friends is a recipe for disasters.

So here is what happen to me tonight, twice. When Mconnect starts and connect to the SHD it sets the volume of the Iphone to max, and for some reasons this has no effect on the volume of the SHD. The volume on the SHD is usually at a comfortable , say -35dB. If, for whatever reason, I then touch the volume bottoms on my iPhone guess what happens to the volume of the SHD? It jumps from whatever value it has directly to 0dB, as to reflect the max volume of the Iphone. And that my friends is crazy scary. Each step of the volume on the Iphone/Mconnect is about 7dB on the SHD.

You could ask why Mconnect adjusts the volume on the iphone to max? And that I don't know - maybe to provide the best SNR? I guess it assumes that the UPNP render will adjust the volume or the UPNP renderer, here Volumio, fails to communicate its own volume to Mconnect. I don't know. Either way, the previous FW where Volumio had no control of the master volume of the SHD was MUCH safer.

I have looked a bit into the issue, trying to reproduce it.

There does seem to be a bi-directional linked between the volume of the iphone/Mconnect to the SHD, but it is badly implemented.
=> Adjusting the volume on the Iphone always lead to change of the mater volume on the SHD. The steps are quite large though, about 7 to 8dB.
=> Adjusting the master volume on the SHD is poorly reflected in the Iphone/Mconnect: A change of the master volume on the SHD, as with the remote control, just one step up or down and regardless of the actual volume level, sets the volume on the iphone/Mconnect to max (first error). If then click the volume button of the iphone (intentional or mistake), it sets the volume of the SHD immediately to max (second error), as to reflect the volume of the iphone that was previously triggered by the change of the volume on the SHD (see first mistake)

It is this combination of action that leads to overriding of the master volume of the SHD to 0dB.

As a temporary step to prevent the system going louder than you ever want I would set some attenuation in the plugin, using either input or output attenuation settings. Note that these are set independently for each preset.

I get scared! The same behavior occurs with the BubbleUPnP App on Android. This really is dangerous!

It's probably worth logging this with Support as it might get addressed sooner than via this thread.

A ticket has been submitted - indeed this needs to be addressed fairly soon, given the possible danger of the issue. In two occasions I was playing music at -40dB on the SHD, which jumped to 0dB. My active loudspeakers spec's say they will deliver 106dB SPL continuous. Though not hearing threatening for very short time (the 3 seconds it takes to jump on the mute button), such a high pressure level is really not something one wants to experience "by surprise".

With Bubbleupnp you can disable and hide the volume controls. No risks then. I use the SHD remote.

In BubbleUPnP I have set the volume controls to be hidden in the Now Playing screen. But they are still present in the notification bar and also I am able to change the volume with the smartphone's hardware buttons. Am I missing a setting?

I can confirm that there is a SHD volume control issue, especially during initialization right after a reboot, it looks some settings are not configured correctly. I believe the issue I'm experiencing might got introduced after the Volumio 1.052 firmware update but I can't confirm. Unfortunately the problem I'm describing below already caused me expensive speaker repairs (I'm using the SHD as an active cross-over in combination with some beefy power amps). For my system and configuration I'm able to replicate following problem:
• When I have my media server (Mediamonkey on a Windows10 PC) up and running. At the moment I start-up or reboot my SHD without touching any of the SHD volume controls (i.e. physical knob, or Volumio web interface) at the moment I render the 1st audio file from my server, the volume on the SHD goes to max or 100 no matter what the volume setting is on the SHD prior to reboot.
• However after reboot of the SHD, I touch any of the volume control settings of the SHD first before rendering an audio file, the SHD volume setting does not change (or jump to max).

Additional observations:
• While listening to an audio source connected to i.e. the SDH RCA input, and somehow the media server starts streaming a file in the background to the SHD via my LAN, the SHD automatically switches to the LAN interface. This can be very annoying due to the large attenuation difference between the RCA and LAN inputs.
• If I use an iOS app (i.e. Monkeymote), to change the volume settings, I experience an erratic response on the SHD, basically the volume is jumping up and down. As a result, I exclusively use the IR remote for volume control.

Middle of May I entered a support ticket, after some back and forward emails with the Minidsp support team it has been pretty quiet during the past week(s) . Initially I was led to believe being the only one with volume control issues. Looks like more users experiencing similar or some other volume control issues on the SHD. I hope the Dev team can fix above issue soon. Overall I really like the SHD functionality and audio performance however due to my recent experience I'm concerned if I can trust the device and leave my system on while not in my listening room with a remote nearby.

All. Any developments here? Awaiting an SHD delivery shortly and reluctant to use Volumio while this risk remains.
Cheers

Tagore wrote:
Note that it's only a concern for the particular conditions described above. I only adjust the volume with the remote control and have no issues or concerns at all.

Ultrasonic wrote:
The bug is way too critical to use the word "only". And IMO it is very common to use not only the volume settings in an app or the remote control exclusively, but use them mixed. The more rare you mix them the more you will be surprised by the effect. Booom.

I think about reporting the bug, too, to increase the priority of this issue.

gbr wrote:
I think you misinterpreted my use of the word 'only'. I wasn't downplaying it for those affected. @Tagore was reluctant to use a newly purchased product though and so I was making it clear there was a way to use it safely, and depending on their planned use may not actually affect them at all.

I think it would you be worth logging the issue with Support though.

Earlier this week I received a response from MiniDSP tech. support on the ticket I entered mid of May regarding the issue I'm experiencing (see above). The feedback I received from MiniDSP; they are dependent on Volumio in order to have the issue addressed.

In order to prevent eventual future speaker damage they recommended to lower the maximum output level setting for each channel within the SHD as a workaround.

Ultrasonic wrote:
Ok, thanks for clarification. In fact, I misinterpreted it.
Espowilleit wrote:
Hmm, this is why it feels critical to depend on such a project if the company is not involved in the development. Maybe they should return to the fixed volume in volumio as long the cannot fix the volume control.