USB soundcard: Annoying latency / Sleeping issue

Hey,

I am using Fiio e10 USB DAC with openSUSE 12.3, but I have a problem:

Whenever the audio playback starts there will be around 1 second delay before I can hear the anything. So basically this means, for example, that if you were trying to listen a kick drum sample, you would hear only minor noise from the end of the sample or nothing at all.

Very short audio sample:
|| = start / end

  • = what I hear

= what I don’t hear

|########***|

This becomes very annoying when listening to music with silent sections, because the delay/skip occurs always when there is no sound coming out from speakers.

I am fairly new to Linux systems so any help is greatly appreciated!

My suggestions are in four parts:

  1. Fully Update openSUSE
YaST / Software / Software Management / Options / Select "Allow Vendor Change"

And, shown from start for clarity …

YaST / Software / Software Management / Package / All Packages / Update if newer version available 
  1. Install Multimedia codecs per this blog:

openSUSE 12.3 Multi-media and Restricted Format Installation Guide - Blogs - openSUSE Forums

  1. Have a Look at my PulseAudio config blog:

PulseAudio and Selecting the Proper Sound Card Configuration - Blogs - openSUSE Forums4. I have an audio test bash script:

S.T.A.R.T. - SuSE Terminal Audio Reporting Tool - Version 1.11 - Blogs - openSUSE Forums Check it out as I think the fix is in there …

Thank You,

Hey jdmcdaniel3,

Thank you for you reply. I went through the steps you provided, but they did not have effect on the problem I described.

I created an example sound file (.xm format) which plays short kickdrum-samples alone in the beginning of the file, then after a while the kick is accompanied with continuous leadsound.
When I play this file in the composer (Milkytracker) or with VLC player, I am unable to hear anything when the kickdrum is playing alone, but I begin hearing it once the leadsound starts.
I discovered that with a player called Totem this issue does not exist. I can hear the kickdrum just fine while listening to my test file. I tried playing around with VLC settings with no luck.

Here is something odd I get from your bash script even though YasT shows that these modules are indeed installed. Is this alright?

----------------------------------------------------------------
 S.T.A.R.T. - SUSE Terminal Audio Reporting Tool - Version 2.00 
----------------------------------------------------------------

1. Check your PulseAudio package Installation

Terminal Command: rpm --query --all --queryformat '%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE}-%{ARCH} -> %{VENDOR}
' '*pulseaudio*'

pulseaudio-3.0-1.6.1-x86_64 -> openSUSE
pulseaudio-equalizer-2.7rev4-1.5-noarch -> http://packman.links2linux.de
pulseaudio-module-bluetooth-3.0-1.6.1-x86_64 -> openSUSE
pulseaudio-module-gconf-3.0-1.6.1-x86_64 -> openSUSE
pulseaudio-module-jack-3.0-1.6.1-x86_64 -> openSUSE
pulseaudio-module-lirc-3.0-1.6.1-x86_64 -> openSUSE
pulseaudio-module-x11-3.0-1.6.1-x86_64 -> openSUSE
pulseaudio-module-zeroconf-3.0-1.6.1-x86_64 -> openSUSE
pulseaudio-utils-3.0-1.6.1-x86_64 -> openSUSE

You need the several programs (around 9) installed to use Pulse Audio from openSUSE

Error Code on Command Exit = , 0 = Success

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