El Capitan USB audio problems.

Luis Sequeira1 wrote:

winchestermann wrote:

Please Apple stop it !!!!! Nothing change after 10.11.2. The same issue with Airplay who doesn't work with Audivarna by exemple.

How is that supposed to be Apple's fault?

The OS includes the AirPlay API; it is the developer's responsibility to support it. Audirvana modifies some standard behaviors - for example, it captures the standard volume buttons, so they do not change the overall system volume. It is up to the developers of Audirvana to make the application work with AirPlay, not Apple.

I just downloaded Audirvana to test this and I am right now using it to play music over AirPlay. It working perfectly, smooth as silk.

I have the application running on my rMBP and playing back over my iMac's speakers (the iMac is set up as an AirPlay device using the AirServer application).

You have to select AirPlay in Audirvana->Preferences->Audio System->Preferred Audio Device:

Hi Luis,

I speak about OS X, not IOS. There's an airplay API IOS but not OS X https://developer.apple.com/airplay/

On OSX, the only autorised API must go through airplay as Audivarna plus and it's this API who don't work all the time.

In France, tire's a lot of noise about this...http://www.on-mag.fr/index.php/topaudio/actualites-news/14102-el-capitan-la-plus -mauvaise-mise-a-jour-de-mac-os-x-pour-l…

There is a petition who is circulating in France for this problem.

It seems that we are (literally and figuratively) speaking two different languages (or three... I am Portuguese 🙂)

Let me try to clarify:

1) I am speaking about OS X as well, as you may see by the screenshot I posted, which is of the Preferences window of Audirvana - the program which you said is not working for you. This is clearly a screen from OS X, not iOS. As you can see, AirPlay is listed among the output options of the program.

2) Like I said, Audirvana works for me with AirPlay. I listened to an entire Mendelssohn symphony over AirPlay and it did not fail even once.

3) I read the text you linked to, and it has NOTHING to do with AirPlay.

It talks about usb audio devices ("DAC", which appears in the text, stands for Digital Analog Converter, which has to be present in all such devices in order to produce actual sound, which is analog; there have been many complaints about these devices not working or working poorly with El Capitan, you can find threads about this in this forum as well)

I am wondering if there is som

4) AirPlay DOES work in OSX, or we would not be having this conversation. It has been there since Mavericks.

I am not familiar with the particular API, but I have used AirServer, a program that turns a Mac into an AirPlay device, for over a year. With it I can use an iMac to display audio and video from my iPhone or my rMBP, just as if the iMac were an AppleTV (which I don't have). The programmers of AirServer must have used some API provided by the system to implement this software. And so (I suppose) have the Audirvana developers (and Safari, iTunes, etc; though those may have access to some *private* API not available to other developers).

Does anyone know the latest El Capitan updates 10.11.2 fix the USB issue yet?

Running the latest update of El Capitan, using NuForce DAC, the DAC is not working (keeps disconnecting when switched to) while having it plugged either directly to my laptop or my Apple Display. I have borrowed Apple USB keyboard and plugged the DAC into it and that is the only way I managed to make it WORK. Other options I tried were USB hubs (did NOT work), DELL LCD with USB ports (did NOT work).

Any ideas about why it works only with Apple Keyboard? Does it have something to do with USB3 vs. USB2? What is the keyboard doing with the data that other options are not? Also, any ideas on how to make it work with something I can hide behind my Display? USB keyboard unfortunately does not fit my setup.

I found this thread while looking for information on usb audio issues between El Capitan and my Burson Audio HA-160D USB headphone Amp/DAC. This Amp/DAC has worked fine for me for the last 5 years or so with various version of OS X. Suddenly with the OS X 10.11.1 update, it stopped working with similar symptoms to those that have been reported here- selecting my Burson and attempting to play music through iTunes (and other apps that I tried like VLC) resulted in the switching/resetting from the Burson to the internal speakers on my iMac approximately every second. I updated to OS X 10.11.2, but the problem persisted. I was just about ready to downgrade to 10.10.x when I decided to check a few other things. I had an old email where I asked the Burson folks about 96kHz audio, and they recommended the following settings in Apple's Audio MIDI Setup app:

Input:

- Source 'External Line Connector'

- Format '96000.0 Hz' and '2ch-16bit Integer'

Output:

- Format '96000.0 Hz' and '2ch-24bit Integer'

It seems that some OS X update somewhere changed these settings to something else, but setting them back to the above settings seems to have resolved the issue for me. I've been listening to tunes while writing this without incident. Hope this helps someone else.

Hello, thanks a lot for the info, tested what you suggested but the problem still remains. Also, my "Source" is greyed out and only shows "default". I guess the "Hz" settings will be different for each device?

@hoodlehead: that helps us a bit. Great this works with your particular device.

My theory is that until EC the driver was more flexible in finding a mode/ setting that works with a particular DAC.
In EC the driver chooses the best option, if that option fails -> game over.

When I read the datasheet of the streaming chip of my DAC, a TE7022, a few things:

USB 2.0 Full-Speed

USB 2 full speed doesn't really exist. Full speed is USB 1. USB 2 is high speed. So this is a USB1 device, communicating at 12 Mbps.

USB 2.0 Full-Speed compliant supported USB Audio Class 1.0

There exist two standards USB Audio Class 1.0 and USB Audio Class 2. This chip supports only the old standard.

Due to 12Mbps bandwidth limitation of the USB full speed operation, only one I2S input or output can be set for 24bit/96KHz application, under this condition, for simultaneous multiple-channel applications, rest of I2S interfaces has to be configured at the combination of 16-bit / 48KHz, 16-bit/96KHz and even lower resolution/sampling rate.

I2S is the datalink between the streaming chip and the actual DAC chip.

So,if you read both the two inputs and two outputs at the same time, in the max resolution and max sampling rate, the amount of data is too much for a USB 1, 12 Mbps device. Of course there is no need at all to read the inputs, but it could be the case that nevertheless EC does do that.

Really funny however is that it works for a second or so. That feels a lot like a buffer issue or an issue where EC thinks it doesn't work while actually it does.

The big question is whether Apple will fix the functionality / flexibility in their driver. I am afraid not. Otherwise they would have done it already by now, probably. They silently declare a generation of devices obsolete.

I did try to play with various output options in MIDI setup app for my NuForce uDAC, but none worked, including the crazy 96kHz/24-bit output setting hoodlehead proposed above.

If you did fiddle with the settings, you should reset them back to something more reasonable like 44.1 or 48 kHz and 16-bit. If you want more technical details why you should reset those settings back to "lower" numbers, there's an excellent description here: http://xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.htm. Bottom line if you find article too technical or simply too long, once you hit about 44.1-48 kHz and 16-bit, bigger number are worse.

I won't be getting into arguments around this one, or posting replies. So don't try to start flame wars or go into arguments. Go read linked article instead. Monty knows his stuff way better than you do.

It's starting to get a bit ridiculous how long this issue has gone on for. Through many betas and now up to a .2 release and still nothing. Is there any better way for us to get Apple's attention than posting in these forums? It's obviously directly related to software as many of us have confirmed. I wonder how much longer they will continue to ignore us. I for one am starting to lose my patience.

Audiotrak DR.DAC3 does not work with El Capitan. Device is connected to USB ports (macbook pro/apple monitor/keyboard) and show on the list of USB devices ( ioreg -p IOUSB ) but not as an audio interface, so no chance for playing sound... Audiotrak does not have any solution... (wait until something happend 😉 ). I'm wonder whether it is possible to force OS X to assign a USB Audio profile to particular device (it does not guarantee that it will works but at least there is a hope 😉

Last week, I ordered a Nuforce uDac-2 on eBay. After ordering, I bumped into this post and started sweating... OMG... I ordered a uDac-2 for my iMac and I've already got El Capitan... what did I do...

Anyways, today I've received the uDac-2 and I really don't understand all the hassle. I unpacked the device, plugged it to my iMac, and went to the sound options. Here is what I saw:

Then I started up Vox, loaded a FLAC file, plugged my Sennheiser HD 650's and... oh my... that sounds good!

Here's my system info:

So... what's the issue? Or did Apple solve this USB issue in the meantime?

I have the exact same machine , specs and Dac, and when i plug it i see that as well, but it doesn't work. The sound just cycles on and off over and over.

Updated to OSX 10.11.2 on a late-2015 iMac 5k and still no luck. My Nuforce Icon Dac is still not recognized. Interestingly, my OPPO HA-1 does work, so not all USB DACs are affected.

Maybe if everyone submits a bug report with their equipment details, it'll raise visibility to Apple? http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

I know, long shot...but only takes a minute.