Troubleshooting and support¶

No sound during playback¶

If you get no sound while playing music, double-check the following items in order. We recommend that you disconnect your speakers during the initial trouble-shooting steps, until you get to the step that says to reconnect them. Turn off the SHD Power while connecting and reconnecting speakers.

If you have the Dirac Live app open, quit it and return to miniDSP Device Console.

Check the input meters¶

Play a music signal, or pink noise from the REW signal generator. If there is no signal on the input meters, follow these steps:

If the source has a volume control, check that it is not turned down.
Check the cabling between the source and the SHD Power.
Check that you have the correct input source selected on the SHD Power.

Check the output meters¶

If there is signal on the input meters but no signal on the output meters, follow these steps:

Turn up the master volume control. (This is needed because the output meters show the level after volume adjustment. Make sure your amps are turned off.)
Check that the SHD Power is not muted.
Check your Routing and make sure that you are routing the inputs through to the connected outputs.
Check your crossover settings. (For example, if you have a high pass crossover filter but are generating a subwoofer-frequency test signal, there will be no output signal.)

Reconnect speakers¶

Turn off the SHD Power and reconnect your speakers. Turn the SHD Power back on and gradually turn up the master volume.

Some outputs produce sound and some do not¶

If some outputs produce sound and some don't, check your routing and all of your crossover settings. For example, in a multi-subwoofer configuration, some outputs will not produce sound if there are high pass filters active.

Strange soundstage¶

If the soundstage width is narrow, check that you have not summed left and right input channels and routed the sum to left and right speakers. This will result in a mono signal and hence a narrow soundstage.

If the soundstage is "weird", check the routing and crossover settings and make sure that left and right channels are consistent.

If you are implementing an active speaker, double-check that every output goes to the correct driver. This can be done by playing a test signal (music or pink noise) at low volume, muting all outputs, then unmuting each output one at a time.

A poor or marginal USB connection can cause various issues, such as:

Inability to detect a connected device
Failure to complete a firmware upgrade

If you experience this type of issue:

Try a different USB cable. (Note that a marginal cable can work normally but fail to complete a firmware upgrade, for example.)
Try a different USB port on your computer.
If you have any hubs or extensions between the SHD Power and your computer, try removing them.

Network audio dropouts¶

In the Volumio web interface, go to Playback Options → General Playback Options and increase Audio Buffer Size:

If you are not using multiroom playback, try disabling it in My Music → Functionalities Control:

Button to enable/disable multi-room playback in Volumio

If you are using multiroom playback, go to My Music → Functionalities Control, scroll down to Multiroom Playback and click on the Settings button. Try increasing the buffer sizes in the settings:

Changing the stream buffer size in Volumio

If you are using Wi-Fi, one option is to switch to a wired (Ethernet) connection if possible. Alternatively, investigate whether the location of your SHD has good signal strength and whether the Wi-Fi network you are using is congested.

Network access errors (macOS Sequoia and later)¶

If you get an error message such as "Failure searching for devices" or other network access errors, it may be because you have not enabled local network access for Device Console.

To check and correct this, open System Settings, scroll down on the left sidebar and select Privacy & Security, then scroll down on the right and click on Local Network. If miniDSP Device Console is not enabled, enable it here:

Enable local network access to Device Console

No sound during volume calibration¶

If you get no sound while on the Volume Calibration tab of Dirac Live, first make sure that you increase the volume slider in the UI (the leftmost one).

If there is still no sound, quit Dirac Live and return to Device Console. Then work through the steps in the No sound during playback section above.

Distorted sound during playback¶

If audio playback is distorted, you may have too much gain internal to the DSP. Dirac Live can apply up to 10 dB of gain, so the output level should be kept lower than -10 dB to guarantee that there is no distortion with a full-scale input signal.

This issue typically occurs when volume control is being done downstream of the miniDSP processor. If so, set the processor master volume at -10 dB, and then use the downstream equipment to control volume.

Tip

If you are experiencing any connectivity issues, the first thing to do is double-check that the miniDSP Device Console and your processor's firmware are up to date.

No Internet connection¶

Various components of the software require an Internet connection. In particular:

The Dirac Live application may refuse to generate filters or reload saved projects if it cannot connect to the Dirac Research servers.

In the event that the software is not operating correctly, check that your computer is connected to the Internet and try again.

Failure searching for devices (macOS Sequoia and later)¶

If, when starting Dirac Live from Device Console, you receive the error message "Failure searching for devices", it may be because you have not enabled local network access for Device Console.

To resolve this, see Network access errors (macOS Sequoia and later) above.

The miniDSP processor is not detected¶

Port conflict¶

The Dirac Live application use network ports 11113, 11115, 11117, 5000, and 8080. The last two in particular are needed for the bridging app to communicate between Dirac Live and the miniDSP processor.

If the miniDSP processor is not detected:

Double-check the USB cabling from your computer to the processor. If you are using extenders or hubs, remove them and make a short direct connection. Try different USB ports on your computer.
Check that your computer's firewall isn't blocking any of the ports listed above.
Check that other applications aren't using these ports.

a. On Windows 10, open a command prompt and type the following commands:
```
netstat -ano | findstr 8080
netstat -ano | findstr 5000
```
b. On macOS, open Terminal and type the following commands:
```
sudo lsof -n -i4TCP:8080 | grep LISTEN
sudo lsof -n -i4TCP:5000 | grep LISTEN
```

If there is no output, the ports are not in use. If there is output, then try to close the application that is using them. Typically, software that provides a local web server is likely to be the one blocking port 8080.

Unpaired devices (Windows 10)¶

Some customers have reported that changing the following setting enabled Dirac Live to find their processor. Go to Settings -> Privacy -> Other Devices and enable "Communicate with unpaired devices."