Hegel H390 - volume changes at its own while using Airplay

Hi @john,

thank you for showing us this log. Is there a typo in the log, because “setvolume” is -21.6 while “-21.9” seems to be sent to the client?

Best regards,
Sebastian

Thank you @john for researching into this.
Maybe @Anders_Ertzeid is also interested in this topic?

Best regards,

Arlen

Hello @Sebastian_Fels,

This is a result of numerical rounding, it shouldn’t lead to any large discrepancies or jumps in the volume.

-John

Thank you @Arlen for notifying me in this. I will look in to it on our side.

@Sebastian_Fels, Have you run software update on your H390 lately? I have not personally heard about this particular issue, but then I am not the most used support person at Hegel. There has been an update (I think also for the H390) containing various bug fixes. In any case, I would consider running factory reset, and then software update on the H390. You can see how here: https://support.hegel.com/

Hi @Anders_Ertzeid,

the last firmware update I did on the Hegel was directly deployed after I turned it on the first time on 4th or 5th of July 2020. Since then, I haven’t manually checked for a newer firmware release, thinking the Hegel does this by itself. I’ll do that this evening and I also try a factory reset.

However, unless there is a newer firmware version, I have little hope that a factory reset will change anything regarding my problems with the volume control. I have also contacted Christian (I don’t know his full name) from the Hegel support and he thinks that this is very likely related to Airplay. However, as I have mentioned in one of my previous posts here, I haven’t noticed such an awkward behavior with my previous Hegel H390 that I bought in the beginning of this year. The issue firstly appeared with the replacement device that I received in the beginning of July. That’s why I am relatively sure that something has changed on the Hegel side, especially now that the Roon side seems to be fine.

Nevertheless, thank you for your interest in this topic. I’ll let you know when I know more.

Best regards,
Sebastian

Update for @Anders_Ertzeid

No new firmware update was available and running a factory reset didn’t change anything.

Instead I had one of these extreme cases where the volume randomly changed in the middle of a track. I had my eyes closed while listening and, firstly, I thought the track was ending. However, when I opened my eyes, I noticed that the volume had just changed from 40 down to 21, without me doing anything but listening.

To be honest, I’m slightly scared that some day the volume randomly cranks up to 60 or more…

Thank you for the update @Sebastian_Fels. We have made a tech support case internally on this issue. Our service support manager or I have never heard of such a case before. So we will dig down in it but cannot fully process until a few more people are back from summer holiday.

That’s good to hear. In this thread, you will find lots of information already. But please let me know if you and your colleagues need further details.

@Sebastian_Fels. Thanks and yes, this thread is included in the service case. We need to sort if there is an issue in the amp or in AirPlay I think. I am not tech enough (you can see by my job title), but we have seen strange things happen some times after Apple OS updates over the years. And then it suddenly fixes itself with new updates. It could also relate to something like that. We will see

Some updates from software department at Hegel here. These are just forwarded responses so not something I can really explain deeper. At least not in competition with some of the gurus in here. Here goes:

They have a feeling there are 4 different things discussed in this thread and that they may not necessarily be connected.

  1. “it sometimes takes volume changes of 5 db or more before the H390 even reacts” - This could be Hegel and it could be Roon. If it is Hegel, this will be addressed in an update later on and could theoretically have to do with Roon preparations on our side. We do have a bug report in the system that could be relevant here.

  2. “After volume change during playback, the volume jumps a bit up and down”. The log clearly shows that this is happening in Roon core:
    [mdns/dacp] [airplay/dacp] got command ‘setvolume’ value=-21.6 // Hegel sends volume of -21.6dB
    [airplay/client] Sending SET_PARAMETER volume -21.9db // Roon confirms volume of -21.6dB
    [mdns/dacp] [airplay/dacp] got command ‘setvolume’ value=-20.7 // Hegel sends volume of -20.7db
    [airplay/client] Sending SET_PARAMETER volume -20.7db // Roon confirms volume of -20.7dB

AirPlay volume has a scale that is -30 to 0 dB and -144 as mute. Teh error between -21.6 and 21.9 equals 2 steps! (in a 0-100 scale). Correct feedback at -20.7 shows that this is not a rounding issue, as Roon claims.

  1. “Random volume change during playback” - Strange as we are quite certain we would know if that was an issue and we have not heard about it elsewhere.

  2. “Volume in Hegel does not reflect the volume in Roon” - That is in the Hegel and it is by design. When using the max volume setting the Hegel will adjust itself so you still can use the scale in Airplay. So this is completely unrelated to Pt 1, 2 and 3

Does this shed any light on it for anyone?

Hello Anders, thanks for responding.
Does this mean that with a max of 45 in the Hegel, 50 on the Airplay scale results in 22 or 23 on the Hegel? That makes sense.

That is correct @Arlen

Hi @Anders_Ertzeid,

I was on vacation and needed some time to test things out. When I returned from vacation I checked for updates for the Hegel and Roon, which were both available. Since I did the updates, I haven’t noticed any random volume changes during playback or when the next track was played. Also, I can set the volume using the RC8 as I wish, without the volume changing immediatly to some other volume level as I have described previously in my log.

However, what remains are jumps in volume when I use the Roon app to change the volome. E.g. I can change the volume using the app up to 36, but as soon as I increase to 37, the volume on the Hegel jumps to 40. This behaviour occurs on certain other volume levels as well.

So all in all great improvements compared to before, but still something to work on!

Best regards,
Sebastian

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I run Roon on my macbook. And I have a Hegel H590 and have been playing roon over airplay all day long with the roon volume showing as locked (click the speaker icon in lower right, in the popup, click the speaker icon show it becomes a red X).

With this mode set, the Roon volume slider is disabled and I control the volume only with the Hegel remote. But while listening, the Hegel volume is constantly spontaneously changing to 0.

If I “unlock” the Roon volume control so the slider works, Hegel volume never spontaneously changes.

Note in all cases, when I change the Hegel volume with the remote, the Roon volume number matches the Hegel volume number. Also I have checked for Hegel FW updates a few days ago.

I prefer to keep the Roon volume control disabled mainly because I’m afraid if I accidentally drag it to 95 or something, the windows in my room will shatter and car alarms will go off.

Figured out when streaming to Hegel H590 via Airplay, if I mute the Hegel with the remote, the speaker icon in Roon changes to a red X. When I un-mute the Hegel, the Roon speaker icon stays as a red X. Then within a minute, Roon decided the Hegel volume should be 0.

So the problem is the after Hegel tells Roon it has been muted via the remote, it neglects to tell Roon when it has been un-muted via the remote.

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Hi everyone,

I’m not a Roon user at the moment but I’m having the same problem of volume change (goes up and down) during playback lately when streaming from Tidal via MConnect to the H95. It started a few weeks ago, as far as I could notice. It is annoying and I trust Hegel will sort this out. Cheers. Vitor

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