Harry can I re-enable the volume control myself, if so any pointers?
In the config file change:
ignore_volume_control
to “no”.
Thanks Harry, I was going to have a look at volume control this morning, but you have saved me the effort 
I will have to wait for my son to wake up to test it, as it is in his room, but I will let you know.
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OK, that makes the volume control work, but it is still pretty quiet, certainly not the same as Roon direct.
I tried altering volume_range_db = 150
but still no luck, any ideas?
Ok the 2 XL dragonfly test subjects work OK now on 274 but the volume is max for apple…well maybe max is wrong as the RAAT volume can control the apple level.
I’ll try it with streaming from iOS soon as this is rather more as intended.
update
so initial detection seems to be working
but the volume is still under Roon’s RAAT endpoints controls
No to be honest.
Is it ‘pretty quiet’ as in range? How is the max volume?
So… quick summary from my side.
I think, based on these test results, that at minimum we need 2 settings:
- audio output selection (USB or HAT)
- enable/disable volume control
I’m gonna add a page to the web ui to control this.
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Harry, I think they sound like good options for the web interface, but could you not use the current DAC/hat selection as the interface and then be able to see if the DAC has a volume control and therefore turn volume on or off?
We are still struggling with volume. Using the Roon direct, volume is as expected, but from iPhone via airplay the volume is quite low, adjustable but low, like it is being reduced or that there is another setting?
OK a bit more info on the volume issue and I think this is what wizardofoz was saying (sorry wizardofoz, I didn’t quite get it first time around.)
I have two devices (same RPi3 with DAC hat) showing in Roon.
- OwenPi (Normal Roon)
- OwenPi Airplay (Roon via Airplay)
If I play via 2 it is quiet, no matter what I do with the volume (note 1 volume is 19), but I can alter the volume on 1 and it increases much more - weird. I’m not sure the volume on 1 should have an bearing on 2? Anyway if I set 1 to 100% and then alter the volume of 2, I get more normal volume control, but a bit laggy when changing volume.
The same applies to playing direct from an Apple device. If I set the volume on 1 to 100%, volume is as expected, laggy but good enough. Of course 1 is for normal Roon RAAT play so should have no affect on Airplay?
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Yes the RAAT zone controls the current volume for both RAAT and Airplay. Airplay device iOS iPad/iph etc cant change the volume. At least thats how I recall it. I recall something like this with Roon Bridge on a volumio build I used to use. the RAAT zone volume would change the volume when streaming with Volumio as the source.
I can get IOS devices to change volume, see setting in conf for volume. But Roon Raat volume also has to be at a reasonable level to hear.
ignore_volume_control to “no”.
I think these two volume controls should be independent.
I think we need to consider the use case.
Using the same Pi via Roon and also via Airplay via Roon does not make sense to me.
IMHO Airply is meant to be used from an Apple device, separate from Roon.
And as both services are active (only 1 can play though), they can interfere with volume I guess.
An option could be that we disable RAAT during Shairport and vice versa. But I’m not sure if that’s preferred from a user experience perspective…
my 2 cts.
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It is what I would expect to happen, if I’m using Raat then it should control volume, but if using Airplay then that should control volume. But I guess it should be a setting where users can choose with a note about what this implies?
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Yes one should override the other when active. I’m not trying to play a raat source when using the volume to control the airplay volume. Just that seems to be the only way to get more volume than the raat connection had it at last
There is only 1 situation where it makes sense to me…
I’ve got an Airplay device I want to group with my “RAAT” device. At that point it’s required that the grouping happen on the Airplay side of the shared device.
Otherwise, I don’t know why anyone would use Airplay over RAAT when RAAT is available since Airplay is limited to 16/44.
Based on behavior description I’m a bit concerned with where volume is being adjusted… oh yup… looks like my concern is holding true.
Shairport is using software volume control and RAAT is using ALSA hardware volume control. So if you’ve reduced volume in ALSA hardware + adding software attenuation in Shairport things will get very quiet. It looks like maybe the accepted solution to this is to set ALSA hardware to max and use ALSA softvol for everything. Not sure Roon/RAAT would support that though as RAAT has a hardware requirement and this may be one of those requirements (that it will use hardware volume or fixed but never software). To get consistent though it almost appears that when activating Shairport the ALSA hardware volume on the Pi needs to go to max as Shairport will always use software attenuation. This, of course, can be dangerous to your gear if you switch back without turning things down.
Hey @spockfish, if you start to play with the wifi in any of these beta releases, let me know and I’ll try it out with the dongle we discussed last week.
yes that’s nicely summed up 
I think (for now at least) we should start with a switch for volume control or not, and leave it up to the user.
Would it not be possible to set Shairport to use ALSA hardware volume control as well?
Hi,
is the beta program for RopieeeXL already closed? I‘m unable to select the XL Switch on the advanced tab ae480166b672abb1.
Thanks,
Andreas
it’s still open. what I see from your log is:
- you sent the feedback to soon (system is still not fully operational)
So I suggest you leave it be for a while before you send another feedback.