[Hifi Boy]

Ok, this has happened to me once already and it turned out that my device output control inn Sound Preferences was low, for whatever reason.

Now again, the same thing, the volume got incredibly low when I'm playing through the USB output, but built-in speakers are playing just fine. And no, the volume control is not set too low this time around. Restarted multiple times, cleared NVRAM, etc... No thing changes.

Same thing regardless what I'm playing with, either YouTube or Audirvana.

Has this happened to anyone else before?

 

[sheldaze]

When I look at System Preferences, I see just one volume meter. However when I look at Audio MIDI Setup, I see a master and a left and right channel meter, three volume controls in total. It's a long shot, but I tend to find more volume "bugs" via the Audio MIDI Setup tool versus System Preferences. Typically the software playback had altered something I could only see when looking at the MIDI tool.

 

[Hifi Boy]

Hi sheldaze.

Thanks for looking into my problem, but unfortunately, everything is maxed out.
I swear, I had this issue before, and it also appeared all of a sudden, but then the problem was that the sound in Sound Preferences was not maxed out. But now everything appears to be fine.

 

[Hifi Boy]

I have now noticed the following.

When I play anything in Audirvana, I can't switch between output devices in Sound Preferences.
I mean, I can switch, but the sound keeps coming out of the first device which was selected. Also, moving the slidebar does not affect the volume at all.

Not only that but when switching between devices, the slidebar is in the same position where I set it for the previous device. So the devices are either intertwined somehow, or the slidebar position for the next selected device is not displayed when I select the next device.

This keeps getting weirder and weirder.

 

[sheldaze]

I have not kept up with the latest versions of Audirvana (simply my newest desktop Mac acts more as a server than a direct DAC streamer, so when the upgrade asked for money, I declined). However, as I mentioned above, all my audio anomalies were due to Audirvana. A simple one is when I have it take over iTunes, the volume is left turned all the way down in iTunes and must be turned back up. It was also the cause for when I had to go into the MIDI tool to restore the volume.

I know you've looked at all these. But my point here - Audirvana has a lot of optimizations for audio playback (which sound fantastic) that can take over certain functions of the computer, locking out other software, including system software, from the ability to adjust anything. In short, I never try to compete with Audirvana. I always switch my default audio to another output - HDMI or the internal speaker output, before using Audirvana. Then I let Audirvana have complete control of the DAC channel. When I'm done with Audirvana, that's when I look to see what's Audirvana has done and restore anything amiss - usually just iTunes volume, when I'm careful and follow the steps:

• So first I make sure my default output and Audirvana aren't competing by setting the default output to something else. In my case HDMI or internal audio.
• Play audio through Audirvana, and let it have full control.
• When done playback, quit Audirvana, and generally only have to restore iTunes volume. Sometimes I have to set sample rate back to 44.1 through the MIDI tool.

Not sure this is at all related to your issue, but it has been working for me!

 

[Hifi Boy]

Tried that but nothing.

I've also completely deleted all audio related .kext files from my Mac and restarted.
Same thing, no change at all.

The funny part is that when I plug in the headphones directly into my Mac, the volume is as it should be.
Its only and only the USB output that has this low volume.

 

[Hifi Boy]

Yesterday I installed a new update for a completely unrelated application, so no, I did not update Audirvana.

Today, the volume is back to normal.
If anyone encounters this as well, now you know.

There is something clearly wrong with Mac OSX + Audirvana combo, some bugs need to be ironed out.
I'm sure I will encounter this problem again.

 

[Hifi Boy]

Sure enough, after installing Feedly, an RSS app from the App Store, the volume got low again.

This obviously has nothing to do with audio settings at all since I did not touch them one bit!