[USB-Audio - USB Audio DAC, playback] Crackling sound with no original audio from playback in Chrome

[Michael Leuchtenburg]

When I begin playback in Chrome while using Pulseaudio, I get only cracking noises in my headphones, no original audio. Playback works correctly with e.g. aplay, mplayer, Firefox's plugin-container for Flash.

If I unplug and replug the device several times, it will start working.

If I disable Pulseaudio and use the ALSA hardware device directly (set the default in ~/.asoundrc; stop pulseaudio from starting; restart Chrome) then I do not experience this bug.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.10
Package: alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.2.0-27.32-generic 4.2.8-ckt1
Uname: Linux 4.2.0-27-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.19.1-0ubuntu5
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Jul 21 16:15:32 2016
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-03-12 (862 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20140204)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Symptom: audio
Symptom_AlsaPlaybackTest: ALSA playback test through plughw:DAC successful
Symptom_Card: PCM2706 Audio Codec - USB Audio DAC
Symptom_PulsePlaybackTest: PulseAudio playback test successful
Symptom_Type: Underruns, dropouts, or "crackling" sound
Title: [USB-Audio - USB Audio DAC, playback] Underruns, dropouts or crackling sound
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to wily on 2016-02-19 (152 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 10/25/2013
dmi.bios.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.bios.version: L70 Ver. 01.06
dmi.board.name: 1909
dmi.board.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.board.version: KBC Version 94.47
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnHewlett-Packard:bvrL70Ver.01.06:bd10/25/2013:svnHewlett-Packard:pnHPZBook15:pvrA3009DC10203:rvnHewlett-Packard:rn1909:rvrKBCVersion94.47:cvnHewlett-Packard:ct10:cvr:
dmi.product.name: HP ZBook 15
dmi.product.version: A3009DC10203
dmi.sys.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
mtime.conffile..etc.modprobe.d.alsa.base.conf: 2015-04-21T14:56:58.460438

[Michael Leuchtenburg (dyfrgi)]

The non-working case loops continuously through creating and freeing inputs just under 21 times/second.

It's not clear to me whether this is a Chrome bug or a Pulseaudio bug. Any help in determining which one is the cause would be appreciated.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 15.10 (wily) reached end-of-life on July 28, 2016.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

We appreciate that this bug may be old and you might not be interested in discussing it any more. But if you are then please upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version and re-test. If you then find the bug is still present in the newer Ubuntu version, please add a comment here telling us which new version it is in and change the bug status to Confirmed.