Windows 10 guest crackly sound

[Inssomniak]

I can't resolve an issue with windows 10 guest and OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 host in 5.0.2 or 5.0.3
Its very crackly. HD Audio driver.
in version 4, the sound worked ok minus some odd volume slider issues.
Any ideas?

[pentagonik]

Could you please this test build https://www.virtualbox.org/download/tes ... 20-OSX.dmg a try?

Please keep in mind that this is a test build and not suitable for production use.

[Inssomniak]

Ive already tested that one, same results.

[loukingjr]

What sorts of audio sources are you trying? I have no audio issues with Windows 10 guests on OSX 10.10.5 or 10.11.

[Inssomniak]

Any sound that comes from windows 10 is crackly.. simply moving the volume slider and the resulting sound is crackly.
Videos played from youtube, anything.

[loukingjr]

Attach the VBox.log (compressed) for your Windows 10 guest.

[Inssomniak]

I just messed around with it a bit, and it turns out the sound is OK if I use the mac mini internal speaker, or the headphones.
Its the sound coming from the speakers on the thunderbolt display thats crackly.
Ive reset the display, restarted the computer and no change.
All the audio from OS X itself is ok and this only started after upgrading to version 5.

I just re-downgraded back to 4.3.30 as a test, and the audio is perfect.

Im not sure where the log file is stored?

[loukingjr]

I don 't have a Thunderbolt display in order to check. The log won't help if you downgraded unless you find the log before you downgraded, but they are in the VM Folder for the guest.

[loukingjr]

You probably should file a report in Bugtracker. If the audio is fine with 4.3.30 but not 5.0+ it sounds like a regression.
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Bugtracker

[hdev]

I am having a similar issue.
Problem started with 5.0+; 4.3.30 is fine.
I can reproduce the problem with:
a.) Thunderbolt Display Sound
b.) Fostex HP-A3 external dac using USB3

Internal Sound Card output appears to be fine.

I have also tested on the following guests:
- Arch Linux 64bit (Intel HD Audio)
- Arch Linux 32bit (AC97)
- Windows 10 (Intel HD Audio)

Have you already filed a report in the Bugtracker?
A quick search did not yield any results.

[loukingjr]

Well someone should file a Ticket.

[aeichner]

Can one of you remeber whether the issue appeared during the BETA and RC cycle or was there since the first 5.0 BETA? We were able to reproduce the crackling audio but the issue disappeared suddenly during debugging and never returned since then.

[Inssomniak]

I never used any beta or RC releases, I only had installed windows 10 into a 4.3.30, then noticed that 5.0.1 was released, and after upgrade the audio was bad, same with 5.0.2.
Im not good with filing tickets I can however help with testing any fixes.

[michaln]

There won't be any fixes as long as we have no idea what the problem even is and are unable to reproduce it. All we were able to find out (using the System Profiler app) before the problem spontaneously disappeared was that for an unknown reason, OS X sends 48 kHz audio to (some?) external devices even though VirtualBox plays 44.1 kHz audio.

If someone who can reproduce the problem could check if the VirtualBox 5.0 betas also have it, that would be helpful. It's not something we can spend a lot of time on when it only affects a small number of non-customers. There is no relevant difference between 4.3 and 5.0 that we know of.

[loukingjr]

One thing users could check is with the Audio MIDI Setup application. It is possible to set the audio output to certain devices to 48k instead of 44.1k. I don't have a Thunderbolt display to see if that's the problem. It's in the Utilities folder.