Plop before playing audio

ESPMUSE
#1

I have ESP Muse Luxe and have flashed esphome onto it. When it plays audio there is always a plop just before it plays. I noticed this on the original raspiaudio firmware (preinstalled and latest)

Is this normal or do i have a faulty unit? Its strange as its loud after the first time, then if i send the same autio it still plops, but not as loud. The plop noise is loud enough that it wont get approval for use in the household :smiley: . I have also noticed that there is constantly a faint hissing coming from the speaker while on, but not in use. Is this also normal?

I used my phone to record, so the audio is a bit quiet, but if you listen carefully you can hear my mouse clicking to activate the audio, then a plop before the audio plays.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYrdpO9xdIk

This speaker has a great look and feel. initial impressions are great, I just cant stand this plop noise

#2

For the “Plop” it might be just a software thing, in all amplified device there is a mute pin, so the codec receive the I2C command then once set the enable amp it is unmuted (GPIO21), I’m not sure it is done this way in HA

#3

Thats strange as the config has a mute option for GPIO21:

Maybe it isnt being sent. I noticed that the speaker always outputs a low hiss. Could it be that its never turning off the speakers? I wonder if manually exposing that mute pin may allow me to manually mute and see if its still hissing.

#4

Here’s how I stopped the pops

esphome:
  ...
  on_boot:
    then:
      - output.turn_off: pw # power down (mute) the amp at startup to prevent pops

output:
  - platform: gpio
    pin:
      number: 21
      mode: OUTPUT
    id: pw

media_player:
- platform: i2s_audio
  ...
  on_state: # turn on the amp only when needed to prevent pops
    if:
      condition:
        media_player.is_playing:
      then:
        output.turn_on: pw
      else:
        output.turn_off: pw
...