[Alsa-user] Solved! (Was: snd-usb-audio is having trouble recognizing the Marantz HD-AMP1)

[Masaru N. <no...@la...>]

Hello,

In the Message; 

  Subject    : [Alsa-user] snd-usb-audio is having trouble recognizing the Marantz HD-AMP1
  Message-ID : <87v...@la...>
  Date & Time: Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:30:22 +0900

[MN] == Masaru Nomiya <no...@la...> has written:

[...]
MN>    $ inxi -A

MN>    Audio:
MN>    Device-1: NVIDIA AD106M High Definition Audio driver: N/A
MN>    Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Radeon High Definition Audio
MN>     [Rembrandt/Strix] driver: N/A
MN>    Device-3: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 17h/19h/1ah HD Audio
MN>     driver: N/A
MN>    Device-4: Generic USB Audio driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid
MN>     type: USB
MN>    Device-5: D&M Holdings (Denon/Marantz) HD-AMP1 driver: snd-usb-audio
MN>     type: USB
MN>    API: ALSA v: k6.18.9-1-default status: kernel-api
MN>    Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.5.85 status: active (process)

The root cause is this.

In short, pipewire prioritizes Device-4: Generic USB Audio over
Device-5: D&M Holdings (Denon/Marantz) HD-AMP1.

That is;

I cahnged /etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf as folows;

  options snd slots=snd-usb-audio,snd-usb-audio index=1
  # fHJ1.nUBBZmosli0:USB Audio
  alias snd-card-0 snd-usb-audio
  # wn1q.DDMX92BGFe0:HD-AMP1
  options snd-usb-audio index=0 
  alias snd-card-1 snd-usb-audio

and, made the file 10-default_sink.conf in
~/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d; 

     "context.objects": [
	{ "factory": "metadata",
          "args": {
            "metadata.name": "my-metadata",
            "metadata.values": [
                { "key": "default.audio.sink", "value": { "name": "HD-AMP1" } }
               ]
            }
         }
      ]

then, after logging in, the following always occurs;

       0 [HDAMP1         ]: USB-Audio - HD-AMP1
                      D&M Holdings Inc. HD-AMP1 at usb-0000:08:00.0-7, high speed
       1 [U0x26ce0xa08   ]: USB-Audio - USB Device 0x26ce:0xa08
                      Generic USB Device 0x26ce:0xa08 at usb-0000:08:00.0-10, high speed

However, unless I run `$ systemctl --user stop pipewire.service
pipewire.socket`, snd-usb-audio driver will continue to hold onto the
Generic USB Device.
Therefore, after adding

	   `systemctl --user stop pipewire.service pipewire.socket`
and
	   `systemctl --user start pipewire

to my .bash_profile, pipewire now connects to the HD-AMP1 upon login.

There might be a more elegant way, though.

What remains unclear is why, with identical hardware, Linux kernel
6.18.6 and earlier required no action, while this change occurred.....

Best Regards.

--
┏━━┓彡    Masaru Nomiya                   mail-to: nomiya @ lake.dti.ne.jp
┃＼／彡
┗━━┛     　　 "The AI model is not your therapist and the company behind
	     	  it can't necessarily keep it secret. Sam Altman thinks
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