Troubleshooting • start of mp3 file clipped on Pi 5 when using USB speaker

I am using a Raspberry Pi 5 - 2GB (currently running PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)", DEBIAN_VERSION_FULL=13.3) with a touch screen. The hardware setup is:

• PI 5 is powered with a 45W USB C power supply (Raspberry Pi brand)
• The only devices connected to the Pi are a USB keyboard, USB mouse, Raspberry Pi touch display 2 and a USB speaker
• The USB speaker is a small speaker from Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086JXJ1LF?re ... asin_title) . According to the Amazon site this has an input voltage of 5V.
• OS installed on a Micro Center microSDHC 32GB card

The start (~0.5 second or less) of mp3 audio files is clipped when playing them through the USB speaker connected to the Pi 5. This is true both through the pre-installed VLC application and a custom app (using pygame library). The same files are intact and work well on MacOS.

The speaker is connected to USB in a “plug and play” mode. Here is some information from lsusb:
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 258a:0016 BY Tech Usb Gaming Keyboard
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 1908:1331 GEM BIRD
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 046d:c077 Logitech, Inc. Mouse
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 LiBus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub


And some additional information on the speaker from lsusb -v (full log available if needed):
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 1908:1331 GEMBIRD
Couldn't open device, some information will be missing
Negotiated speed: Full Speed (12Mbps)
Device Descriptor:
(…)
bcdUSB 1.10
(…)
idVendor 0x1908 GEMBIRD
idProduct 0x1331
(…)
(Bus Powered)
MaxPower 400mA


I don’t see any entries in journalctl when a mp3 file is played through VLC. By limiting the search with grep ‘3-1’ I see the following:
Feb 14 22:40:06 Pi5-1 kernel: usb 3-1: new full-speed USB device number 2 using xhci-hcd
Feb 14 22:40:06 Pi5-1 kernel: usb 3-1: config 1 has an invalid interface number: 4 but max is 3
Feb 14 22:40:06 Pi5-1 kernel: usb 3-1: config 1 has no interface number 3
Feb 14 22:40:06 Pi5-1 kernel: usb 3-1: New USB device found, idVendor=1908, idProduct=1331, bcdDevice= 2.00
Feb 14 22:40:06 Pi5-1 kernel: usb 3-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=1
Feb 14 22:40:06 Pi5-1 kernel: usb 3-1: SerialNumber: 2010123456787899
Feb 14 22:40:06 Pi5-1 kernel: usb-storage 3-1:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
Feb 14 22:40:06 Pi5-1 kernel: scsi host0: usb-storage 3-1:1.0
Feb 14 22:40:06 Pi5-1 kernel: input: HID 1908:1331 as /devices/platform/axi/1000120000.pcie/1f00300000.usb/xhci-hcd.1/usb3/3-1/3-1:1.4/00031331.0001/input/input5
Feb 14 22:40:06 Pi5-1 mtp-probe[468]: checking bus 3, device 2: "/sys/devices/platform/axi/1000120000.pcie/1f00300000.usb/xhci-hcd.1/usb3/3-1"
Feb 14 22:40:06 Pi5-1 kernel: usb 3-1: 2:1: cannot get freq at ep 0x3
Feb 14 22:40:07 Pi5-1 kernel: usb 3-1: 9:1: bogus dB values (-12800/-12700), disabling dB reporting
Feb 14 22:40:12 Pi5-1 kernel: usb 3-1: 2:1: cannot get freq at ep 0x3
Feb 14 22:40:12 Pi5-1 kernel: usb 3-1: 2:1: cannot get freq at ep 0x3


The 400mA MaxPower listed in lsusb is well within the 1.6A listed in the documentation (https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentati ... wer-supply). The driver seems to work since I hear the majority of the mp3 file.

I have looked through viewtopic.php?t=361183#p2166700 without success. Does anyone have advice on how to identify and resolve the underlying issue?

Statistics: Posted by DadHavingFun — Sun Feb 15, 2026 4:23 am

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