As for your sound problem, which Pi do you have and which version of Retropie?

There's currently an issue after the Linux OS "Raspbian" which Retropie 4.6 is based on changed the mapping of audio devices in the system.

If you have RetroPie 4.6, you can try two workarounds until Emulation Station is updated, but it requires editing two configuration text files:

Edit the file /boot/cmdline.txt and add the following line to it: snd-bcm2835.enable_compat_alsa=1.

or

Choose RetroPie-Setup in Emulation Station, then audiosettings, and select "Headphone" as audio output. Edit the file /opt/retropie/configs/all/emulationstation/es_settings.cfg and change the "PCM" in the line <string name="AudioDevice" value="PCM" /> to "Headphone".

If neither of those work alone, try them together.

@sirhenrythe5th Considering it will cost me about as much to buy the decoder and if it really won't do anything else, I might as well get some different speakers.

Thank you.

*about audio

One solution to noise and ground loops is to use an isolated sound card for the Pi.

If the sound card is magnetically isolated, then noise and hum (ground loops) from the Pi can't get to the acoustic pathway.

Matt

@rbaker Breadboarded the circuit. The only problem was the 10uF cap to boost the gain to 200x, as you can see in the pic, I have its lead pulled. High distortion with that in place and no appreciable gain in volume. The 20x native to the LM386 gives the same volume as a GBA (seen here running Advance Wars from my prototype controller mounted build) running from a 6v supply. The audio quality is about the same as a GBA as well. Nothing incredible, but adequate and I should be able to cram a couple of these in that casing without a problem.

@mitu Thanks for the quick response. I just ended up using my Pi1 and used a 2.5 speaker jack. Odd reason that pi3 did not want to pick up the 2.5 speaker jack or find the USB speaker... Weird.

@michael40475 said in Audio not working? How to fix problem??:

can I please get very detailed advice on how to fix this issue? Thanks so much in advance.

Not unless you provide very detailed descriptions of your entire setup. That only makes sense, right?

@hex Yes working now, sorry for the confusion

Sadly, not as cut and dried as hoped. I thought I'd bite the bullet and unpair my watch, but try as I might it didn't make a difference.

Boo.

@Concat I looked at ground loop isolators, but need to sort what kind of amp or speakers I'm getting first - the bartop cabinet takes 4 inch speakers that mount in the cabinet, so I'm leaning towards a 12v amp that can link to my pi3