Issues with sound quality

[ggi at st-andrews.ac.uk]

Nathaniel McCallum <npmccallum at canonical.com> wrote:
> > > I mentioned this on #ubuntu-devel, but it appeared to go unacknowledged.
> > > Basically, Rhythmbox introduces nasty (occasional) hissing when playing
> > > music. Of course, this isn't the fault of Rhythmbox. I remember a
> > > gstreamer problem I had on Debian a while ago that caused similar, if
> > > not identical, behaviour. I believe that was fixed though. Listening to
> > > the esd output test in gstreamer-properties the hissing and such can be
> > > heard quite clearly.
> > 
> > It sounds like a mixer problem - have you tried turning down the PCM and/or
> > Master mixer sliders slightly?
>
> The popping can also be caused by hardware clock problems.  Try
> disabling ntp, and see if that works better.  I also remember fixing a
> computer one time that had an onboard battery dead that caused problems
> with sound (though, I'm sure that is a rare cause).
>
> Do you know what soundcard you have?
>
> Nathaniel

I tried disabling ntp, but it doesn't make any difference. I also tried
disabling hyperthreading in my BIOS (just in case), but that didn't help
either.

My soundcard is a SiS 7012, which uses the snd_intel8x0 ALSA driver. It's built
in to my laptop, if that makes any difference.

mdz: I know you said that I should follow up to ubuntu-users, and I have been
doing so, but some people seem to be following it on -devel. Please don't hurt
me.

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