Sound: Headphones - yes, speakers - no

[NoOp]

On 06/14/2010 07:21 PM, Cameron Hutchison wrote:
> NoOp <glgxg at sbcglobal.net> writes:
> 
>>On 06/13/2010 05:45 PM, Cameron Hutchison wrote:
>>> 
>>> Now I have a problem where the volume is rather low. Anywhere between 0
>>> to 50% is too soft to hear. Apparently pulseaudio has problems if the
>>> hardware reported incorrect dbm values.
> 
>>Install gnome-alsamixer ($ sudo apt-get install gnome-alsamixer) and
>>then Applications|Sound & Video|Gnome Alsamixer and then adjust your PCM
>>channel. You can do the same via the CLI:
> 
> nah, its not a mixer problem. PCM is at 100%. Volume control affects
> master. It may truely be the hardware and that's that. In the past, 
> (before pulseaudio) I've had similar hardware where at least half the
> range of a volume control is useless because its too quiet, so that may
> just be my problem.
> 
> But, this laptop has a little "Altec Lansing" label on the speakers.
> While Altec Lansing is not necessarily that special, having the label
> there made me thing that the audio was somewhat spec'ed up and perhaps
> would pump a lot of volume. So I wondered if pulseaudio was scaling down
> the volume due to incorrect decibel info from the hardware. I'll have to
> experiment bypassing pulseaudio and see if it makes any difference.

Could be as they had issues with crackling etc., when PCM/Master were
set to 100%.
> 
>><minor rant on>
>>Be aware that adding the ubuntu-audio-dev/ppa can sometimes create
>>problems [...]
>>  So, let's say that the devs actually fix the bug related to your
>>system. How do you, as a standard user, figure out how to revert back to
>>normal so that you're no longer running the 'testing versions'? It's not
>>that easy, and a 'standard user' is unlikely to know how to revert back.
>><minor rant off>
> 
> Thanks for the heads-up, but I figure I'll be OK. I don't think I'm your
> "standard user" (running Debian unstable for >10 years).

Got it :-)

This might be of interest:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/tiwai/docs/HD-Audio.html