Realtek ALC255 sound and subwoofer

[swarfendor437]

Decided to take a look at the output wiring and it appears after I had put the Noctua cpu fan the cables got inadvertently placed one hole to the right!
However I think I have found my Nirvana lont-term OS! Artix KDE:

Sadly the install completed before I could take a spectacle image of a still they used in the installer from The Matrix of Moebius 'saying' "Did you know SystemD is an agent?"
It is a bare bones install but there are tons of applications via AUR as used by Arch Linux on which it is derived - they also do isos of base packages with different boot options: openrc, runit, s6, suite66,
Desktop Environment (graphical) installs: cinnamon, community-gtk, community-qt, lxde, lxqt, mate, plasma, xfce.

Notice that graphically it uses X11 which is more secure than x.org - another leakhole!

[zabadabadoo]

@swarfendor437

Decided to take a look at the output wiring and it appears after I had put the Noctua cpu fan the cables got inadvertently placed one hole to the right!

@swarfendor437 You must have seen this thread then Cable management

@swarfendor437

it wasn't long before most distros ditched Jack Audio - ALSA feels like it is in the same position that Betamax was to VHS cf. Pulse - Pulse is the worst audio system ever but it has become embedded not just in Linux but I read somewhere that it is embedded in audio for the motor vehicle industry so it is hard to remove it!

I don't think you will get many who argue otherwise regarding state of Sound under Linux at the moment.

[Michel]

Why is the sample format in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf settings set to this ?

; default-sample-format = s16le <- why is it set to 16 ?
; default-sample-rate = 44100 <- why is this not 48000 ?
; alternate-sample-rate = 48000 <- why is this not 44100 ?
; default-sample-channels = 2 <- i have 2 speakers and a sub, should this not be 3
; default-channel-map = front-left,front-right <- ??

I know i cannot compare sounds from windows with linux but in linux the sound is somewhat different.

If i would change the stuff above to this will that improve the sound or not ?

I had to change in the past these 2 settings to get my front speakers to work in my laptop

yet i still have the feeling the sounds are off because the sub is also using the same sounds as the speakers do. I really want to know why the subs is not set for bass only.

When i put the slider down for PCM everything get lowerd (the sub and both speakers). When i put it back to wat it was and play with the Front setting it does the same as the PCM setting. So i changed that back as well but when i move the surround to 0 nothing happens, that whole settings is doing nothing. The Master one is the same as PCM annd Front.

How can i fix this ? I have this issue in Zorin and in Pop. My laptop speakers looks like this

[zabadabadoo]

Does increasing the level on [Centre] and/or [LFE] do anything?

Also try unmuting [Headphon] and increasing the level.

I have learned Sound problems require a lot of trial-and-error experimentation, even things that don't relate to speakers.

[Michel]

Nope, centre and lfe cannot be turned up here.

[zabadabadoo]

Oh well, worth a try.
I have also been doing a websearch using "realtek alc255 surround sound ubuntu" but nothing of great interest has come up yet. I will post back if I find anything good.

[Michel]

I changed the 0x1b pin from Internal Speaker to Internal Speaker (Back)

0x17 - change to Internal Speaker (LFE)
0x1b - change to Internal Speaker (Back)

Now i can control the front speakers and bass seperatly.

Sound control:
Master = Subwoofer + Front Speakers
PCM = Subwoofer + Front Speakers
Front = Subwoofer
Surround = My speakers front
Internal = Does do nothing

[zabadabadoo]

So far I have only found this. But not sure if any help at all to you.

Enable High Quality Audio on Linux

What happens if you Enable [Loopback Mixing] in alsamixer?

Note: to save alsamixer settings over a boot do this:

sudo alsactl store

[Michel]

@zabadabadoo

So far I have only found this. But not sure if any help at all to you.
Enable High Quality Audio on Linux | by Gamunu Balagalla | Medium

That site i found too yesterday and still have to try that out. I made a post for that yesterday because i wanted to know why the rates where set lower and if it would help to change that -> Realtek ALC255 sound and subwoofer - #36 by Michel

@zabadabadoo

What happens if you Enable [Loopback Mixing] in alsamixer?

Thanks, but no difference at all.

[Michel]

The only thing that i still try to find out is why the subwoofer acts like it is a speaker and subwoofer in 1.

When i play games or movies and turn off the 2 speakers the sub is still playing like a normal speaker...that is so weird to me. I only know subwoofers that are made for bass

[zabadabadoo]

@Michel

I only know subwoofers that are made for bass

Correct. They are only designed to output a limited low pass frequency range.

[Michel]

Where can i find this file ? /etc/asound.conf

I don't have it in my installation.

[dasjdoom]

There are 2 files named somehow asound.conf, but not sure these are the files your looking for;

asound.conf_jack and asound.conf_oss, located in folder (Zorin16);

/usr/share/doc/libasound2-plugins/examples

[Aravisian]

Anything in /doc is documentation only, and does not necessarily leading to an installed file.

[Michel]

Tried to use this .sh file Enable 2.1 audio output in PulseAudio · GitHub and i got something new (seeing the subwoofer finally) BUT still when i press on the subwoofer nothing happens.

When i do the speaker test in 4.0 (just for testing purpose) front left and front right are using the same channel (my subwoofer). rear right and rear left are using my speakers in front of my laptop.

I guess this leads to nowhere

[dasjdoom]

To try from terminal;

speaker-test -c4 -l2 -twav (or)
speaker-test -c5 -l2 -twav (for the Center)

[Michel]

Still a bit different compared to Windows. In Windows the subwoofer was only meant for bass and not bass/sound like it does in Linux.

Going to check to override pins again from a different model. I have a Acer Predator G9-793-71SJ. With the first option from below i can control the speakers seperatly from the subwoofer in alsamixer. If i use the 2nd option from below i cannot control them seperatly in alsamixer.

My research so far: For the G9-973 model i would use the first option from below

Acer forum, Acer Predator G9-593:
Pin ID: 0x17 > select override > choose 'Internal Speaker(LFE)'
Pin ID: 0x1b > select override > choose 'Internal speaker(Back)'

Ubuntu forums, Acer Predator 591, 592, 593, 791, 792 and 793 Models
Pin ID: 0x17 > select override > choose 'Internal Speaker(LFE)'
Pin ID: 0x1b > select override > choose 'Internal speaker

Ubuntu forums, Acer Predator G9-792 (5.1)
Pin ID: 0x14 > select override > choose 'Internal Speaker(LFE)'
Pin ID: 0x17 > select override > choose 'Internal Speaker'
Pin ID: 0x1b > select override > choose 'Internal speaker'(Back)

Bugzilla report: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=195049

This thread can be closed

[Michel]

Anyone knows if the intel-hd-drivers in linux has a power save setting ?

/etc/modprobe.d/audio_powersave.conf

# For AC97 cards:
options snd_ac97_codec power_save=1
# For HD audio cards:
options snd_hda_intel power_save=1

Is this the correct one ? 1 is on 0 is off ?

[Aravisian]

@Michel

Is this the correct one ? 1 is on 0 is off ?

Yes on both.

[Michel]

I added this a few days ago on my external test drive /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf because i was messing around a bit with the speaker settings.

options snd-hda-intel power_save=0 power_save_controller=N snoop=0

I noticed that a issue got fixed on the external test drive. In Windows 10 2 years ago i noticed a weird popping sound when i visited a website (ad.nl) and clicked on a few pages on that website using firefox. I never managed to get that fixed in Windows, a few days ago because i was configuring my speakers i noticed it again on my internal drive. Thought it was gone but it was still there. Adding that save setting fixed it somehow.