Pulseaudio does not recognize sound levels correctly.
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
PulseAudio |
Fix Released
|
Medium
|
|||
alsa-driver (Ubuntu) |
Fix Released
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned | ||
pulseaudio (Ubuntu) |
Invalid
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
When I am setting volume to 75-100% sounds is amplified and quality is very bad.
Setting for "Unampified" in sound settings (which is placed around 50% of the bar) makes sound is almost unhearable.
Sound is good and loud around 60% of volume. This is really annoying because setting volume from keyboard or sound indicator is useless -> volume up makes terrible sound, volume down only 10% to 50%(unamplified) makes there is almost no sound.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: pulseaudio 1:3.0-0ubuntu6
ProcVersionSign
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-27-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8.1
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/snd/
/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: ciastek 2109 F...m pulseaudio
Date: Thu Aug 8 15:18:41 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-06-12 (56 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release i386 (20130424)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
TERM=xterm
PATH=(custom, no user)
LANG=pl_PL.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
PulseList:
Error: command ['pacmd', 'list'] failed with exit code 1: Home directory not accessible: Permission denied
No PulseAudio daemon running, or not running as session daemon.
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
Symptom: audio
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 06/11/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
dmi.bios.version: ASUS P5N73-AM ACPI BIOS Revision 0201
dmi.board.name: P5N73-AM
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
dmi.board.version: 2.XX
dmi.chassis.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacture
dmi.chassis.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnPhoenixT
dmi.product.name: System Product Name
dmi.product.
dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer
Changed in pulseaudio (Ubuntu): | |
status: | New → Incomplete |
Changed in pulseaudio: | |
importance: | Unknown → Medium |
status: | Unknown → Confirmed |
Changed in pulseaudio: | |
status: | Confirmed → Fix Released |
Changed in pulseaudio (Ubuntu): | |
status: | Incomplete → Confirmed |
Changed in alsa-driver (Ubuntu): | |
status: | Confirmed → Fix Released |
Created attachment 66151
x = alsamixer pecentage for the PCM control. y = corresponding volume in dB.
I have an ASUS P5KPL-1600 motherboard with a VIA VT1708B 8-Ch chip managed by snd-hda-intel. The volume control in pavucontrol, Gnome's sound preferences and all apps with flat-volume enabled is too non-lineal and just plain wrong.
alsamixer has two useful controls for output volume:
PCM: goes from -40.25dB in 0% through 0dB in 53% to 14dB (*with clipping*) in 100%. (This is not linear at all, see graph.png, attached.)
Master: goes from 0dB in 0% (very quiet output) to 6.75dB (without any clipping, loud and clear) in 100% with 0.25dB = 3.75% increments.
When, in PulseAudio 2.1, I set the volume in 100% it maxes out both PCM and Master, so I get a quite distorted sound. This is expected, but the scale is wrong: 100% is 0dB but it should be 14dB.
The base should be at -14dB, or 58%, when PCM is at 0dB (53%) and Master at 6.75dB (100%), but it is at -20.75dB (45%), with Master and PCM at 0dB, with very quiet output. The difference in sound pressure between 45% and 53% is very large.
Between -20.75dB (45%) and -68dB (7%) the volume does not change at all. All controls in alsamixer remain the same.
Between -68dB (7%) and -108.24dB (2%) the PCM control goes down to zero, and any less than that results in muted output.
This behaviour is quite strange and I don't know how much of it is pulseaudio's fault, how much is the alsa driver's and how much is mine.
Thanks.