Different volume between left and right channels

imjiaoyuan · 2025-12-14 13:12:25

On my laptop (ThinkBook 14 G6+ IMH), the left and right audio channels are unbalanced during use (one side is noticeably quieter).
I can unlock the channels in pavucontrol and force them to the same level, which temporarily fixes the issue. However, after a while, or after pausing/switching tracks/changing the volume, the channel balance automatically jumps back to the original unbalanced state.

The sound card driver is sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl (Sound Open Firmware).
The audio service is PipeWire 1.4.9 + WirePlumber.

seth · 2025-12-14 15:02:39

Is the hardware broken or do you maybe have imbalanced volume on the alsa layer?

amixer -Dhw:0

Changing it there might also be invariant to whatever the sound daemon does?

imjiaoyuan · 2025-12-18 05:59:36

seth wrote:

Is the hardware broken or do you maybe have imbalanced volume on the alsa layer?
amixer -Dhw:0
Changing it there might also be invariant to whatever the sound daemon does?

Thanks, I checked the underlying hardware volume as suggested.
The amixer -Dhw:0 output shows that the ALSA channels are perfectly balanced (both Speaker channels are at 55% [-29.25dB]), so it seems the offset is not happening at the ALSA driver level.
Here is the full output:
code
Text
[jiaoyuan@ArchLinux ~]$ amixer -Dhw:0
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Limits: Playback 0 - 87
Mono: Playback 87 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 87
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 87 [100%] [0.00dB] [off]
Front Right: Playback 87 [100%] [0.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Speaker',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 87
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 48 [55%] [-29.25dB] [on]
Front Right: Playback 48 [55%] [-29.25dB] [on]
Since ALSA is balanced, does this confirm the issue lies within PipeWire/WirePlumber, or could it be a firmware quirk that ALSA isn't reporting correctly?

dimich · 2025-12-18 06:35:54

imjiaoyuan wrote:

the left and right audio channels are unbalanced during use (one side is noticeably quieter).

Is the imbalance present on built-in speakers or headphone socket or both?
(Usually I use this sample to check stereo channels).

Last edited by dimich (2025-12-18 06:48:22)

seth · 2025-12-18 07:51:58

You were looking for [code][/code] tags
Also can we rule out a hardware issue (this would eg. happen if the audio jack isn't fully plugged or maybe loose.
Test the behavior on eg. grml.org or

speaker-test -c2 Dhw:0

imjiaoyuan · 2025-12-28 14:20:28

seth wrote:

You were looking for [code][/code] tags
Also can we rule out a hardware issue (this would eg. happen if the audio jack isn't fully plugged or maybe loose.
Test the behavior on eg. grml.org or
speaker-test -c2 Dhw:0

When using headphones to listen to music, there were no issues. I recently reinstalled the system, and initially after the reinstallation, everything was fine. However, today when I used VLC to listen to music at a very close range, I suddenly noticed that the sound became unbalanced—the right side is louder, and the left side is much quieter.

[jiaoyuan@archlinux ~]$ speaker-test -c2 Dhw:0

speaker-test 1.2.14

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Playback open error: -16,Device or resource busy

I'm really puzzled by this issue.

seth · 2025-12-28 18:28:43

Nobody said "sudo" - kill pipewire and wireplumber to free the HW.
For clarification

When using headphones to listen to music, there were no issues. I recently reinstalled the system, and initially after the reinstallation, everything was fine. However, today when I used VLC to listen to music at a very close range, I suddenly noticed that the sound became unbalanced—the right side is louder, and the left side is much quieter.

* Is this on arch or grml?
* have you tested the HW on a different SW stack?
* Is the problem limited to VLC or any player
* The problem *is* limited to some speakers ("at a very close range") and not existent on headphones?
=> What are those speakers? Built-in or line out? Can you test a different pair or flip the attachment (and see whether the the volume is related to the speaker or the channel)?

imjiaoyuan · 2025-12-29 02:45:40

seth wrote:

Nobody said "sudo" - kill pipewire and wireplumber to free the HW.
For clarification
When using headphones to listen to music, there were no issues. I recently reinstalled the system, and initially after the reinstallation, everything was fine. However, today when I used VLC to listen to music at a very close range, I suddenly noticed that the sound became unbalanced—the right side is louder, and the left side is much quieter.
* Is this on arch or grml?
* have you tested the HW on a different SW stack?
* Is the problem limited to VLC or any player
* The problem *is* limited to some speakers ("at a very close range") and not existent on headphones?
=> What are those speakers? Built-in or line out? Can you test a different pair or flip the attachment (and see whether the the volume is related to the speaker or the channel)?

This is on Arch Linux. I tested multiple software programs, and all of them have the issue of the right channel being louder than the left. All media players have this problem. Headphones, including wired and wireless headphones, work fine without any issues. Only the laptop’s built-in speakers have this problem.

[jiaoyuan@archlinux ~]$ pactl list sinks | grep -E "Description:|Active Port:"
Description: Meteor Lake-P HD Audio Controller HDMI / DisplayPort 3 Output
Active Port: [Out] HDMI3
Description: Meteor Lake-P HD Audio Controller HDMI / DisplayPort 2 Output
Active Port: [Out] HDMI2
Description: Meteor Lake-P HD Audio Controller HDMI / DisplayPort 1 Output
Active Port: [Out] HDMI1
Description: Meteor Lake-P HD Audio Controller Speaker
Active Port: [Out] Speaker
[jiaoyuan@archlinux ~]$

This is the information about the speakers.

dimich · 2025-12-29 06:38:08

imjiaoyuan wrote:

Only the laptop’s built-in speakers have this problem.

This looks like a hardware issue. Like something got into speaker and obstructed its membrane. Or oxidized contact in speaker connector.

Just in case, you can also try to force legacy firmware rather than SOF with "snd-intel-dspcfg.dsp_driver=1" kernel command line option or "options snd-intel-dspcfg dsp_driver=1" in /etc/modprobe.d/ config file.

seth · 2025-12-29 10:05:48

Fwwwi,

This is on Arch Linux.

the plan was to test a completely different SW stack to verify the HW is broken.

imjiaoyuan · 2026-01-07 11:08:20

seth wrote:

Fwwwi,
This is on Arch Linux.
the plan was to test a completely different SW stack to verify the HW is broken.

I found that the issue where the audio volume becomes uneven only occurs immediately after waking the laptop from sleep, and doesn’t seem to happen at other times. I want to disable the idle suspend feature of WirePlumber. Does anyone know how to do this?

If I have time later, I’ll try switching to a different audio service.

seth · 2026-01-07 15:22:26

Neither wireplumber nor pipewire come with any sleep hooks and I'm not sure what those would actually do.
Is this a dual-boot system?

Arch Linux

#1 2025-12-14 13:12:25

Different volume between left and right channels

#2 2025-12-14 15:02:39

Re: Different volume between left and right channels

#3 2025-12-18 05:59:36

Re: Different volume between left and right channels

#4 2025-12-18 06:35:54

Re: Different volume between left and right channels

#5 2025-12-18 07:51:58

Re: Different volume between left and right channels

#6 2025-12-28 14:20:28

Re: Different volume between left and right channels

#7 2025-12-28 18:28:43

Re: Different volume between left and right channels

#8 2025-12-29 02:45:40

Re: Different volume between left and right channels

#9 2025-12-29 06:38:08

Re: Different volume between left and right channels

#10 2025-12-29 10:05:48

Re: Different volume between left and right channels

#11 2026-01-07 11:08:20

Re: Different volume between left and right channels

#12 2026-01-07 15:22:26

Re: Different volume between left and right channels

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