Arch Linux

shaunsingh14

Member

Registered: 2012-01-07

Posts: 97

Max volume very low

It's something that irritates me to no end. On *ANY* Linux distribution I try, the volume is always ridiculously low. I have to set it to at least 50% to even hear anything on YouTube, Skype, VLC, MPlayer, Rhythmbox, etc, and even then it's still pretty soft. I have to set the volume to at least 60% if I want to browse YouTube, Vimeo, PrimeWire, etc. comfortably. What gives? On Windows, the sound was loud enough to the point where I could just set my volume to 25% and it would be more than enough to handle whatever it is I want to do. What gives? Is it a sound card issue or is it an ALSA/PulseAudio issue?

Sound card is as lspci returns, if that helps.

$ lspci | grep Audio
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)

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I made this account 10 years ago when I was an ignorant and insufferable teenager.
I apologise to all the people I annoyed with my cringe in the past.

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,655

Re: Max volume very low

Where are you setting the said volume?

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: Max volume very low

Post the output of 'amixer' for starters.

shaunsingh14

Member

Registered: 2012-01-07

Posts: 97

Re: Max volume very low

Post the output of 'amixer' for starters.

Now how could that have slipped my mind? *sheepish chuckling*

Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono: Playback 47 [73%] [-17.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
  Capabilities: pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback [on]
  Front Right: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 253 [99%] [0.40dB]
  Front Right: Playback 253 [99%] [0.40dB]
Simple mixer control 'Front',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 64 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 64 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Front Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Front Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 3 [100%] [30.00dB]
  Front Right: 3 [100%] [30.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Surround',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 64 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 64 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Center',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono: Playback 64 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'LFE',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono: Playback 64 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Line',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Beep',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 28 [90%] [7.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 28 [90%] [7.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch penum
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 31 [100%] [33.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 31 [100%] [33.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',1
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch penum
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 0 [0%] [-13.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Capture 0 [0%] [-13.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Auto-Mute Mode',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'Disabled' 'Enabled'
  Item0: 'Enabled'
Simple mixer control 'Channel Mode',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: '2ch' '4ch' '6ch'
  Item0: '2ch'
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',0
  Capabilities: cenum
  Items: 'Rear Mic' 'Front Mic' 'Line'
  Item0: 'Front Mic'
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',1
  Capabilities: cenum
  Items: 'Rear Mic' 'Front Mic' 'Line'
  Item0: 'Rear Mic'
Simple mixer control 'Rear Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Rear Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]

Last edited by shaunsingh14 (2014-01-04 19:24:45)

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I made this account 10 years ago when I was an ignorant and insufferable teenager.
I apologise to all the people I annoyed with my cringe in the past.

David Batson

Member

Registered: 2011-10-13

Posts: 640

Re: Max volume very low

Most likely you need to raise the volume using the pulse audio volume control.  On my system at least, it defaults to what it says is 100%, which is really only 50 - 60% of the true volume my system is capable of.  Fortunately you can move the pulse audio volume control slider to a value somewhat above 100%.  I am not using arch at the moment, but it seems that the pulse audio volume slider can be turned up to around 200% max.

It is possible you need to install the pulse audio volume control on your system, but I think it is likely there already.

Once you raise the pulse audio volume, you can use alsa mixer or the volume slider of your application to set the volume level to an acceptable level.  You might be able to use your hardware volume controls as well, but I find when I use my hardware volume controls, it resets the pulse audio volume slider to its default value.

I believe there is a workaround for the above by editing a file, but I am not sure what or where the edit is.

Robsteady

Member

From: N. Jersey, USA

Registered: 2013-12-20

Posts: 6

Website

Re: Max volume very low

I've got a similar situation and I've figured out that you can fix the problem by defaulting the volume controls to Pulse. Particularly for me I can go to the settings manager, under xfce4-mixer if I set active-card to PlaybackBuiltinAudioAnalogStereoPulseAudioMixer then the volume works much more appropriately. The problem I'm having though, is most of the time I can't set the active-card to pulse, then usually even when I can, it gets reset at next boot. Even when I run alsamixer, card and chip on the top left both list as PulseAudio but when I F6 I only get my HDMI or the ATI output listed.

This isn't a system breaking issue, it's really just that xfce4-volumed isn't displaying the volume level I would like it to, but it would be a cool thing to fix.