Arch Linux

mkkot

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2009-12-20

Posts: 287

Less bass on headphones when pavucontrol is opened

Hi all,
I got Planctronics usb headphones from my company and a laptop with Windows. I noticed that when volume control window is opened in Windows, the sound frequency gets cut and the most audible effect of this is far less bass.

I thought: nah, stupid Windows.

But today I plugged in the headphones to my Linux box, opened pavucontrol and I got exactly the same effect. When I close pavucontrol, 2 seconds later, the bass is back.

My question is simple: why? I think pavucontrol is blocking part of the USB bandwidth. But why? I muted microphone, nothing changed.

gileri

Member

Registered: 2018-09-07

Posts: 5

Re: Less bass on headphones when pavucontrol is opened

If you use alsamixer, do you see a bass/treble control on your device ? Maybe pavucontrol and the equivalent in windows clamp those values, and your hardware reset them for some reason ?

Also can you share your exact headphones model please ?

mkkot

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2009-12-20

Posts: 287

Re: Less bass on headphones when pavucontrol is opened

The headphone model is C3220.

This is alsamixer screen for the headphones:

https://ibb.co/KLPfDZQ

It doesn't change when I open/close pulseaudio. Of course I'm restarting alsamixer to check if anything changed.

Last edited by mkkot (2020-10-07 20:24:40)

zcal

Member

Registered: 2010-01-13

Posts: 57

Re: Less bass on headphones when pavucontrol is opened

Apologies for bumping such an old thread, but I ran into the same question today with my Jabra Evolve 65 headphones.  After some testing I think I can explain the reason for this behavior.

It appears that opening pavucontrol changes the profile assigned to the headphones (in the Configuration tab) to "Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output + Mono Input".  After closing pavucontrol, the profile is changed in the background to "Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output".  With pavucontrol open, I can switch manually between these profiles and hear the difference in sound quality that @mkkot describes, so I'm pretty certain this is what's happening.

The change in profile happens whenever an application (like pavucontrol) engages the headphones' microphone.  I can also replicate this behavior by playing music in mpv (for example) and then turning on my microphone in Discord.