Low and Tinny Sounding Audio on Zephyrus G16

Kyonko802 · 2026-10-25 12:51:58

Hello. Been lurking here for a while. Never thought I'd actually need to ask for help, but here we are.

I recently purchased a zephyrus G16 with a 5090. Model number is GU605CX-G16.U9X5090. I had another G16 before it, and the audio worked out of box, so I expected this one to, as well. Big mistake. Audio is very low and tinny sounding. The headphones work just fine. System is fully updated, and I tried updating BIOs too. When I go into alsamixer there is a Bass Speaker option that I'm assuming handles my missing sound strength with the way audio works on the zaphyrus but it's stuck dead at zero, with no option for expansion, like so:

https://imgur.com/a/x3H0gDK

Everything I have read has pointed to this problem being fixed. Very few people, if any, seem to be having this issue, and as far as I've read this was addressed a while ago with a kernel update. I even tried some of the wilder solutions that I was searching up, including running some scripts.

I don't really have any error logs or anything like that because I've just been trying random stuff that hasn't been working, but I can dump my alsa info. I'm currently running a pipewire setup, since I'm on hyprland. If there's more info needed I'll be happy to provide. Been pulling my hair out.

https://filepaste.app/p/ukfhpaf9

seth · 2026-10-25 13:01:15

The bass speaker is a toggle switch - and active
Does toggling it cause any audible effect at all?

Kyonko802 · 2026-10-25 13:20:44

seth wrote:

The bass speaker is a toggle switch - and active
Does toggling it cause any audible effect at all?

It shows muted and even changes to MM, but the bar is still stuck. And it makes zero difference to the sound.

Edit: Wait, I take that back, it mutes the tinny audio too.

Last edited by Kyonko802 (2026-10-25 13:23:17)

seth · 2026-10-25 14:49:12

So the bass item (there's never gonna be a slider) toggles the only audio?

The problem exists w/o pipewire/pulseaudio?

Do you have the sof firmware installed?

Kyonko802 · 2026-10-25 15:12:52

seth wrote:

So the bass item (there's never gonna be a slider) toggles the only audio?
The problem exists w/o pipewire/pulseaudio?
Do you have the sof firmware installed?

Yes, grabbed sof firmware when I installed everything else. As to whether or not the problem exists without pipewire, not sure. I guess I could upend my system and check pulse as well when I get back to my laptop.

Edit: Pulse just straight up doesn't work at all.

Edit: So I decided to do some further digging. I tried installing linux mint to see if the problem persists on other distros, and it does. The subwoofer option in mint is even greyed out.

Everything points to this being an issue with the drivers, but weren't the drivers for this audio system addressed a while back? I even checked for the drivers, and they're all there. It's almost like my system is just ignoring the other speakers.

Until I figure out what is happening I will stick to my arch setup and just use headphones.

Last edited by Kyonko802 (2026-10-25 21:46:41)

seth · Yesterday 22:09:02

The idea wast to not use either pipewire XOR pulse, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 4#p2293284

weren't the drivers for this audio system addressed a while back?

What specifically are you referring to?
There're no "drivers" per se here - you've a kernel module and an updated version of https://archlinux.org/packages/core-tes … re-cirrus/ in extra-testing.
Don't enable the testing repos, download the package from a mirror and "pacman -U" it.

Kyonko802 · Yesterday 22:33:56

seth wrote:

The idea wast to not use either pipewire XOR pulse, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 4#p2293284
weren't the drivers for this audio system addressed a while back?
What specifically are you referring to?
There're no "drivers" per se here - you've a kernel module and an updated version of https://archlinux.org/packages/core-tes … re-cirrus/ in extra-testing.
Don't enable the testing repos, download the package from a mirror and "pacman -U" it.

Thats the thing. I didn't enable the testing repos. I only enabled the multilib. Those downloads were probably from one of the many extra things I tried to fix the problem. They would no longer be on my system in that case. I'm at work right now so I can't post it, but I found several threads telling me to grep the drivers required for the speakers, and I can confirm that I did not get any errors from it. A completely fresh install with no extra repos or downloads still utterly fails to fire the speakers properly.

Edit: as far as testing it with just alsa by itself. Let me get back to you on that. I'll attempt it from a different drive

Last edited by Kyonko802 (Yesterday 22:38:58)

seth · Today 07:59:09

You are not supposed to enable the testing repos (or if you do make sure to read https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Offici … positories )
The idea was to just grab and install the updated cirrus firmware (the chip family is notorious for this) to see whether you HW has been addressed there

https://archlinux.org/packages/core-tes … /download/

sudo pacman -U linux-firmware-cirrus-20261019-1-any.pkg.tar.zst

Fwiw you probably don't even need the SOF (but keep it for now)

Arch Linux

#1 2026-10-25 12:51:58

Low and Tinny Sounding Audio on Zephyrus G16

#2 2026-10-25 13:01:15

Re: Low and Tinny Sounding Audio on Zephyrus G16

#3 2026-10-25 13:20:44

Re: Low and Tinny Sounding Audio on Zephyrus G16

#4 2026-10-25 14:49:12

Re: Low and Tinny Sounding Audio on Zephyrus G16

#5 2026-10-25 15:12:52

Re: Low and Tinny Sounding Audio on Zephyrus G16

#6 Yesterday 22:09:02

Re: Low and Tinny Sounding Audio on Zephyrus G16

#7 Yesterday 22:33:56

Re: Low and Tinny Sounding Audio on Zephyrus G16

#8 Today 07:59:09

Re: Low and Tinny Sounding Audio on Zephyrus G16

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