Arch Linux

Macdelaney

Member

Registered: 2008-11-24

Posts: 24

Poor sound quality with usb soundcard

I'm having a little trouble with it. I recently reinstalled Arch, and although the soundcard (Emu 0202) is recognized I have a very annoying issue. I have sound playback but it sounds very "dirty", like if the frequency was wrong, and I don't have the clock rate selector anymore so I can't change it. I've been searching for a solution to this, and I've tried a few things but none have worked so far.

In case this helps, here what amixer returns

[mac@goomba ~]$ amixer
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 200
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 200 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 200 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Extension Unit',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]

And here's what my /proc/asound/card0/stream0 looks like

[mac@goomba ~]$ cat /proc/asound/card0/stream0 
E-MU Systems, Inc. E-MU 0202 | USB at usb-0000:00:1d.2-1, full speed : USB Audio

Playback:
  Status: Running
    Interface = 1
    Altset = 3
    URBs = 8 [ 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 ]
    Packet Size = 200
    Momentary freq = 47938 Hz (0x2f.f000)
  Interface 1
    Altset 1
    Format: S16_LE
    Channels: 2
    Endpoint: 1 OUT (ASYNC)
    Rates: 44100
  Interface 1
    Altset 2
    Format: S24_3LE
    Channels: 2
    Endpoint: 1 OUT (ASYNC)
    Rates: 44100
  Interface 1
    Altset 3
    Format: S16_LE
    Channels: 2
    Endpoint: 1 OUT (ASYNC)
    Rates: 48000
  Interface 1
    Altset 4
    Format: S24_3LE
    Channels: 2
    Endpoint: 1 OUT (ASYNC)
    Rates: 48000

Capture:
  Status: Stop
  Interface 2
    Altset 1
    Format: S16_LE
    Channels: 2
    Endpoint: 2 IN (ASYNC)
    Rates: 44100
  Interface 2
    Altset 2
    Format: S24_3LE
    Channels: 2
    Endpoint: 2 IN (ASYNC)
    Rates: 44100
  Interface 2
    Altset 3
    Format: S16_LE
    Channels: 2
    Endpoint: 2 IN (ASYNC)
    Rates: 48000
  Interface 2
    Altset 4
    Format: S24_3LE
    Channels: 2
    Endpoint: 2 IN (ASYNC)
    Rates: 48000

And here's what I have installed

[mac@goomba ~]$ yaourt -Q | grep alsa
==> List all installed packages
extra/alsa-firmware 1.0.23-1
extra/alsa-lib 1.0.23-1
extra/alsa-oss 1.0.17-1
local/alsa-tools 1.0.22-1
extra/alsa-utils 1.0.23-2

The weird thing is that last night I could listen to some mp3's but watching a a movie in .mkv would sound like this, and now the problem has spread system-wide. Any help would this would be greatly appreciated since I'm not sure what to try next.

Last edited by Macdelaney (2010-06-01 05:28:09)

Macdelaney

Member

Registered: 2008-11-24

Posts: 24

Re: Poor sound quality with usb soundcard

Ok, a little update. I tried to see if installing alsa-plugins helped, and when I rebooted I noticed that I can play mp3's fine using mplayer, but if I use Rhythmbox or try to playback a mkv movie, everything starts going wrong again. This is very weird, and I'm really not sure what to look for, much less what to do.
Again, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Macdelaney

Member

Registered: 2008-11-24

Posts: 24

Re: Poor sound quality with usb soundcard

Anyone? I'm really lost here

Last edited by Macdelaney (2010-06-01 13:43:15)

Macdelaney

Member

Registered: 2008-11-24

Posts: 24

Re: Poor sound quality with usb soundcard

Now I know it's not soundcard related, since it happens with the two I have.
Right now I have flawless sound with totem and rhythmbox, but nothing else works right, flash, mplayer and VLC give me a very distorted sound.
I guess I'll have to keep digging, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Last edited by Macdelaney (2010-06-02 04:07:58)

gabell

Member

From: St. Petersburg, Russia

Registered: 2008-06-01

Posts: 6

Re: Poor sound quality with usb soundcard

The same issue here. Maybe mplayer is fine cause it uses oss/alsa emulation? MPD plays fine, when I choose oss output.