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PulseAudio vs ALSA output

Added by Cade Johnson over 6 years ago

Not an audiophile, just a guy; I started using Audacious a while back with Ubuntu 16.04 and running some playlists of mostly MP3 files. My computer output goes through a small amplifier to a set of speakers in my livingroom. I perceived that the volume would gradually increase and I would have to reduce the amplifier volume. It also seemed that some songs were becoming distorted, as I had enabled clipping. I was using the default PulseAudio output, but I have recently switched to ALSA output. Now volume seems steady. I have not yet listened long enough to tell if distortion effects are mitigated. Might this perceived volume increase have been a bug with the PulseAudio output? Or maybe it was a feature?! When you are rockin' out, sometimes you gotta turn it up! Maybe Audacious was simply anticipating this need? :D


Replies (5)

RE: PulseAudio vs ALSA output - Added by John Lindgren over 6 years ago

I think PulseAudio does support volume greater than 100%, which would cause clipping, but I've never seen the volume increase on its own. That's quite strange.

RE: PulseAudio vs ALSA output - Added by Taylor Hall over 6 years ago

Cade Johnson wrote:

Not an audiophile, just a guy; I started using Audacious a while back with Ubuntu 16.04 and running some playlists of mostly MP3 files. My computer output goes through a small amplifier to a set of speakers in my livingroom. I perceived that the volume would gradually increase and I would have to reduce the amplifier volume. It also seemed that some songs were becoming distorted, as I had enabled clipping. I was using the default PulseAudio output, but I have recently switched to ALSA output. Now volume seems steady. I have not yet listened long enough to tell if distortion effects are mitigated. Might this perceived volume increase have been a bug with the PulseAudio output? Or maybe it was a feature?! When you are rockin' out, sometimes you gotta turn it up! Maybe Audacious was simply anticipating this need? :D

No need to be an audiophile. Play a high quality mp3 (LAME v0 best quality possible) or a FLAC file on both Banshee Player and Audacious, one is set to use PulseAudio by default and the other ALSA (at least for me, I tried to install Jack but even though I did everything in all the guides I found and tried over and over again one morning for 5 hours straight. No dice. No idea what Jack. JackMixer tells me "There was an error or Jack isn't running" So I try to start the daemon, it won't start and gives me an error I have asked for help on about 3 or 4 forums and a few IRC rooms and I either got no response or responses that didn't take into account what I said I already did, which says much about how many narcissistic personality disorder people exist in this world, likely the most common of those personality disorders.

RE: PulseAudio vs ALSA output - Added by Nicholas Flynn over 6 years ago

My Audacious doesn't even allow me to change, it's ALSA or nothing, even if obviously like most people, I do have pulseaudio running. It sounds better than say when I used to use Banshee which uses whatever sound server you're running, it uses pulseaudio and I prefer the ALSA sound. As for jackd....never was able to get it running, on my onboard sound card, on my high quality Asus pci express 1x card, even through a cheap sound card you plug into your onboard soundcard's green entry, where it replaces the onboard sound card. Nope. I wish though, I'd love to see how it sounds. I also know of another sound server but I forgot about it since nobody uses it, i've seen it mentioned like that "there's always XYZ but nobody uses it and I can't help you". I've followed every guide, official or fan made to make jackd work and it just won't, I don't know why, maybe it just won't work with Mint 17.3

RE: PulseAudio vs ALSA output - Added by Nicholas Flynn over 6 years ago

Nicholas Flynn wrote:

My Audacious doesn't even allow me to change, it's ALSA or nothing, even if obviously like most people, I do have pulseaudio running. It sounds better than say when I used to use Banshee which uses whatever sound server you're running, it uses pulseaudio and I prefer the ALSA sound. As for jackd....never was able to get it running, on my onboard sound card, on my high quality Asus pci express 1x card, even through a cheap sound card you plug into your onboard soundcard's green entry, where it replaces the onboard sound card. Nope. I wish though, I'd love to see how it sounds. I also know of another sound server but I forgot about it since nobody uses it, i've seen it mentioned like that "there's always XYZ but nobody uses it and I can't help you". I've followed every guide, official or fan made to make jackd work and it just won't, I don't know why, maybe it just won't work with Mint 17.3

I forgot to say, I've never seen Audacious crank the volume slowly by itself. Have you tried an inferior player to see what happens?

RE: PulseAudio vs ALSA output - Added by Nicholas Flynn over 6 years ago

Taylor Hall wrote:

Cade Johnson wrote:

Not an audiophile, just a guy; I started using Audacious a while back with Ubuntu 16.04 and running some playlists of mostly MP3 files. My computer output goes through a small amplifier to a set of speakers in my livingroom. I perceived that the volume would gradually increase and I would have to reduce the amplifier volume. It also seemed that some songs were becoming distorted, as I had enabled clipping. I was using the default PulseAudio output, but I have recently switched to ALSA output. Now volume seems steady. I have not yet listened long enough to tell if distortion effects are mitigated. Might this perceived volume increase have been a bug with the PulseAudio output? Or maybe it was a feature?! When you are rockin' out, sometimes you gotta turn it up! Maybe Audacious was simply anticipating this need? :D

No need to be an audiophile. Play a high quality mp3 (LAME v0 best quality possible) or a FLAC file on both Banshee Player and Audacious, one is set to use PulseAudio by default and the other ALSA (at least for me, I tried to install Jack but even though I did everything in all the guides I found and tried over and over again one morning for 5 hours straight. No dice. No idea what Jack. JackMixer tells me "There was an error or Jack isn't running" So I try to start the daemon, it won't start and gives me an error I have asked for help on about 3 or 4 forums and a few IRC rooms and I either got no response or responses that didn't take into account what I said I already did, which says much about how many narcissistic personality disorder people exist in this world, likely the most common of those personality disorders.

My exact experience when it comes to jackd. Nobody helps and the supposed help irc rooms, everyone just ignores you if you're not a regular who's idled for 3 months or just chit-chat with the other people to get yourself a "reputation", an e-peen of sort, I am in some irc rooms permanently, and there's a few where I had to do that before they even acknowledged me, the worst is when moderation is on and you have to get in a queue to ask a question....and nobody answers anything or ignore what you said and repeat things you said you already did at this point it's like "don't talk to me, as you can't read, obviously".

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