low quality audio. Dolby Advanced Audio V2 - Linux

[M3shuggah]

Hi guys,
I'm using a Lenovo G580. I've 2 different HD: windows/Mint
I've noticed that the audio on windows is way better, due to the drivers Dolby Advanced Audio V2.
(I've noticed that without those, the audio is pretty similar to Linux)
On Linux Mint, the quality of the audio is poor and very low volume.
Do you know how to fix this?
This is the driver I'd like to use https://www.dolby.com/us/en/technologie ... io-v2.html
Is there a valid alternative on Linux? I've used Pulse and Alsa, checked the settings, but nothing changes.
Thank you for reading my post.

[M3shuggah]

For the record, using inxi -F these are the results:
Audio: Card Intel 7 Series/C210 Series Family High Definition Audio Controller
driver: snd_hda_intel
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k3.19.0-32-generic

[Hoser Rob]

I did a search and can find no evidence whatsoever that Dolby supports Linux at all. This link is often pointed to:

https://github.com/leoluk/thinkpad-stuf ... io-quality

Note the title of that section is "Linux low audio quality", which isn't necessarily the case. I use a simple ISO compliant USB DAC and it's fine. But it's not unusual in Linux for some features of DACs to not work at all even if the basic stuff does.

[M3shuggah]

Thank your for your answer.
Yes, that article describes the situation.
Same laptop speakers produce lower sound output (I's say half-power) and lower quality.
It sounds like a pretty stupid issue, but really has an impact, pretty much I can't watch movies or listening some tunes, forcing me to go back on Windows.
I hope someone will notice this post if they have the same issue. I've now read also that Dolby is not collaborating with Linux atm.
Not and expert, but I've seen Linux developers creating drivers for much more complicated devices than 2 cheap laptop speakers. So I'm hoping for the best.

[sikejsudjek]

Looks like there is a variety of compression, eq and psudo surround sound going on with that dolby processing.

1) Difficult fix
You might get something like this working for overall system eq :

https://www.maketecheasier.com/pulse-au ... er-ubuntu/
I had it working on mint 17.3 but ran into some problems on 18, but I think that might have been fixed now. Make sure you back everything up first...

For low volume levels might be worth installing qasmixer which will give you a gui to look at the alsa hardware levels. Something might be set too low in there.

Not sure how you'd get compression working on a system wide level. That's what smooths out the volume levels in the dolby process.


2) Easy fix. Install smplayer. Set the normalise volume option, and use the built in equaliser to optimise the eq for your speakers.
If the volume is still too low install qusmixer and check alsa levels. Or in terminal type alsamixer and follow the help instructions.
Audacious has eq and normalisation for music playback.



I use an external usb dac via spidif optical into a surround amp, and the sound is better in linux than windows (in fact the usb dac just bsods in windows 7)! So linux can give very good results for sound.

[jimallyn]

If the sound won't go as loud in Linux as it will in Windows, then I would say yes, there's probably something wrong. But if I can't find Dolby drivers to create fake "surround" sound for me, that doesn't concern me in the least. You can't create something that isn't there in the original audio, and I have no desire to even try. I recognize that there are a lot of people who disagree with me, and actually prefer the fake "surround" that Dolby and other processing gives them. But for the most part, I prefer to have the sound as the creators of the music intended it to be. If they thought that adding fake "surround" to it was an improvement, they probably would have done so in the studio. I do some sound engineering - recording, editing, mixing, etc., and I do use EQ, compression, and reverb and other effects at times to get the sound I want. But I haven't yet heard a "surround' simulation that suits me. Just my two cents worth.

[M3shuggah]

I understand your concern in terms of "purity" of sound.
But let me put that in context please, I'm talking about very cheap laptop speakers, so Hifi is not really a concern in this scenario.
I can guarantee you that the volume using windows is much higher and also the audio quality.
The difference is huge: on windows I can watch a movie, on Linux I can't, I can hear the lines. This is my point.
Hope I made it clearer now with this post.
Thank you for the answer anyway. Have a nice weekend.

[xdj1nn]

Hi guys,
I'm using a Lenovo G580. I've 2 different HD: windows/Mint
I've noticed that the audio on windows is way better, due to the drivers Dolby Advanced Audio V2.
(I've noticed that without those, the audio is pretty similar to Linux)
On Linux Mint, the quality of the audio is poor and very low volume.
Do you know how to fix this?
This is the driver I'd like to use https://www.dolby.com/us/en/technologie ... io-v2.html
Is there a valid alternative on Linux? I've used Pulse and Alsa, checked the settings, but nothing changes.
Thank you for reading my post.

I did a search and can find no evidence whatsoever that Dolby supports Linux at all. This link is often pointed to:

https://github.com/leoluk/thinkpad-stuf ... io-quality

Note the title of that section is "Linux low audio quality", which isn't necessarily the case. I use a simple ISO compliant USB DAC and it's fine. But it's not unusual in Linux for some features of DACs to not work at all even if the basic stuff does.

This is probably going to be a super late reply,
New here, just finished setting up the sound on my laptop running mint and was able to get Dolby Atmos running, via impulse response file on the Pulse effects application (installed it through software manager and dropped the files in manually):

.var/app/com.github.wwmm.pulseeffects/config/PulseEffects

Then when you run the program select convolver> toggle wave icon "select impulse response file". File came with these 3 options:

• Razor Surround ((48k Z-Edition)) 2.Stereo +20

• MaxxAudio Pro ((128K MP3)) 4.Music w MaxxSpace

• Dolby ATMOS ((128K MP3)) 1.Default.irs

I'm sure you could probably add more files. Functions similar to Hesuvi&equalizer-APO on windows 10.



Source: https://github.com/JackHack96/PulseEffects-Presets



More information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convolution_reverb

[trytip]

way to necro a thread
the one thing i didn't like about pulseefects is that you need to have it open for it to work. if you found the perfect setting for your system and it could be loaded at boot or login without taking any of the extra cpu this might actually be a step in the right direction. i found pulseefects GUI too bulky.