sound too low on external speakers (Mint 20.2)

[greg_129465]

Hello,

I just installed Mint 20.2 Cinnamon on a new machine, dual boot with Windows 11.
Everything works pretty smoothly, expect for sound on my external speakers (they are not new) plugged in the headphone output of my pc.
The sound output is way too low compared to:
how it used to be on another machine with the same external speakers with an older Mint version
how it is currently on the same machine, same speakers, on Windows 11
how it is currently on the same machine when the sound output is routed to my monitor (which has built in speakers) through hdmi

I have already installed pavu control, I can raise volume output to above 100% but that is still not producing the desired volume on my external speakers.
I could settle for the monitor/hdmi solution but the external speakers would be more practical for me.

I would appreciate some help!

[MrEen]

Hi greg_129465, and welcome to the forum.

Let's get a look at your sound setup with this command:

Code: Select all

curl https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/raw/master/src/utils/pa-info?inline=false | bash | nc termbin.com 9999

The last line of output will have a URL pointing to the info. Pasting that URL is all I need.

Please run that while you're playing some sound through the speakers.

[greg_129465]

Thank you sir.



Running a .flac file through rythmbox

[MrEen]

Most things look pretty good in that output. Here's what I'd try:

First, run killall speech-dispatcher in the terminal and see if that fixes it.

If still an issue, run alsamixer in the terminal and navigate over to the Channel Mode column. Press the up arrow key to change from 2ch to 4ch or 6ch and see if that helps.

[greg_129465]

Thanks for the suggestions, but neither helped unfortunately.

[MrEen]

According to your output, the speakers were connected to the Line Out port and not the Headphone port. Have you tried the Headphone port instead?

[greg_129465]

Yes true.
When I connect headphones to headphone out, the volume is as expected (loud enough).
However, when I connect the external speakers to headphone port, the volume is way lower than expected.

[MrEen]

Do the external speakers have their own volume control and is it turned up enough? I know this could sound like a no-brainer, but I have to ask.

[greg_129465]

Yes they have and yes, even when turned up to what should be a very high level, sound is still way lower than expected.

The sound output difference between Mint and windows 11 (at constant volume control knob) is very high.

[MrEen]

The only other suggestion I have today is to delete the files in /home/YourUserName/.config/pulse then run pulseaudio -k in the terminal. I doubt it's going to help, but I want to be sure it's not that simple. Either later tonight or tomorrow we can try surgically altering some defaults to see if we can get this working. I'm thinking to change pin default from 0x1b that is your Line Out pin to something else. I can't say it'll help either with you experiencing the same issue on the 0x14 headphone pin, but I don't know what else to try right now.

[greg_129465]

I have already tried the idea
delete the files in /home/YourUserName/.config/pulse then run pulseaudio -k

that you had suggested to someone else, but unfortunately, it did not help either.