Music and Video sound on Mint

[rossdv8]

I found a budget (relatively) way to what seems like awesome sound. on my little computer.

When I came back to Mint after some time exploring other Linux distros (after Mint dropped the KDE edition) I rediscovered the flexibility of PulseAudio and discovered PulseEffects. However I decided my old Logitech X-230 speakers with Subwoofer were starting to sound a bit jaded. I was talking about sound with my son, who happened to have the sale speakers as I do and was planning to sell them online. So to save him the hassle I bought them for the price he planned to advertise.

They have been sitting waiting for me to open them up and experiment with adding a set of bigger speakers from a car system, and this morning I found a 1 into 2 male - female 3.5mm splitter cable (about 150mm long). Out of curiosity, I wondered how awful it would sound if I plugged in both sets of X-230 speakers.

It was louder at lower volumes, but richer. So I fiddled with stuff. The satellites have volume controls separately from the little 8 inch woofers. I have two of the satelites level with the bottom on my 55 inch monitor, and 2 on the desk slightly lower and a little forward. The subs are sitting on top of each other on the floor with a layer of foam rubber between them to prevent vibration.

I set the volumes on the satellites about 70% on both. In the Subs, I set one about 20% and the other about 80%.

The sound is amazing. Really amazing. I can have a thumping bass that I'm sure will annoy the neighbours, but Mostly I can set everything about 70%(ish) and have 'pleasantly loud' music or sound effects in a movie.

It is only a fluke that I have ended up with two sets of Logitech X-230 (because they are old and cheap), but I am sure any 2 sets of speakers with 2 x satellites and a sub-woofer each would work. Part of the trick seems to be having the sub woofers dialed to different settings, because if I set them both the same, it just isn't as pleasant an experience.

If anyone else tries something like this I would be interested to hear how they go. I'm sitting here typing, listening, and still 'amazed' at the richness and fullness of the sound. And I didn't have to cut wires or solder anything.
I just happened to have the 2 into 1, 3.5mm splitter lying around.

Mine wouldn't satisfy a HiFi audiophile because turning the volume above comfortable listening will still cause distortion in the x-230 satellites, but for ordinary relatively loud music movies and gaming I'm hooked.

[rossdv8]

Update:

I was so excited with the results that even though I mentioned it, I forgot to open PulseEffects !
I clicked on that, and the volume immediately went through the roof and everything was distorted awfully. I reducec the volume, turned down the manual volume knob on the set of satellite speakers hooked to the sub woofer that has the Bass turned high, which removed the distortion.

Then I tried some of the Equalizer presets I had created some weeks ago and found one that was pleasing then.
In the post above I wrote:

Mine wouldn't satisfy a HiFi audiophile because turning the volume above comfortable listening will still cause distortion in the x-230 satellites, but for ordinary relatively loud music movies and gaming I'm hooked

Listening using Pulse Effects and a few more tweaks, I'm not sure how much that statement really applies.
It sounds fantastic!
And if something is not quite right it is usually caused by the input file, and can be easily tweaked out and the tweaks saved as a Preset.

[rossdv8]

About a week and a half later and I am even more pleased with the result of this sound system.
Listening to a Gene Pitney CD this morning and for the first time I had some distortion at high volume (probably higher than I need). Easily fixed by adjusting the volume on one of the satellite speaker pairs.

That is after listening to many types of music. Oddly it was only one of Gene's tracks. Other similar music CDs (Big Bass and lots of high frequency and mid range), like the Eddie and the Cruisers CD were fine. Line dancing stuff also sounds great and movie sounds are fantastic, backing my 55 inch monitor.
That would probably be nice for gamers if the speakers were placed well.

There may be better dedicated systems, but as a cheap solution to sound - it seems to work far better than I expected.

[rossdv8]

Great Sound on Mint 20.1
A couple of week further on and I think I have nailed this sound thing in Mint 20.1.

I've got the volume of the back pair of satellite speakers wound back a bit below 1/2. These are the ones sitting each side of the screen and closer to the wall. The Sub Woofer on these is on Full Bass, so the satellite volume adjusts out any distortion.

The satellite pair that sits each side of, but just ahead of the screen has the volume turned UP to about 3/4. The Sub Woofer on these is wound all the way DOWN (Least Bass).

This combination of physical settings, plus a little tweaking of PulseEffects.
I have the following enabled and set:

Multiband Compressor Volumes set for: Input +10, Output -10
No idea why that works, but it sounds 'cleanest'.

Stereo Tools Volumes: Input +10, Output -10

Crystalizer Volumes: Input +10, Output -10

Bass Enhancer Volumes: Input +20, Output -10

Equalizer Volumes: Input -1.00, Output -4.50
( The negative values Reduce volume when Applying saved Presets which might have their volume boosted)

I often have the Equalizer OFF, but I have several presets saved and use it sometimes to enhance certain music.
I sometimes enable the equalizer in Clementine or VLC, so disabling the EQ in PulseEffects saves surprises.

HOWEVER:
At the moment, just using the staggered Volume settings on the two sets of Speaker systems mostly means I don;t need an equalizer.

My computer running Mint and this setup now sounds better than the dedicated expensive stereo systems I was planning to buy for myself.

The best way I can describe it is that from the distances I listen - about 2 to 4 metres from the screen and the speakers, it sounds like listening to the audio from a really nice track, directly into a set of Sony (or similar) headphones. It really is that good.

I'm rather pleased, especially as these budget Logitech and other brands (with the separate volume controls on Sub Woofer AND satellites) are available from under $50 to around $100 a set second hand.

The 2 into 1 female to male 3.5mm cable is only a couple of dollars at almost any electronics store.

[rossdv8]

It is August already, and we're still stuck with CoVid.
That means a lot of time with less useful stuff to do. And for me, a lot of listening to music.
After getting the two sets of Logitech x-230 speakers playing nicely with each other, I found myself with three computers but only one set up with speakers. Then I remembered I had a Logitech Bluetooth adapter lying in the unused 'stuff we used to sell' bin. I hooked that up to the parallel sets of speakers (via a 2 into one splitter).

Now I simply use my VNC to switch to whichever machine I want to play great audio.

The last few months have let me fine tune the speakers so that I don't 'need' to run PulseEffects. although I can if I want to be fussy. The sound has been far beyond what I had hoped for. That has led me back to something else I had forgotten about. So called 'LOSSLESS' audio. The sort of thing that has absolutely crystal clear sound from barely audible low notes, up to the highest frequencies of things like bells.

So I've dug out my CD/DVD drive and a stack of music that I had ripped to mp3, and i am beginning to rip at higher bitrates or in some cases simply to .wav files. I also managed to acquire some FLAC and similar audio. On a nice but ridiculously cheap sound system it is fantastic.

In a previous post I wrote that one speaker set has the Bass turned right down, and the other set has the bass turned up. The satellites volumes are adjusted until the overall sound is balanced between the two.
A recent development saw my son acquiring yet another X-230 set. Once that set arrives I will try adding it in, and hopefully tuning it for mid range.
I'm considering surgery on them to set the satellites further apart, but I'll wait to see what happens.

In the mean time, if anyone wants to turn their Mint computer into an awesome sound system, especially if you have a spare laptop or out of date desktop computer lying around that will run mint, using a 2 into 1 3.5mm adapter and two cheap sound systems that have a sub woofer and satellites, has been well worth the effort.

For anyone wanting to try this I used TWO sets of these:

Logitech X-230:

plugged into one of these:

then plugged into one of these:

Logitech S-00113.jpeg (20.66 KiB) Viewed 650 times

The Bluetooth thing has 3.5mm audio socket plus a Red and a White RCA connector.