Odd sound problems

[litlfrog]

I've done a new install of Ubuntu 9.04 and sound is behaving differently on this machine than it was on my old one. I'm using the same little desktop stereo speakers I did on my old system. We've got voicemails that are automatically e-mailed to an account as .wav files; even with the volume cranked all the way up, they're barely audible. I also noticed that unlike on my other desktop, changing the master volume doesn't seem to do anything. I can change the volume by sliding the PCM and Headphone volume bars, but the master volume bar doesn't seem to do anything. If I listen to something on YouTube, for instance, it's audible but the sound is kind of tinny and distorted. The system uses onboard audio; here's the output of aplay -l.

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: nForce [NVidia nForce], device 0: Intel ICH [NVidia nForce]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: nForce [NVidia nForce], device 2: Intel ICH - IEC958 [NVidia nForce - IEC958]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

I've never worked with sound issues on Linux before and I'm afraid I don't know where to begin troubleshooting this problem.

[litlfrog]

bump

[litlfrog]

Anything? I know the speakers work properly with Linux, because they were hooked up to the last computer a couple of days ago. I suppose it could be something going on with the onboard sound, I don't know how I'd test that. While the sound is audible on everything except wav files, it's kind of distorted, like the levels are too high despite being hard to hear.

[Yellow Pasque]

Check the obvious stuff (volume levels):

alsamixer
pavucontrol  #you may need to install this package

[litlfrog]

OK, haven't heard of pavucontrol before. On the Output Devices and Input Devices tabs, what's listed is NVidia Nforce; the levels are set at 75% and changing them doesn't affect what I hear. When sound is playing, the output level graph seems to be moving appropriately.

[litlfrog]

In alsamixer, I have to nearly peg the PCM and Headphones bars to the top to be able to hear anything. I'm really suspicious about that headphones bar, and the fact that changing or even muting the master volume bar does squat.

[litlfrog]

Bump. This is really frustrating--I know that both the sound card and the speakers work, but I'm not able to do part of my job because of this. I need to listen to voicemails that come in as .wav files, and as it stands I'm not getting enough volume to hear them even if I crank everything up as high as it will go.

[igorzwx]

Why do you bump?

Think!

The reason is Pulse

Audio Noise in Ubuntu
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1035892

[litlfrog]

So . . . I'm inferring from the link that you posted that you believe I should remove pulseaudio and install OSS4?

[igorzwx]

I do not believe in anything anymore.
I feel betrayed and disullusioned.
I has been busy with this for months.
And nobody told me the truth.
The only GOOGLE helps.