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Thread: 12.04 - poor sound quality

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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    NSW, Australia
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    133
    Distro
    Xubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander

    12.04 - poor sound quality

    I have been using Ubuntu for some years now and have had very little trouble. Yesterday I upgraded to 12.04 without any problems.

    Now the sound output is poor - the volume seems to be louder than before but the quality is poor. Music sounds distorted and scratchy. This happens with VLC, Gnome Media Player and with streamed music through Firefox.I get the same problem when using both the speakers and headphone outputs.

    This also happens another computer - also upgraded yesterday. It also happens with both Xubuntu and Ubuntu.

    Before upgrading I was getting very good quality music.

    Any suggestions??

    TIA

    Alan
    HP-200-5220a - Pentium Dual Core - 3GHz x 2
    LinuxMint 17.2

    Acer 5750Z - Intel Dual Core - 2.1GHz x 2

    Windows 10

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
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    201

    Re: 12.04 - poor sound quality

    I'm getting crappy quality out of RhythmBox but that's because the Equalizer plugin I had installed in 11.10 no longer works on 12.04 so now I need to find a new player since music ain't worth listening to like this.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Syracuse, NY
    Beans
    659
    Distro
    Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot

    Re: 12.04 - poor sound quality

    I would first test audio from a LiveCD/USB of 12.04 if you're able to. (You can also boot directly from the ISO file with grub2. I can post a link if you are comfortable editing config files.) That way we know if it's an issue with 12.04, or maybe something is left over from before the upgrade that isn't normal on a fresh install.

    Past that, or to start if not doing that... **Just typed two paragraphs and remembered this:**

    https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingSoundProblems

    There was a lot of updates especially in the kernel for 12.04 to enable features on a lot of Intel HDA spec based sound cards (My realtek card in my laptop, now lets me adjust the subwoofer without hacks for example) and it's quite possible some quirks need to be worked out. If you do everything on that page, and wind up having to file a bug report, the sound guys especially Dave Hessington (sp) is really on top of things. Just follow up on the bug in case he asks for more info like an alsainfo report or anything.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    NSW, Australia
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    133
    Distro
    Xubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander

    Re: 12.04 - poor sound quality

    Having another look at the problem. I put pen to paper too quickly!!!

    It seems to be only VLC that is giving trouble. Audacious plays music in good quality. Streaming through Firefox is good too. This would suggest that 12.04 is OK basically.

    I will follow your suggestions. Thanks

    Alan
    HP-200-5220a - Pentium Dual Core - 3GHz x 2
    LinuxMint 17.2

    Acer 5750Z - Intel Dual Core - 2.1GHz x 2

    Windows 10

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Syracuse, NY
    Beans
    659
    Distro
    Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot

    Re: 12.04 - poor sound quality

    It is almost guaranteed to be just a VLC probably itself then, especiall since VLC can boost sound to 200-400% normal level which can degrade the quality. Have you checked the setting and any equalizers in VLC itself?

    While it won't tell you the actual problem, if you don't have a lot of custom settings in VLC you could just delete the contents of $HOME/.config/vlc as you did jump to version 2.0 and it could be a simple incompatibility with a 1.x setting. That may very well fix it and get you on your way a save for head scratching for real issues later.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Reykjavík, Ísland
    Beans
    13,647
    Distro
    Xubuntu

    Re: 12.04 - poor sound quality

    Moved to the multimedia forum.
    Bringing old hardware back to life. About problems due to upgrading.
    Please visit Quick Links -> Unanswered Posts.
    Don't use this space for a list of your hardware. It only creates false hits in the search engines.

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