Hi!
I'm in a bit of a pickle regarding audio in my machine. I'll try explaining it as best as I can.
Around a year ago I started having problems with my audio set up. At the time I was running Windows 10 on an Asus ROG Strix B450-F motherboard, with a Ryzen 2600 CPU. I was also using the HyperX Cloud Stinger Headset (actually, I still am), with a single jack that gets split with an adapter into the motherboard. One day, my friends started complaining that they could hear my OS sounds through Discord. I say "one day" because up until then I had gotten no complains of the sort. Also, as far as I can tell, it was completely sudden. After searching the web with no success I finally managed to cope with the situation by playing with the sound settings and volumes. People could still hear my OS sounds, but I managed to get sufficiently low so that my friends could bear it.
Fast forward a couple of months, my motherboard suddenly died. I know, its weird. I had never had a board die on me like this, but I guess there is always a first. Anyway, I ended up buying a new motherboard (the one I am using right now), which is the MSI Mortar Max with Realtek ALC892/ALC897 Codec. I also installed a UEFI dual boot of Pop_OS! and Windows 10 (this machine was basically supposed to be a "gaming only" machine, but since I am stuck working from home, I thought I might as well install Linux so I can get some work done in the big screen). Also, there was a couple of weeks delay between changing the motherboard (with a fresh install of Windows) and installing Linux. During that period, the old complains seemed to have gotten away.
Now, after installing Linux, the complains returned. Although, I thought, this time I am running an OS where I can actually do some digging! Except, I didn't find much information about this online. Here is what I got so far:
-> The problem is not with Discord. If I record my audio, I can also hear the applications in the background. Also, there is considerable static noise, especially compared to the volume of my voice.
-> The problem does not happen only with my headset. If I plug in my girlfriend's headset I get the same result, although the static is not so bad and the OS sounds are lower.
-> If I plug my headset to my laptop - a ThinkPad running Pop_OS! - I can still hear the OS sound in the background, but again, the static isn't so bad and the OS sounds are lower. It's worth mentioning that I have used Discord in my laptop with my headset and got no complains from other people.
-> During my research I read somewhere that the Realtek ALC892/ALC897 Codec is particularly bad. Don't know how accurate this is.
-> Finally, I played around with the settings in pavucontrol with no success. However, I managed to get the situation under control by enabling the echo-cancelation module of pulseaudio.
Another thing worth mentioning is that, in Linux, every once in a while (once a day, give or take) something happens and my output sound gets really dirty. The noise is so much that it is unbearable. I can fix this by restarting pulseaudio with "pulseaudio -k". I am also not sure about this, but it appears to be related to the volume. I tend to hear things very loudly and it seems to me that this happens more often if I crank up the volume.
Having said all this, here are my thoughts on the situation:
-> Maybe it is normal for headset microphones to capture a little bit of the sound coming from the headphones. They are physically connected after all and, since I tend to hear things very loudly, maybe its unavoidable that the microphone captures a little bit of sound.
-> If my above claim is true then maybe this small amount of feedback is usually fixed by some sort of echo-canceling treatment in the drivers.
-> Maybe the low quality of the Realtek codec does not help the situation. Also, the headphones are far from top-quality.
Now, I would greatly appreciate any input you have on this subject. I am quite ignorant when it comes to audio processing. Still, my main question at the moment is if buying an external sound card could help with the issue. If so, do you guys have any recommendations of external sound cards to use with Linux?
For anyone still reading, thank so so much for your time! I know the post is quite long, but since I don't have a good grasp on what is going on, I don't really know what information to filter.
Thank you all so much for your time once again!
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