Alsa audio quality

Problems and successes with specific brands/models of computer audio hardware
Post Reply
Message
Author
charwood
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat 13 Jan 2007, 20:34

Alsa audio quality

#1 Post by charwood »

I am using my VIA EPIA M6000 box as a media player.

When I play RealAudio radio streams through my TV, the sound is not clean. It is a bit muffled.

Am I expecting too much from the onboard audio ?

Do I need to invest in a PCI sound card ? If so which one ?

Can I tweak ALSA to improve this ?

Any help or advice would be appreciated.

GuestToo
Puppy Master
Posts: 4083
Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 18:11

#2 Post by GuestToo »

you might have treble and bass tone controls, or not ... type in an rxvt console:

alsamixer

the streams may be low bandwidth ... if you have a faster than dialup connection, you could try increasing the bandwidth setting in gxine, in the Media, Network tab of Preferences

User avatar
bobn9lvu
Posts: 173
Joined: Wed 12 Jul 2006, 03:57

#3 Post by bobn9lvu »

No, I have the same problem with most of my sound cards in alsa.
It seems that the default setting for bass /treble is set to neutral, ie( no amplification/atenuation)..
I usually boost the treble to around 90% and set the bass for the most pleasing sound...
It really helps... :!:
Specially on a lappy :twisted:
Of course the quality of the sound system helps alot too. :twisted:


Bob 8)

charwood
Posts: 9
Joined: Sat 13 Jan 2007, 20:34

Alsa audio quality (SOLVED)

#4 Post by charwood »

Playing with the settings in Alsamixer has improved the quality of the sound.

Thanks for the replies.

silvervarg
Posts: 14
Joined: Wed 31 Jan 2007, 12:50

#5 Post by silvervarg »

I got an VIA EPIA M10000 and got some problems with the sound. I'm running Puppy 2.15CE.
the sound is working in gxine, but cpu load on gxine is rather high when just playing mp3. If I have visualization on i typically hit 100% cpu load and basicly everything I do make sound crackle up due to hitting CPU limit.
When I turn visulization off the CPU load drops, but still about 50% CPU load when just playing an mp3.

So, I would like to play music with something less demanding.
When I try to play anything in xmms I get the error "failed to open audio output: ALSA 1.2.10 output plugin".
Can you help out a rookie with what I need to configure to get audio working in all apps?

Post Reply