Audio mutes completely in some USB sound cards when volume is below a certain threshold
- PipeWire version (
pipewire --version
): 0.3.58 - Distribution and distribution version (
PRETTY_NAME
from/etc/os-release
): Ubuntu 22.10 - Desktop Environment: KDE X11
- Kernel version (
uname -r
): 5.19.0-23-generic
Description of Problem:
With some USB sound cards, setting the volume below a certain threshold will mute the audio completely.
How Reproducible:
Easy to reproduce with some USB sound cards.
Steps to Reproduce:
- Plug an USB sound card that faces this issue. In my case, I am using a "Sound Blaster Play! 3"
- Set volume to 19%.
- Set volume to 18% or lower (threshold can be different with other USB sound cards).
Actual Results:
When the volume is at 19%, audio is quite loud. The alsamixer slider is at its lowest value before mute.
When the volume is at 18% or lower, audio is muted. Channel is muted in alsamixer.
Expected Results:
Volume should lower progressively as the slider is moved from 19% down to 0%.
If hardware mixer does not offer intermediary volume steps between 0% and 19%, then either
- pipewire should not offer volume steps within that range, or
- pipewire should use soft-mixing in that range (preferably for better out-of-the box experience)
Additional Info (as attachments):
-
pw-dump > pw-dump.log
: pw-dump.log