I'm running ubuntu 10.10 and my soundcard is a realtek alc880, with intel HDA controller. I have a very low sound, and, when I raise the volume over 50%, it sounds "cracked".
When I plug the headphones in, it keeps on playing through the speakers (and the headphones don't play any sound). In windows, it sounds fine, and the headphones work well. Please help!
Ubuntu – Poor sound quality and headphones not working
10.10hda-intelsound
Best Answer
Run
alsamixer -c 0in your console and use the arrow keys to play around with the volumes.For me: Setting Master to a value where the sound quality was good enough made it very very low. Setting Master to maximum, decreasing PCM to 81 and setting everything else to 0 fixed the problem.
UPDATE: (for Ubuntu 10.10) Click on the volume icon in the upper-right corner, then click on Sound Preferences, and make sure that the Output volume doesn't go above "Unamplified." Then, click on the volume icon again and see where the volume meter is positioned. That is the maximum volume you should set in order to hear a clear sound.
OR: (for Ubuntu 10.10) Click on the volume icon in the upper-right corner, then click on Sound Preferences, set the main volume to 100% and set the volume for each application to a more appropriate level. Each time you open an application that needs to use sound for the first time, you have to do this (because applications that don't currently use sound don't appear in that list).
You currently have to choose between annoying and complicated :(