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[hoyt]

I just setup MC for Linux on a small little NUC I had lying around.  When I was playing with it, I plugged a dragonfly in and just ran an 1/8" cable to my desk speakers.  It seemed to be running how I wanted, so I mounted it to the back of a monitor and swapped to my USB UA-3 device.  I've had this device plugged into my Mac for years and am very familiar with the audio level to expect. 

When I played something through Linux, the volume with the UA-3 was far lower than I expected.  Even quite different from the dragonfly.  I checked my internal audio and MC audio levels, both are at 100%.  I have the volume at 100% on the UA-3 and it's not quite loud enough.

What could I check to troubleshoot this?  Thanks!

[hoyt]

I found the problem.  In alsamixer, PCM was set to 6 (out of 100) for my UA-3.  I had to F6 to select the UA-3.  I moved it up to 100 and the volume is more reflective of what I'm used to with this USB DAC. 

[Sammy]

It's worth playing with the various devices presented for selection as the output device if your *nix is using ALSA.  Choosing one that does not go through the mixer can improve audio quality quite a bit.

[hoyt]

It's worth playing with the various devices presented for selection as the output device if your *nix is using ALSA.  Choosing one that does not go through the mixer can improve audio quality quite a bit.

Took me a bit to get back to this because I had to get a few other things worked out with this NUC.

All of my devices in the list of MC have [ALSA] in the name.  Is there something else I should be doing here to go around the alsamixer?  I probably don't care too much on this NUC (it's mostly for listening to music at my desk), but I wouldn't mind working out a better way if I can.

[Sammy]

Yes they all say ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) because that is the way audio is exposed on Linux.  ALSA has a routing architecture and can route devices through mixers.  The device names begin with DMIX, HW or PLUGHW.  HW is the raw device and doesn't do any conversions which is generally what you want.  PLUGHW will usually do sample rate conversions for you but MC can already do that for you by setting the output format (if you need to play some oddball format your DAC does not support).  DMIX sends the sound through the mixer which adds an additional volume control (you don't need) and thus is less than bit-perfect.  From what I have read and from my own experience selecting something in the HW family gets you bit perfect audio so your DAC is doing the work.  My Jolida Tube DAC offered a distinction for front speakers in the HW category which I don't quite understand but that offered the best sound.

[max096]

In the 'alsamixer' CLI you often times have a checkbox for an audio boost. I have a Xonar Essence STX pcie soundcard. It has such a switch. Normally in Windows the driver Software gives you a dropdown menu where you can select them and it tells you that you'd want the highest boost for 300-600ohm headphones for instance. In Linux everything is crammed into a single driver for better or for worse. Sometimes you have to go into alsamixer to chance something that you wont find anywhere else.