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Latest Kernel - USB Audio sound quality?

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mwillems:
FWIW I've been using Linux for USB audio since kernel version 3.2 up through 5.19, and a few of my systems are now on kernel version 6.0. I've never noticed any USB sound quality changes in any kernel versions, except in the case of one piece of hardware that was misbehaving prior to kernel 5.0 (i.e. that piece of equipment had loud obvious dropouts caused by buffer underruns, which stopped after 5.0). 

They're always improving the kernel, but assuming the hardware is working correctly, I would be hesitant to expect any subtle changes in sound quality.  If you're convinced you've spotted a change,  it will be hard to narrow down what happened because every single minor kernel version has changes to the USB audio subsystem.  Maybe step through the minor kernel versions and see if you can bisect the exact version at which the change occurred?

scrutinizer:

--- Quote from: mwillems on November 18, 2022, 09:22:18 am ---FWIW I've been using Linux for USB audio since kernel version 3.2 up through 5.19, and a few of my systems are now on kernel version 6.0. I've never noticed any USB sound quality changes in any kernel versions, except in the case of one piece of hardware that was misbehaving prior to kernel 5.0 (i.e. that piece of equipment had loud obvious dropouts caused by buffer underruns, which stopped after 5.0). 

They're always improving the kernel, but assuming the hardware is working correctly, I would be hesitant to expect any subtle changes in sound quality.  If you're convinced you've spotted a change,  it will be hard to narrow down what happened because every single minor kernel version has changes to the USB audio subsystem.  Maybe step through the minor kernel versions and see if you can bisect the exact version at which the change occurred?

--- End quote ---

The change happened after the 5.19.11 update in the Debian backports.
I regularly updated to every version that appeared in the backports. The only kernel version that exhibit this change is 5.19.11. Nothing prior.

Not noticing any change in terms of audio quality since 3.2 - That's the behavior I was expecting.
This goes against my understanding of how things work, but still there's a change, and not a subtle one. That's what I'm trying to understand.

anonymous:
New Linux kernels may get a bug and if the kernel is constantly updated the kernel one might pass through one and a change might be noticed afterwards. The links below speak of a known or suspected USB audio bug in Linux kernels 5.15.68 to 5.15.70 and 5.19.9 to 5.19.11. Updates don't always fix issues, but sometimes create them.

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/-/issues/2703
https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=216500


In general, updating the kernel in Debian stable is never recommended, as it can impact the OS stability (Debian stable being someone akin to a reliable rock).

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