Low sound output levels with TB Santa Cruz and ALSA...

From: Orange Barrel (lucy_at_in-the-sky-with-diamonds.net)
Date: 01/30/05


Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2005 19:20:10 -0600

I just got a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card. I really like it. I'm
running it under kernel 2.4.29 with the ALSA 1.0.8 cs46xx drivers through
a pair of Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 self-powered speakers. The sound is great
but I can't seem to get decent analog output levels. In order to get just
a moderate volume through the speakers, I have to turn the main volume on
them to the twelve-o-clock position (50%) and use the following alsamixer
settings:

Master - 60
PCM - 100
CD - 100
DAC - 100
External - ON

Needless to say, I have some profound issues with running the PCM, CD, and
DAC controls at 100% just to get a listenable audio volume. I've tried
changing the values of every other control in alsamixer, and none of them
change the output level of the card. When I was running the same config
from the onboard via82xx, output volume was, um, not an issue.

Is this just the nature of the Santa Cruz (or the ALSA drivers)? I've got
a pretty nice rig for sound, and I'd like to get the most out of it. Any
assistance or advice would be greatly appreciated.

TIA,
OB



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