For me, PipeWire, is superior compared to PulseAudio

Support Sound
1

on 12 Jan 2025 (few days ago) i made the switch: I got rid of PulseAudio; I had various issues, eg: I have the habit to play my big music collection placed on an USB 3.0 HDD: the audio was processed by PulseEffects and plyed by Strawberry: I always had problems: audio glitches, little scratches, hiccups, expecially when I opened options in Strawberry (eg for changing the album art of the files).

Another thing is about Firefox: randomly, from time to time, Firefox used to completely freeze (despite the fact that I don’t play anything from Firefox, because I use the extension open-in-mpv:

This because my Ivy Bridge system works better if I force the hwdec=vaapi (H264): set in /home/username/.config/mpv/mpv.conf

However, with PipeWire, Firefox no longer hangs/freeze.

Now with PipeWire + EasyEffects, the audio is extremely perfect: stable, reliable and good (EasyEffects works so much better compared to PulseEffects), however I had to increment the audio buffer and disable the suspension:

in /etc/pipewire/pipewire.conf:

    default.clock.quantum       = 2048
    default.clock.min-quantum   = 2048
    default.clock.max-quantum   = 2048

in /etc/pipewire/pipewire-pulse.conf

    default.clock.quantum = 2048
    default.clock.quantum-limit = 2048
    default.clock.max-quantum = 2048
    default.clock.min-quantum = 2048

in /etc/wireplumber/wireplumber.conf.d/alsa-vm.conf

        api.alsa.period-size   = 1024
        api.alsa.headroom      = 2048

in /etc/wireplumber/wireplumber.conf.d/51-disable-suspension.conf

 session.suspend-timeout-seconds = 0

To made the switch, just do: sudo pacman -Syu manjaro-pipewire and reboot

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2

I’m using pulseaudio and strawberry, but I cannot reproduce that. I have zero problems with it. :man_shrugging:

Do however note that pulseeffects is no longer in the repository — if it ever was; I cannot remember.

3

I’m glad for you :slight_smile: Maybe is a matter of hardware

I installed pulseeffects for the first time on 2019-11-15; the last update was pulseeffects-legacy-fixed (4.8.7-2) on 2024-10-01

4

This is a machine with standard onboard HDA audio. :man_shrugging:

pulseeffects-legacy is an AUR package. I do not have it installed, and I suspect your problems were caused by that package.

If it was indeed dropped from the repository to the AUR — as I seem to remember — then it may be because it was no longer compatible and/or maintained.

5

I don’t know, but I am a musician and audiophile: I can say for sure, that for my ears, EasyEffecst have a better process method. And However I had the problems also with PulseEffects disabled.

6

pulseeffects-legacy has not been updated since Jun 2022

AUR - pulseeffects-legacy

Description:       Audio Effects for Pulseaudio Applications, without pipewire
First Submitted:   2021-02-02 16:19 (UTC)
Last Updated:     2022-06-16 17:42 (UTC)

pulseeffects-legacy-fixed was deleted from AUR on 21 Oct 2024
[PRQ#64125] Deletion Request for pulseeffects-legacy-fixed Accepted - Aur-requests - lists.archlinux.org

PulseAudio users should consider using jamesdsp-pulse (AUR) instead

AUR - jamesdsp-pulse
Description:    An audio effect processor for PulseAudio clients
Maintainer:     yochananmarqos
Last Updated:   Fri 13 Dec 2024 02:36:37 GMT

[HowTo] Make Linux Sound BETTER, easier, with JamesDSP

Pro-audio users (JACK or pipewire-jack) should consider using lsp-plugins (extra)

easyeffects requires lsp-plugins, so users may want to check out lsp-plugins documentation and youtube channel for more information

Audiophiles using ALSA only could use dsp (extra), but many Linux audio players (not strawberry) have built-in audio DSP

Check xfce4-mime-settings > Others tab

xfce:xfce4-settings:preferred-apps [Xfce Docs]
With the MIME Type Editor application, you can view and modify the Default Application that is associated with a Type.

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