On my laptop with MANJARO, the sound is is tinny and distorted, the quality is not really acceptable. I’m aware, that the built-in speakers are not the best, but colleagues using the same hardware with other operating system showed better results.
These three short snippets for demonstration, recorded the Family 17h/19h HD Audio Controller using audio-recorder should illustrate my problem. Here are my ALSA-settings (from ARCH-wiki). PulseAudio Configuration:
This file is oddly very clipped - so I’d say just turn the volume down until it isn’t clipped really…
TOP two ways to instantly improve audio are 1. Plug in headphones or use Bluetooth headphones 2. Connect the headphone jack to a half decent sound system.
If you have speakers which cannot deliver sound below 60Hz, I think the only solution is to connect a speaker which can deliver sound below 60Hz. Boosting frequencies doesn’t fix it…
However, if the speakers have a tinny sound, you can taper off the more offensive frequencies and smooth it out, at the expense of overall volume… but the sound would never be even close to the quality you can gain from buying even a cheap pair of bluetooth headphones or perhaps (if you don’t like headphones) think about a bluetooth speaker.
If the sound is already distorted, then much lower volumes will be needed in order to attempt to remove that harshness as well as balance out unwanted peaks.
For reference, I picked up a pair of Bluedio TM Wireless headphones a couple of years ago. They aren’t comfortable enough to wear for more than 2 hours, but the sound was pretty impressive and they cost $10.
For a faster connection (with not enough latency to bother me watching video) I switch to G435 Logitech headphones, which don’t have the same heavy sound (i.e. more balanced) and are much lighter and comfortable - but with a cost over $20.
Another avenue would be a tiny and VERY cheap Class-D amplifier like the one I have for my son’s laptop:
Which - despite the excellent quality sound comes for a STUPID cheap price (170 THB - that’s equivalent to less than $5) is also very nice. Power is needed, I give it 12V from an old Sony Blu-ray PSU I had knocking about. You can plug in Audio (it switches automatically to AUX mode) or unplug that for Bluetooth 5.
