Volume low even at maximum

Question

I have an Asus UL20FT-A1 laptop whose sound at maximum is not high enough. I have to open the Sound Settings menu and go over the limitation to get a high enough level. Any idea how I can fix this?

score 99 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 31 '23 at 13:21

99

Try the PCM settings in alsamixer:

Open terminal: Ctrl+Alt+T
Type alsamixer

enter image description here

You may need to select the sound card with F6 first.

Turning up all the other controls may also help smiley

edited Jan 31 '23 at 13:21

Nishant Jadhav

103

answered Dec 14 '13 at 16:05

Wilf

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Thanks for the hint! For some reason media keys got broken on 16.10 after upgrade. – anatoly techtonik Oct 22 '16 at 08:57
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On Windows this never happens, volume controls just work. Why does it happen on Linux? – Maxim Egorushkin Aug 27 '17 at 20:46
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@MaximEgorushkin - AFAIK the PCM setting should by default be at max, just adding or modifying certain software or hardware may change that. Like with Windows and default audio devices :) – Wilf Aug 27 '17 at 23:53
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@Wilf It is not the first time i have to use alsamixer to unmute or increase volumes on Ubuntu and Fedora. It is like it is initialised with random values. IMO, the volume control UI must do that, this step must be absolutely unnecessary. Just venting in general. – Maxim Egorushkin Aug 28 '17 at 00:20
@MaximEgorushkin I would ask about it then but if it is two distros it may be a bug, probably for that specific hardware (as in driver / sound server - software is also possible but Fedora and Ubuntu usually use slightly different versions, unless you have both installed with the same version) – Wilf Aug 28 '17 at 00:41
@Wilf It is a usability bug. I observed it in the last 5-10 years, with different versions of Fedora and Ubuntu and different audio hardware. – Maxim Egorushkin Aug 28 '17 at 00:51
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@Wilf It is like there are two levels of volume settings and the UI tools operate on one level, alsamixer on another. – Maxim Egorushkin Aug 28 '17 at 00:58
didn't work for bluetooth speaker :-( – Philipp Munin Dec 26 '17 at 22:30
@PhilippMunin The issue may those often have a independently operated amplifier on the speaker itself (usually controlled via buttons on it). OR you need to select to use A2DP output instead of the (much lower quality) HSP in sound settings. – Wilf Dec 27 '17 at 23:24
@Wilf thanks for response, but none of that worked. Volume of bluetooth device is on max, and the beep sound it makes - is very loud, but the computer sounds its outputting is very low volume. I use A2DP, but worth to note A2DP's volume is lower volume than the HSP's – Philipp Munin Dec 28 '17 at 10:13
@PhilippMunin may be worth asking a question then! Screenshots of speaker settings, alsamixer etc would help :) – Wilf Dec 28 '17 at 14:06
Thank you so much... was having the same issue here. – Tracker1 Sep 02 '19 at 08:54
Boosted the volume for my USB headphones, specifically Bloody J473. Thanks! – Talha Ashraf Jul 25 '20 at 15:32
thanks a lot. definitely a lifesaver. I wondered why my newly bought headphone has volume lower than the budget headset. hehe – The.Wolfgang.Grimmer Aug 21 '21 at 03:01
@MaximEgorushkin I've had this happen a bunch of times on Windows (at least with previous versions, I haven't used 10/11 as much), sometimes without remedy - the OS just seems to set min at 0%, max at 10% for a particular device, which works normally elsewhere or even via linux on the same machine giving 0-100% or 0-150% etc. – toonarmycaptain Oct 23 '23 at 20:17
I don't know what this did. Messing around with the settings, first got rid of audio completely, but then messing around with it a bit more brought the audio back and fixed it. – Ishan Jan 29 '24 at 06:48
I don´t really understand why, but my primary audio output device (i.e. USB audio) was set to -89dB in Alsamixer. I corrected it to 0dB and that solved my issue. – klaar Jan 31 '24 at 10:25

score 63 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 11 '19 at 19:09

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1. Open terminal Ctrl + Alt + T

2. Install PavuControl sudo apt install pavucontrol

3. Open PulseAudio Volume Control pavucontrol

4. Output devices Set to 100% (0dB) the port are you using (Speakers / Headphones etc)

answered Jan 11 '19 at 19:09

Sorin Veștemean

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After I adjusted levels in alsamixer the volume was still seemingly lower than on Windows or when pairing my headphones with a phone. This is what actually helped me (in case anyone encounter the same issue) – Lis Feb 18 '22 at 09:22
Same here. With alsamixer nothing changed. But when adjusting from pavucontrol it worked. Thanks. – Anton Perera Apr 01 '22 at 04:54

Slava Medvediev · Answer 3 · 2022-03-18T19:43:12.727

18

You should enable "Louder than 100%" in sound settings.
This works at least in Ubuntu 17.10

Update:
Pop!_OS 21.01:

edited Mar 18 '22 at 19:43

answered Jul 16 '18 at 17:21

Slava Medvediev

281

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This is also there is 16.04 in sound settings – thepurpleowl Apr 20 '20 at 16:53
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that was the solution for me – pcko1 Dec 28 '20 at 21:32
This feature is indeed available, but don't be surprised if you find the sound quality unacceptable: https://askubuntu.com/a/1316929/1157519 (Bonus: for me the solution was finding and fixing the dialled-down bars in alsamixer.) – Levente Mar 15 '21 at 15:54
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This answer actually solved my problem. – glitchwizard Nov 22 '22 at 20:35

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 14 '17 at 16:22

6

This works 100%...

right click on volume icon located at top right corner of screen (ubuntu 16 )
Select sound settings
Go to application section and raise volume up :D enjoy your high sound..

answered Nov 14 '17 at 16:22

Bimal Grg

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Definitely not a silver bullet and silly to suggest it might be so. Having said that, this worked for me so thumbs up. – ornous Jan 19 '18 at 21:51
That particular context menu item doesn't seem to exist on Ubuntu 18. – isherwood Sep 19 '18 at 19:29
By alsamix (or an alternative) you can raise eventually the limit beyond the settings you mention. The reason to do so is that afterwards you can adjust speakers easier to the volume range of different sources which might be too silent otherwise even if you adjust maximum. – David Aug 01 '22 at 21:16

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 03 '19 at 21:12

3

If you were using GNOME 3, definitely you don't need pavucontrol or alsamixer. Instead just use gnome-tweaks to enable over-amplification (in the General tab, or in the Audio tab if any)

answered Nov 03 '19 at 21:12

luca.vercelli

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score 3 · Answer 6 · edited Aug 05 '20 at 03:49

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This was fixed for me by installing pavucontrol per Sorin Veștemean's answer, going to the Configuration tab and altering my USB headset output format to analog stereo output + mono input, going back to the Output Devices tab and bumping THAT output's volume up to 100% (it was at something like 50%).

Opinion: The fact that Ubuntu fails to retain my audio output settings through reboots and seemingly randomizes the configuration until I go in and manually fix it half the time with a custom-installed tool is a ridiculous usability issue.

edited Aug 05 '20 at 03:49

Zanna

70,465

answered Aug 04 '20 at 16:49

pmarreck

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This is the only solution that works for me! Using analog instead of digital output boosts the volume considerably to the same level experienced on Windows. Over-amplification is no longer required. – Greg Brown Sep 14 '23 at 07:28

score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 15 '21 at 13:11

This has been an intermittent problem for me. Sound works perfectly fine in windows, but is often low or distored in Ubuntu. Most of the suggested fixes have not worked for me.

I have however found a workaround solution, which is to pair Ubuntu to Alexa via bluetooth "Alexa, Pair" and use her as my in-room speaker. I get full volume without any distortion.

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Apr 23 '18 at 07:03

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If you are using LUBUNTU you might need to try pavucontrol in terminal. In my custom setup ubuntu core + openbox + lxdp I have pavucontrol managing sounds.

answered Apr 23 '18 at 07:03

Saurin Dashadia

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score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Jun 01 '20 at 12:36

I faced volume low issue, I fixed by setting Zoom Application Volume to max.
Settings -> Sound -> Applications see here

Note : I see Zoom volume control available under Applications tab only when Zoom is running.

Ubuntu version I am running : 18.04.4 LTS
My Zoom version : 5.0.413237.0524

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Jul 14 '21 at 13:53

1

This is what worked for me on Ubuntu 18.04:

From Terminal, I open pavucontrol (no need to install it, it is there by default), and below are the settings I did and which raised the volume on the speakers automatically:

answered Jul 14 '21 at 13:53

Billal Begueradj

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score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Nov 05 '21 at 11:22

When the microphone level on the system settings is > 100% (and it sometimes seems to adjust itself to > 100%) in my setting the microphone becomes almost completely silenced. The solution is to make sure that the microphone level stays < 100%.

To test microphone settings the best is to record oneself and listen to the recording.

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Dec 05 '22 at 04:18

0

It sounded very very very low to me and my solution with a Realtek ALC1220 card was to increase the volume of "Headphone" in alsamixer

answered Dec 05 '22 at 04:18

moz667

41

Volume low even at maximum

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