Bug 43062

Summary: Sound imbalance
Product: Drivers Reporter: Bob Merhebi (bob.merhebi+kernel.bugzilla)
Component: Sound(ALSA)Assignee: Jaroslav Kysela (perex)
Status: NEEDINFO ---    
Severity: normal CC: bob.merhebi+kernel.bugzilla, tiwai
Priority: P1    
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
URL: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/969700
Kernel Version: 3.3.0-030300-generic Subsystem:
Regression: No Bisected commit-id:
Attachments: some helpful info

Description Bob Merhebi 2012-04-06 23:27:35 UTC 
Created attachment 72839 [details]
some helpful info

*Overview: The sound from the builtin speakers are imbalanced to the right.

P.S.: This occurs in Ubuntu 10.04LTS too; not sure about later versions!

*Device: Dell Studio XPS 1640 laptop (lshw:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/bobmerhebi/Dell%20Studio%20XPS%201640)

*Steps to reproduce: Use the Ubuntu's Sound Setting's "Test Sound", click on the "Front Left" test. 

*Actual Results: Sound is leaking from left speaker to right speaker (to a less extent).

*Expected Results: Sound should be equally balanced.

*Build Date & Platform:Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Beta amd64
(20120328)

$lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu precise (development branch)
Release: 12.04
Comment 1 Takashi Iwai 2012-04-07 10:42:17 UTC 
Is the built-in speaker on your machine really stereo?  Many laptops have only one speaker although it's connected as stereo in the codec level.  In such a case, which channel is taken is pretty random, purely depending on the hardware design.
Comment 2 Bob Merhebi 2012-04-07 11:31:28 UTC 
(In reply to comment #1)
> Is the built-in speaker on your machine really stereo?  Many laptops have
> only
> one speaker although it's connected as stereo in the codec level.  In such a
> case, which channel is taken is pretty random, purely depending on the
> hardware
> design.

Note sure! Here's the lshw multimedia output:

*multimedia
                description: Audio device
                product: RV710/730
                vendor: ATI Technologies Inc
                physical id: 0.1
                bus info: pci@0000:01:00.1
                version: 00
                width: 32 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: pm pciexpress msi bus_master cap_list
                configuration: driver=HDA Intel latency=0
                resources: irq:17 memory:cfeec000-cfeeffff

*multimedia
             description: Audio device
             product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller
             vendor: Intel Corporation
             physical id: 1b
             bus info: pci@0000:00:1b.0
             version: 03
             width: 64 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
             configuration: driver=HDA Intel latency=0
             resources: irq:22 memory:fc400000-fc403fff

Can you figure it from this info? Need any other details?
Comment 3 Takashi Iwai 2013-11-19 09:05:04 UTC 
Impossible to guess from the lspci output.  You must consult to the hardware vendor.