Audio volume is far too low

[TheMalone]

Describe the bug

When I added a pair of stereo speakers, connected through USB, the volume is far too low. When I have the audio at 150%, it's a similar volume to around 30% in Windows. I can barely hear it, whereas Windows is giving me deep home theater sounds. This isn't taking advantage of the speakers and something is definitely wrong.

What did you expect to happen?

I expected Bazzite to be able to take advantage of the speakers so I can hear the game. Volume works fine when I connect some Bose Quiet Comfort earphones, but the Logitech PebbleX Plus speakers are unusable because the volume is too low. Should be similar to Windows and Mac.

Output of rpm-ostree status

State: idle
Deployments:
● ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-nvidia-open:stable
                   Digest: sha256:0c337bd161d7d52137c16dc70a9e6608ca950ec7aad5c60ee8c9f9e1dd972317
                  Version: 41.20250227.1 (2025-02-27T21:07:50Z)

  ostree-image-signed:docker://ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-nvidia-open:stable
                   Digest: sha256:0c337bd161d7d52137c16dc70a9e6608ca950ec7aad5c60ee8c9f9e1dd972317
                  Version: 41.20250227.1 (2025-02-27T21:07:50Z)

Hardware

CPU: Intel Core Ultra 5 225
GPU: ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4060 8GB Solo
Motherboard: MSI MPG Z890L Edge Ti Wifi
Storage: Teamgroup 4TB NVMe PCIe 4.0
CPU cooler: Noctua NH-L9i-17xx

Extra information or context

No response

[BootInNJ]

@ TheMalone have you tried using easy effects for your adjustments I use a soundbar and couldnt make it sound better till i started using it now i have no problems also if you are really savy you could try Carla its an analog representation of digital audio routing and may help you to find the right output if its not right with bluetooth devices i use 2 sets of earbuds and my system uses each as a headset and as a hands free device one sounds terrible the other perfect. that may be the issue but I have solved it by changing the device in the, full, sound settings menu (not the quick menu at top right) as well as in the pipewire menu in easy effects . I hope this helps

[TheMalone]

@ TheMalone have you tried using easy effects for your adjustments I use a soundbar and couldnt make it sound better till i started using it now i have no problems also if you are really savy you could try Carla its an analog representation of digital audio routing and may help you to find the right output if its not right with bluetooth devices i use 2 sets of earbuds and my system uses each as a headset and as a hands free device one sounds terrible the other perfect. that may be the issue but I have solved it by changing the device in the, full, sound settings menu (not the quick menu at top right) as well as in the pipewire menu in easy effects . I hope this helps

I've not tried Easy Effects, but I will now. Carla sounds complicated so I'll give Easy Effects a try first. Bluetooth is absolutely fine so far, but I use a USB-C connection for sound output.

What do you mean the full sound settings menu? I'm only aware on a single place to manage all the sound settings inside the settings menu. Top right of my home screen doesn't have anything. Bottom right has some controls; is that what you mean? As far as I'm aware, inside settings is the only place you can amplify the sound in order for me to set it at 150%, but that still,doesn't make them usable. As soon as I boot into Windows I have to turn it down and have plenty of sound and subwoofer rumble to spare. Such a shame because everything else works so beautifully, but audio is important.

[BootInNJ]

easy effects definately has you covered with the Flatpak yeah i meant that menu my bar is at the top but thats the other one you can switch from but hopefully easy effects is the thing you need

[JumperLabs]

I don't know much about your earphones or speakers, but you might have the same problem I did. I found an issue listed for the ROG Ally in effect on a Legion Go as well:
"Audio is soft on ASUS ROG Ally hardware¶

Issue: If you turn up the volume to the maximum, the sound is still quiet.

Resolution: There are two audio devices that appear on the Rog Ally Family 17h/19h/1ah HD Audio Controller and ROG Ally that affect each other's audio volume."
from https://docs.bazzite.gg/General/issues_and_resolutions/

Going into Desktop mode and finding the extra volume bar and maxing it seemed to fix the low volume problem.

[TheMalone]

I don't know much about your earphones or speakers, but you might have the same problem I did. I found an issue listed for the ROG Ally in effect on a Legion Go as well: "Audio is soft on ASUS ROG Ally hardware¶

Issue: If you turn up the volume to the maximum, the sound is still quiet.

Resolution: There are two audio devices that appear on the Rog Ally Family 17h/19h/1ah HD Audio Controller and ROG Ally that affect each other's audio volume." from https://docs.bazzite.gg/General/issues_and_resolutions/

Going into Desktop mode and finding the extra volume bar and maxing it seemed to fix the low volume problem.

Thanks for that. That seems more specific to the ROG Ally; or am I missing the point maybe?. I'm using Logitech PebbleX Plus speakers. The volume on the Bose Quiet Comfort headphones when connected are fine. I can see the Logitech speakers and have amplified it to 150%, but it's still way too quiet.

[JumperLabs]

I don't know much about your earphones or speakers, but you might have the same problem I did. I found an issue listed for the ROG Ally in effect on a Legion Go as well: "Audio is soft on ASUS ROG Ally hardware¶
Issue: If you turn up the volume to the maximum, the sound is still quiet.
Resolution: There are two audio devices that appear on the Rog Ally Family 17h/19h/1ah HD Audio Controller and ROG Ally that affect each other's audio volume." from https://docs.bazzite.gg/General/issues_and_resolutions/
Going into Desktop mode and finding the extra volume bar and maxing it seemed to fix the low volume problem.

Thanks for that. That seems more specific to the ROG Ally; or am I missing the point maybe?. I'm using Logitech PebbleX Plus speakers. The volume on the Bose Quiet Comfort headphones when connected are fine. I can see the Logitech speakers and have amplified it to 150%, but it's still way too quiet.

You're welcome. The point I'm making, (or trying to make), is that I found this also applied to the Legion Go despite that page only listing it for the Ally. So maybe it applies more broadly than even that? The headphones working fine makes me think it's probably not your issue, but maybe the speakers just have a different hidden volume meter... if so, it should be an easy fix.

To clarify a little more, when I pull up the the Go in desktop mode and click on the sound button on the taskbar, it only shows me 1 volume bar called "Speakers". But when I click on the button to bring up "Sound - System Settings" it shows two Playback Devices. "Legion GO" and "Family 17h/19h/1ah HD Audio Controller Analog Stereo". And despite it looking like they are separate devices that I choose between, for some reason both their volume bars effect the volume I get (I think one of them is a virtual device... not sure though). So there were a few things that made this hard to figure out, and I got lucky (especially given that the terrible speaker placement on the Go convinced me that this was normal).

Whatever is going on with your setup, I wish you luck figuring it out.