My built-in audio speaker produces low and kinda distorted sound

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1

My audio speaker doesn’t work as well as it should be, as I have tested it in my dual boot windows 11 and It performed well.

The sound works well with my headset and external speakers, but for built-in it’s bad.

My inxi -Fzxx :

System:
  Kernel: 6.6.6-200.fc39.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
    v: 2.40-13.fc39 Desktop: GNOME v: 45.2 tk: GTK v: 3.24.38 wm: gnome-shell
    dm: GDM Distro: Fedora release 39 (Thirty Nine)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: ROG Zephyrus G16 GU603VV_GU603VV
    v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: GU603VV v: 1.0 serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: GU603VV.314 date: 09/07/2023
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 89.1 Wh (100.0%) condition: 89.1/90.0 Wh (99.0%)
    volts: 17.2 min: 15.9 model: AS3GWYF3KC GA50358 serial: <filter>
    status: full
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech G304 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming
    Mouse serial: <filter> charge: 100% (should be ignored)
    status: discharging
CPU:
  Info: 10-core (6-mt/4-st) model: 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13620H bits: 64
    type: MST AMCP arch: Raptor Lake rev: 2 cache: L1: 864 KiB L2: 9.5 MiB
    L3: 24 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1879 high: 3800 min/max: 400/4700:4900:3600 cores:
    1: 2235 2: 400 3: 3800 4: 400 5: 400 6: 400 7: 2859 8: 3700 9: 2826 10: 3094
    11: 3585 12: 400 13: 2593 14: 2585 15: 400 16: 400 bogomips: 93388
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake-P [UHD Graphics] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: i915
    v: kernel arch: Gen-13 ports: active: none empty: DP-1,DP-2
    bus-ID: 0000:00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:a7a8
  Device-2: NVIDIA AD107M [GeForce RTX 4060 Max-Q / Mobile] vendor: ASUSTeK
    driver: nvidia v: 545.29.06 arch: Lovelace ports: active: none
    off: HDMI-A-1,eDP-1 empty: DP-3 bus-ID: 0000:01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:28e0
  Device-3: IMC Networks [] driver: uvcvideo type: USB rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 3-7:5 chip-ID: 13d3:56eb
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.20.14 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.2
    compositor: gnome-shell driver: gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch display-ID: 0
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 model: Acer KG271 P res: 1920x1080 dpi: 82
    diag: 686mm (27")
  Monitor-2: eDP-1 model: TL160ADMP03-0 res: 2560x1600 dpi: 188
    diag: 407mm (16")
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 vendor: nvidia v: 545.29.06 glx-v: 1.4
    direct-render: yes renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU/PCIe/SSE2
    display-ID: :0.0
  API: EGL Message: EGL data requires eglinfo. Check --recommends.
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake-P/U/H cAVS vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 0000:00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:51ca
  Device-2: NVIDIA vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 0000:01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:22be
  Device-3: JMTek LLC. [] driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid type: USB
    rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 3-6:4 chip-ID: 0c76:161f
  API: ALSA v: k6.6.6-200.fc39.x86_64 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi v: kernel
    bus-ID: 0000:00:14.3 chip-ID: 8086:51f1
  IF: wlo1 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: ASUSTeK driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 3000 bus-ID: 0000:39:00.0
    chip-ID: 10ec:8168
  IF: enp57s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX211 Bluetooth driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.0
    speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 3-10:6 chip-ID: 8087:0033
  Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 5.3
    lmp-v: 12
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Intel Volume Management Device NVMe RAID Controller Intel
    driver: vmd v: 0.6 bus-ID: 0000:00:0e.0 chip-ID: 8086:a77f
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 953.87 GiB used: 19.29 GiB (2.0%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Western Digital model: WD PC SN560
    SDDPNQE-1T00-1002 size: 953.87 GiB speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4
    serial: <filter> temp: 32.9 C
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 123 GiB used: 18.97 GiB (15.4%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p9
  ID-2: /boot size: 973.4 MiB used: 250.7 MiB (25.8%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p8
  ID-3: /boot/efi size: 256 MiB used: 81.5 MiB (31.8%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
  ID-4: /home size: 123 GiB used: 18.97 GiB (15.4%) fs: btrfs
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p9
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 100
    dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 40.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (rpm): cpu: 2200
Info:
  Processes: 450 Uptime: 11m Memory: total: 16 GiB note: est.
  available: 15.24 GiB used: 5.26 GiB (34.5%) Init: systemd v: 254
  target: graphical (5) default: graphical Compilers: gcc: 13.2.1 Packages:
  pm: rpm pkgs: N/A note: see --rpm Shell: Bash v: 5.2.21
  running-in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.3.31
2

Just a thought. Have you tried running a previous kernel version? I had some issues with version 6.6.6 that caused my audio to be unstable. Going to 6.5.6 resolved those issues.

Just a thought.

3

I tried that solution you mentioned, but unfortunately it didn’t solve the issue.

4

I can confirm this issue. I have the same audio device in my Dell XPS 15.

Here is my output from inxi -AMSzxx:

System:
  Kernel: 6.7.10-200.fc39.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc
    v: 2.40-14.fc39
  Desktop: GNOME v: 45.5 tk: GTK v: 3.24.41 wm: gnome-shell dm: GDM
    Distro: Fedora Linux 39 (Workstation Edition)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Dell product: XPS 15 9530 v: N/A
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Dell model: 09J5GK v: A00 serial: <superuser required> part-nu: 0BEB
    UEFI: Dell v: 1.10.0 date: 12/18/2023
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake-P/U/H cAVS vendor: Dell
    driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:51ca
  API: ALSA v: k6.7.10-200.fc39.x86_64 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.0.4 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin

This discussion for Arch Linux seems also related: Internal audio is weak and of very poor quality (crackling sound) / Laptop Issues / Arch Linux Forums

Please let me know, if and how I can provide further information.

5

Problems with audio are all too common with new kernel versions. Is this the first time the system has been used with linux? If not, was audio working with previous installs?

I find it useful to have external USB audio devices to use while waiting for a fix, which usually arrives with a firmware or package update. You should make sure your system is fully updated – both Fedora packages Dell firmware. For the latter, you can run sudo fwupdtool get-updates in a terminal to see what is available.

If updates don’t fix the issue you should start a new thread with a title that mentions “Intel Raptor Lake-P/U/H cAVS audio problem” as posts to old threads that lack followup tend to be ignored.

6

Thanks for your reply! I have external audio devices, which is why it did not bother me too much. The upgrade to the 6.8.4 Kernel fixed it for me.

7

Good to see that the fix has arrived in 6.8.4. You should mark that as the solution for the benefit of others with the issue.