However, there’s two big downsides. First, the subwoofer used a proprietary weird connector which does not seem to exist anymore. So I’m using it as 4.0 rather than 4.1 — and powering the subwoofer for no reason, really.
Second, it’s developed a hum. Power line filters (and the external USB audio device) don’t seem to help. The computer itself is pretty loud with fans, so I don’t need absolute silence, but… it’s definitely louder than I’d like.
So, I’m shopping for a replacement. I see this from Logitech, but… eh, those speakers look big and clunky next to the neat 3.25" cubes of my current system.
Are there other options in the $2-300 price range I should be looking at? Are there ones which will connect to my computer via USB and remove the need for the separate audio adapter (and still Just Work with Fedora Workstation)?
Alternately… can I keep the satellite speakers and just replace the subwoofer (and maybe add a center channel)? That replacement would also need to drive the speakers…
and again it’d be awesome if that connected by USB and served as the sound device too. Does such a thing exist?
[ 7836.998630] usb 1-1.3: new full-speed USB device number 8 using ehci-pci
[ 7837.091630] usb 1-1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=0d8c, idProduct=0102, bcdDevice= 0.10
[ 7837.091641] usb 1-1.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[ 7837.091646] usb 1-1.3: Product: USB Sound Device
[ 7837.101746] usb 1-1.3: current rate 30464 is different from the runtime rate 96000
[ 7837.104120] usb 1-1.3: Warning! Unlikely big volume range (=8065), cval->res is probably wrong.
[ 7837.104125] usb 1-1.3: [9] FU [Mic Playback Volume] ch = 2, val = -6144/1921/1
[ 7837.106246] usb 1-1.3: Warning! Unlikely big volume range (=8065), cval->res is probably wrong.
[ 7837.106251] usb 1-1.3: [11] FU [Line Playback Volume] ch = 2, val = -6144/1921/1
[ 7837.112995] usb 1-1.3: Warning! Unlikely big volume range (=6928), cval->res is probably wrong.
[ 7837.113002] usb 1-1.3: [8] FU [Mic Capture Volume] ch = 2, val = -4096/2832/1
[ 7837.113997] usb 1-1.3: Warning! Unlikely big volume range (=6928), cval->res is probably wrong.
[ 7837.114002] usb 1-1.3: [15] FU [Line Capture Volume] ch = 2, val = -4096/2832/1
[ 7837.115122] usb 1-1.3: Warning! Unlikely big volume range (=6928), cval->res is probably wrong.
[ 7837.115126] usb 1-1.3: [2] FU [PCM Capture Volume] ch = 2, val = -4096/2832/1
[ 7837.117233] input: USB Sound Device as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:12.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3:1.3/0003:0D8C:0102.0006/input/input31
[ 7837.168995] hid-generic 0003:0D8C:0102.0006: input,hidraw3: USB HID v1.00 Device [USB Sound Device ] on usb-0000:00:12.0-1.3/input3
It doesn’t come with speakers though. You’d have to buy some separately.
P.S. You’d have to buy powered speakers with that decoder. It doesn’t put out an amplified signal. Another option might be to buy an amplifier with HDMI pass-through if your PC and monitor use HDMI. The latter is what I do and it looks like you can get such an amplifier for around $90.
Edit to add – I just noticed that 5.1 sound doesn’t seem to be listed as an option on my HDMI output since the switch to pipewire. The driver still shows support for 5.1 audio (aplay -L), however, so it might just be that I need to figure out how to configure pipewire properly.
