Comment # 3 on bug 1172412 from Tyson Moore

Created attachment 838441 [details]
loudness comparison spreadsheet: onboard vs QuadCast

(In reply to Takashi Iwai from comment #2)
> Could you check whether you get any signal if you set the raw value greater
> than 0?  e.g.
> 
>   amixer -c0 cset name='Speaker Playback Volume' 0,0
> 
> should set the values to 0 and it's likely the silence.

Yes, silence.

> Then
> 
>   amixer -c0 cset name='Speaker Playback Volume' 1,1
> 
> and check whether you get some output at all.  Then increase the value and
> confirm that you have higher corresponding volume.

Yes, higher volume up to 31,31. So that part is good.

> Then the next step is identify the real loudness (in dB level) to each raw
> value.  At best, compare the output level with other device.  You might be
> able to compare with the output from the onboard audio, too.

I don't have another USB audio device, but used the onboard audio to compare. I
connected my AKG K550 headphones to both onboard and QuadCast audio sources and
enumerated all the available volume levels with white noise. I used a Mastech
MS8209 multimeter to measure dB level of each.

I hope this is useful. If I should measure in some other way, I can try that
too. I think values below setting 34 onboard are not good because the room
noise is louder than the headphone noise. (I used control 'Master Playback
Volume' for onboard.)

This aligns with what I feel: the QuadCast is very loud even at low volume
(1,1). It is the same in Windows.

Please let me know what other information you need.