On 10/10/13 20:50, Marc Chamberlin wrote:
Dylan - Thanks for the definitions, I do understand 3.1 and 5.1 sound systems. BUT if I am setting up my laptop for stereo then my argument that having both controls for Master and for Front makes no sense and just causes confusion, especially when one is trying to figure out why they are not getting any sound or sound is not at an expected level. Go back to the days of amplifiers that only supported stereo output, or even look at amplifiers that support surround sound setups. Stereo means two speakers and to multiplex sound into multiple speakers if there are more than two. These amplifiers ONLY have one volume control and perhaps a balance control. Having dual volume controls just doesn't make sense!
Actuall, having dual volume controls is quite common on high spec audio equipment, even separate physical amps per speaker (and I'm not talking only about concert sound.) Volume per chanel and Balance are different things, and operate differently at the electronic level.
Software and GUI's can easily adapt to the sound model being chosen and do NOT have to try and super-impose one sound system model onto another. I dunno why anyone would ever want two independent volume controls for a stereo setup especially when both controls are setting volume levels for both speakers and not trying to balance them.
Alsamixer (so far as I can tell) simply presents every I/O control available from the sound hardware - it doesn't know what your physical speaker set up is, but IIRC it allows you to hide/disable any controls you're not interested in. If it came as default with only "Master" enabled, there would be the opposite confusion for some users needing more control(s).
And no, in this case Front and Master are not effectively the same, they are independent controls over the volume level, almost as if they are in series.
They probably are in series - set Front to 100% and only use the Master
And you cannot even argue that this is a model for an equalizer, it is not, that requires independent volume level (and frequency filters) for each speaker.!
Why would I? That's a completely different function which happens in (a) different part(s) of the audio pathway and is only tangentially related to "Volume". Dylan -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org