achieving true high definition audio with Intel HD?
 

It's been a while since I first got a computer (intel 915 chipset) that was built with the new Intel HD audio standard... back then, drivers were still called "azalia" and were difficult to get working. When they did work, sound quality was poor.

Now I've got a laptop running Kubuntu 6.10 updated to the latest on a 945 board using Intel HD audio, and I still get pretty bad sound: most sound is barely audible unless PCM and Master is turned all the way up, and high PCM causes very crackled audio. This laptop (HP Pavilion dv8000) I believe has the ability to do 7.1 surround with its built-in speakers, and I will admit that it sounds pretty sweet under Windows, so I know this machine has potential.

I might just be stuck using old configurations, so I am wondering if any of you all have been able to deliver good, strong, quality sound out of your Intel HD audio, without using external speakers to physically increase volume. If so, what configuration settings and modules do you use? Any advice will be greatly appreciated... rich sound will be a wonderful addition to this beauty called Beryl :-D .

My system's relevant info:

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)

Modules
snd_hda_intel 20116 1
snd_hda_codec 164608 1 snd_hda_intel
snd_pcm_oss 47360 0
snd_mixer_oss 19584 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 84612 3 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer 25348 1 snd_pcm
snd 58372 8 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 11232 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 11400 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

sandeep@cheers:~$ cat /proc/asound/version
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.12rc1 (Thu Jun 22 13:55:50 2006 UTC).