I used to use earphones until now and they are still working fine, but while using the headset the sound gets distorted.

I tried the headset on windows, and android devices and it worked fine.

These are the specs of the headset:
Fostex x Massdrop
Closed-back design
50 mm dynamic transducer
Magnesium alloy construction
Mahogany earcups, brilliant gloss finish
Leatherette earpads, matte black
Magnetic flux density: >1 tesla
Impedance: 25 ohms
Sensitivity: 94 dB/mW
Maximum input: 1,800 mW
Frequency response: 5–45,000 Hz
10 ft (3 m) thick, braided Y cable
1/4 in (6.3 mm) gold-coated stereo phone plug
Weight, without cable: 12.3 oz (350 g)
Weight, with cable: 17 oz (482 g)


There's a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter that I need to attach to the headset so that I can use it on my devices.

I am not knowledgeable about the audio domain, so I tried out some random solutions that I found in

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...roubleshooting
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...roubleshooting

without any luck. Any idea of how I should trouble shoot this properly?

is windows on the same machine as Arch?

2) if you try to play surround sound thru a decent output device that is 2 ch, that might explain the distortion

if you have not already done so

open pavucontrol (pulseaudio vol control) and for the config tab deselect surround sound and select analogue stereo duplex output

No

I didn't find the surround sound
http://storage2.static.itmages.com/i...69e06d7d69.png

As for the Profile, I tried out Analog Stereo Duplex and Analog Stereo Output (which are the only ones that work) without any luck.

Ok

well since I can see you know how to take screen shots can you take screenshot of your alsamixer settings please

quite likely alsamixer will just show pulseaudio so instead try

or higher -c<number> if you have onboard sound, hdmi, pci card.

I will show a 2 ch alsaamixer setting so you know what I am looking for

http://imgur.com/a/khETP

1) if your headset has a vol control it might be acceptable for it to go 100%

but it 100% of a control coming from either master or pcm

I see your freq range is good so suspect they are good quality headphones.....but the cheap ones can not handle max volume
---and so will distort.

I am not trying to say your headphones are bad, I am suggesting lets eliminate a too high volume level

Screenshot:
http://storage6.static.itmages.com/i...aab5a62c95.png

I tampered with these settings, but I didn't find any significant change.

Are the headphones damaged? They get dropped, left in cars on hot days, wet, and other things.

25 Ohms is the only spec that matters IMO. Long long ago, 4 Ohms was common for cheap headsets. You might need a headphone preamp to drive those. Or at least make the connection easier. Otherwise try "other" headphones / earbuds in the port. TBH, it's kind of hard to find headphones lower than 32 Ohms these days. Which is barely audible in noisy environments.

There are times when linux audio gets odd, normally a reboot or stop/starting pulseaudio can correct those issues. And sometimes you kind of have to treat pulseaudio like a senior with goldfish ram. Forget about that default device, now let me tell you about the default device. AKA disable and re-enable the device you want to use in pavucontrol.

Otherwise you might have sample rate issues and other possibilities (aka configuration). It would be hard to tell without a recording of the sounds that you are hearing.

Looking at your alsamixer levels, most cards (default / not botique) sound bad > 90%. Between 25% - 75% they sound pretty good. Basically the same reasons you get speakers that exceed the range of your hearing perceptions, which is lower distortion at the extremes. AKA headphone preamp, so you can get the best sound, and still have the option to adjust your levels while maintaining the best sound. Plus analog knobs, physical mute button, and other perks. Not that your issue is that, but one of those little things that makes things better.

and looking at screenshot...thanks for sharing can you arrow to the control called 'internal"

what is its full name?

does changing that make any diff.

while you are there I would press m key to mute all the spdifs

2) happy that others are suggesting you might need more power, I tend to buy the cheaper headsets

I got it 2 days ago. I did try it using other devices(android, windows) and it worked pretty fine.
I did also check out the wiki page for pulseaudio, so I was restarting it from time to time while updating the /etc/asound.conf

As for the internal. It's full name is Internal Mic Boost

hmm but your screenshot is playback or output not input

I would suggest seeing if you can mute that internal mic boost by arrowing to it and pressing m key
otherwise zero the vol
----maybe your headset has a mic like a gamer's headset and the mic is giving feedback?

The headset doesn't have a mic.

Hi yasserKadoura - a couple of questions and suggestions ....

Does the distortion occur when listening to music ?

If so, which player software are you using and are any filters activated (equalizer, extrastereo ..etc. ...). If so, deactivate them all and see if it makes a difference.

If not music, what application are you using when experiencing distortion ? Same suggestions re: filters - check for those.

In Pulseaudio, are you using the equalizer (qpaeq) ? If so, flatten everything to default and check the results.

Cheers.

Classical music is fine with static noise occurring occasionally. On the other hand, there's a noticeable distortion while hearing another type of music with the actor's voice being pretty low on top of that (The voice of actors in the series that I watch is pretty dim).
I can notice the distortion while using everything that I use for audio that is vlc, rhythmbox and youtube videos on firefox browser.

I installed the equalizer thinking that I have to use it to fix this problem, but I removed it not long after noticing that it didn't make much change.

in case this is a tower, can you try again using the back green hole. I am thinking if it resolves on the back hole, the tower will need to be opened and you push down the front headers on your motherboard. Depending on your front panel, the panel can come off and it may be possible to remove the whole unit if reseating fails.

It doesn't matter if the mic exists, the input hardware exists and it can have noise that passes through to the speakers, even with nothing physically plugged into the port. Especially on lower end gear. Mic boost should be OFF unless you're recording, and only on if you "need" to. It's more of a make the most of a BAD situation option.

Starting and stopping pulseaudio can be quirky. A clean cold boot might help improve things, once you settle on a setup. Otherwise you can add "autospawn = no" to /etc/pulse/client.conf and $(pulseaudio --kill) to stop using pulseaudio. Some software might want to restart it under certain configurations. Once it's stopped (verify with ps output), you can use alsa directly.

$ speaker-test -c 2 -l 1 -D hw:0

Adjust the 0 to 1, 2, or whatever applies to your desired output device. Which can change between boots. Using $(cat /proc/asound/cards) can help identify which index number applies to which card.