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PulseAudio 15.0 rolls out with new features and hardware support

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PulseAudio, the sound server for Linux systems has a big new release up that pulls in support for a number of new features and there's some new hardware support too. While PipeWire is the next generation, which actually supports PulseAudio, there's still plenty of life left in PulseAudio directly especially since it's not yet the default everywhere.

On July 27, the team put out PulseAudio 15.0 and here's what it newly supports:

  • SteelSeries Arctis 9
  • HP Thunderbolt Dock 120W G2
  • Behringer U-Phoria UMC22
  • OnePlus Type-C Bullets
  • Sennheiser GSX 1000/1200 PRO

The Bluetooth support was also expanded with support for LDAC and AptX bluetooth codecs, plus "SBC XQ" (SBC with higher-quality parameters), support for HFP bluetooth profiles and support for Bluetooth A2DP AVRCP Absolute Volume.

In addition to that there's plenty of tweaks elsewhere including allowing ALSA path configuration files being placed in the user home directory, they rewrote the module-virtual-surround-sink, module-match can now be loaded multiple times, module-filter-apply can take filter parameters from device properties, max_latency_msec argument added to module-null-source and more.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Misc, Open Source
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deathxxx Jul 28, 2021
This finnaly fix the center/subwoofer, that is muted by default for Creative X-Fi with 20K1 chipset cards.
Beamboom Jul 28, 2021
I played around with Pulseaudio some years ago, and that system actually is really sweet, so much more than just a layer for local playback. I'd say it's primarily designed for networked playback, you can route any source to any playback destination (or destinationS in plural) and have the livingroom stereo play from your basement PC etc. Or all the speakers in the house playing the same, for that matter. :) It's a cool solution!

Probably very old news for some, but I was amazed at the features when I discovered them. :)


Last edited by Beamboom on 28 July 2021 at 10:47 am UTC
tamodolo Jul 28, 2021
Pulseaudio must die... to much latency.
const Jul 28, 2021
Quoting: BeamboomI played around with Pulseaudio some years ago, and that system actually is really sweet, so much more than just a layer for local playback. I'd say it's primarily designed for networked playback, you can route any source to any playback destination (or destinationS in plural) and have the livingroom stereo play from your basement PC etc. Or all the speakers in the house playing the same, for that matter. :) It's a cool solution!

Probably very old news for some, but I was amazed at the features when I discovered them. :)

Done all that and love it. By now, I personally prefer PipeWire, but PA certainly has stuff that is missing from PW for now. Interesting times.
garpu Jul 28, 2021
Quoting: tamodoloPulseaudio must die... to much latency.

Yeah. That's why I'm cautiously optimistic about pipewire. I'm using it on my laptop, and it's pretty sweet. I mean, it doesn't replace jack yet, I don't think, but it's nice.
wvstolzing Jul 28, 2021
Quoting: BeamboomI played around with Pulseaudio some years ago, and that system actually is really sweet, so much more than just a layer for local playback. I'd say it's primarily designed for networked playback, you can route any source to any playback destination (or destinationS in plural) and have the livingroom stereo play from your basement PC etc. Or all the speakers in the house playing the same, for that matter. :) It's a cool solution!

Probably very old news for some, but I was amazed at the features when I discovered them. :)

Absolutely; & with a bit of tinkering, even the latency is tolerable for things like video chat.
I love that you can just ssh tunnel the 'native' pulse socket from some other user's /run/user dir; & use it like a local sink.

I haven't tinkered much with Pipewire yet, but I hope it keeps this 'network transparency'.
const Jul 28, 2021
Quoting: wvstolzingI haven't tinkered much with Pipewire yet, but I hope it keeps this 'network transparency'.

Sadly not really, that's one of the things still missing, last time I checked. It was also much harder to create virtual devices. Hopefully, those things will come soon.
furaxhornyx Jul 29, 2021
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I hope these will help fixing the issues I am having with Jack over PulseAudio (this is the only way I found to have my Komplete Audio 6 to run semi-properly...)
Beamboom Jul 29, 2021
Quoting: wvstolzingAbsolutely; & with a bit of tinkering, even the latency is tolerable for things like video chat.

I have zero issues with latency on pulseaudio for all normal uses including gaming, conference calls and netflix. And obviously it's not notable on music playback.
The sole reason I use Jack for is music production, where one wants a very low latency. But in all other settings I don't even notice there *are* any latency at all. To be honest I think one has to be extremely fixated on detecting latency in order to be bothered with it.


Last edited by Beamboom on 29 July 2021 at 9:44 am UTC
wvstolzing Jul 29, 2021
Quoting: Beamboom
Quoting: wvstolzingAbsolutely; & with a bit of tinkering, even the latency is tolerable for things like video chat.

I have zero issues with latency on pulseaudio for all normal uses including gaming, conference calls and netflix. And obviously it's not notable on music playback.
The sole reason I use Jack for is music production, where one wants a very low latency. But in all other settings I don't even notice there *are* any latency at all. To be honest I think one has to be extremely fixated on detecting latency in order to be bothered with it.

Sure, I meant latency over the network, even through ssh.
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