Just installed a Creative X-Fi audio card, having LFE issues during music playback

[redskyharbor]

Sorry if this is a double post, but I couldn't find anything that specifically addresses this issue. I recently installed a SB1040 Creative X-Fi sound card on my system for 7.1 surround sound capability. I'm running Linux Mint 22.3 MATE. My amplifier doesn't support HDMI so that wasn't an option for surround sound capability. I'm using the 4 line outs on the back of the card going directly into into the amp via the 8 channel direct function.

During playback that has a dedicated subwoofer/LFE channel, everything plays fine. When I go to play some music though, I'm getting output through all the main speakers but I'm not getting anything going to my subwoofer channel. I tried multiple audio players, same issue across the board. When I test the LFE channel in the audio hardware section, it sounds like it has a high pass on it, like it's cutting off the lower frequencies. I'm not even sure where to start with this problem, it seems like a hardware upmixing issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[redskyharbor]

After some further testing, the only proper signal I'm getting through the subwoofer is when I'm playing DVD-audio through VLC. Other than that, nothing seems to want to come through the LFE channel.

 

[dos2unix]

Thread 'Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus'

Jan 11, 2024

I recently bought a Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus internal sound card. I had a dual boot system, because I didn't know how well this would work with Linux. It turns out that it works great. At least with 6.6.9 kernel. Possibly older kernels as well. This a great upgrade to my on-board sound chip. There is a noticeable difference in sound quality. This works with pipewire, alsamixer, audacity, and easyeffects.
I really have a difficult time finding out much about SoundBlaster cards with Linux. Sometimes you have to do the testing yourself.
But in case anyone is wondering. This card...

• dos2unix
• Replies: 43
• Forum: Linux Audio / Video

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Thread 'Troubleshooting audio problems in Linux.'

Feb 19, 2025

This is a big subject, and this post can't cover all possibilities. But it's a good place to start. I see a lot of "My audio isn't working in Linux" posts. Most of this will be done from the command line. This eliminates layer of complexity.

Here are some things to try, before you ask for more help. Running these commands will help other people help you.
First, what kind of sound hardware do you have?

sudo lspci | grep -i audio

This should return something similar to this. You may have more or less devices, but you need at least one.

2e:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA...

• dos2unix
• Replies: 4
• Forum: Linux Audio / Video

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These may help, depending on which distro you are using.

 

[redskyharbor]

This is what I got for output:

00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation 200 Series PCH HD Audio
01:00.0 PCI bridge: Creative Labs [SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio] CA0110-IBG PCIe to PCI Bridge
02:00.0 Audio device: Creative Labs CA0110 [Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio]

 

[KGIII]

Hmm...

Isn't that the expected behavior? If there is no LFE output to play, what then should it play on that channel? It works when there's LFE data, which is what I'd expect.

To put it another way, if there's no audio signal in the file for the left speaker, and you're playing it in stereo, one shouldn't expect to hear anything out of said left channel.

As there is no data, there is no output.