Sound problems after upgading to 13.04

Question

After my recent upgrade to 13.04 I am experiencing background crackling noises, particularly noticeable when using my preferred listening over headphones (Grado SR80's). The noise is only evident when audio is playing from any source (Banshee, Clementine, DVD drive, Chromium eg You Tube). As soon as music stops so does the crackle. The noise may best be likened to the crackle I used to get as background when listening to vinyl records over headphone. Otherwise the quality of audio is unimpaired.

I usually use the headphones via a Asus Xonar U3 usb soundcard/headphone amp but the crackle is also evident when using my laptop's inbuilt headphone jack outlet.

The problem was certainly not evident before the upgrade i.e. when using 12.04 or 12.10.

My laptop is dual boot and the problem is not apparent under Windows 7 (although I much prefer the Linux environment, current sound issues aside). This would appear to point to a Ubuntu sound issue.

Any suggestions how this may be resolved?

Solution

In a terminal, reinstall alsa-base and pulseaudio, following next steps:

• Remove alsa-base and pulseaudio:

sudo apt-get remove --purge alsa-base pulseaudio

• Reinstall alsa-base and pulseaudio:

sudo apt-get install alsa-base pulseaudio

• For them to load:

sudo alsa force-reload

Comments

[WaltTT]

Tried this solution and no longer have clicks etc when using laptops inbuilt headphone jack. However clicks are still there when listening through Xonar U3 soundcard/amp. Any further suggestions would be appreciated to stop me being condemned to using Windows to

[Qasim]

Try this askubuntu.com/questions/182164/…

[WaltTT]

Tried this solution and no longer have clicks etc when using laptops inbuilt headphone jack. However clicks are still there when listening through Xonar U3 soundcard/amp. Any further suggestions would be appreciated to stop me being condemned to using Windows

[Eliah Kagan]

Please avoid posting the same answer in more than one place. When tempted to do so, this typically means: (1) the answer should be customized to account for what is different about the different questions, (2) one question should be flagged for closure as a duplicate of another question (you can flag posts with 15 reputation), (3) the answer should really be a comment, or (4) the answer should be posted in the most appropriate place, and one-line comments posted on the other questions summarizing and linking to it.

[jlucky]

I recently updated to Ubuntu 13.04. I am using an old Logitech webcam with built-in microphone and I also have a Plantronics DSP 500 USB headset. Only the video from the webcam worked. Neither microphone worked, and the audio wasn't outputting to the headset. Your solution worked perfectly. I purged alsa-base and pulseaudio, then reinstalled them, and then forced alsa to reload. I didn't have to logout or anything. Works perfectly. Thanks very much.

[don bright]

this doesnt work on my system *( HP pavilion dv6 laptop )