Audio crackling on high volumes with ALSA on Intel ICH7

[andoru]

I'm having some issues with audio crackling/buzzing when turning up the volume, or on songs that have overclipped/overdriven parts, which doesn't happen on Windows (on it those sections are just "dampened"). Is there some certain settings in ALSA that are used to deal with this? Or is it something specific to the driver for the hardware? Speaking of which I'm using some integrated audio which goes by the name of Intel ICH7, and the chip itself is Analog Devices AD1981B.
I'm only using ALSA, without PulseAudio, and I've made sure the volumes both in the media players and under alsamixer aren't turned too high (PCM is at 47% and "Headphones" -- what is "Master" on Windows and on other soundcards under Linux -- is on 22%), so it isn't an issue with the software mixer being turned up too high. Also I'm using a pair of quality headphones (Sony MDRV55) so it's not an issue with the analog audio output either. I've also tried multiple other headphones and the result is the same.

[HadrianKross]

Spkr is usually the culprit.

[andoru]

Is that a certain package or some component, or... ?

[HadrianKross]

sorry.

Aumix --> Spkr

--

Can usually put it at 85/95 etc. (not maxed) and then not worry about the other levels. I.e. set them to your own pref.

[andoru]

Okay, I installed aumix, and when I try to run it I get this:

Code: Select all

aumix:  error opening mixer: No such file or directory

Is aumix a mixer much like alsamixer? In that case, how does this help?