Framework 16 Sound Quality

Framework Laptop 16
21

I had already tried reimporting to no avail. As well, the FW13 profile has the same issue. However, with that information in mind about it being a highpass filter, I corrected the filter in the GUI and then exported it. Examining the JSON, I see the following:

"filter#1": {
            "bypass": false,
            "frequency": 100.0,
            "inertia": 20.0,
            "input-gain": 0.0,
            "mode": "36dB/oct Highpass",
            "output-gain": 0.0,
            "resonance": -3.0
        },

You’ll note that this is different than how your json is formatted. It seems as though the modes my version of Easy Effects is expecting differs from yours, so it’s defaulting to the first option, which is a 12dB/oct lowpass filter.

I’m using Easy Effects 7.0.7 on Ubuntu 23.10 for reference. I expect that your json is probably fine, but there is some discrepancy here in software which is unexpected. I’m not sure there’s any way to universally fix this. But, for anyone else experiencing the same issue, it should be an easy fix at least.

22

Hmm, interesting. I am on easy effects 7.1.5 on nixos 24.05. It seems odd that they would change the preset naming or syntax, but maybe that’s what it is. I’m glad you figured out the issue though.

23

I don’t have any personal experience with it, but I know some other users have had success with fxsound on Windows. There’s also equalizer APO, and it’s GUI called peace which work great. It’s just an equalizer though, so it wouldn’t be able to do the exact same thing as this preset which is using a variety of sound processing techniques.

24

For any stumbling across it. Installing pipewire, easyeffects etc on your system (in my case Arch) may be not enough!
Some packages for enhancing the sound were optional and needed to be installed afterwards manually, for my case:

  • calf
  • lsp-plugins-lv2

After installing both of them and a quick reboot, my sound did change remarkable according to the loaded presets.
For other distros it may change.

1 Like
25

This is hands down the best profile I have found for the Framework 16. The bass is just simply incredible.

Thank you very much for your work!!! As a fellow musician and a beginning music producer, I appreciate it immensely!

1 Like
26

I wonder if the Framework team could possibly fit this into a firmware update. Not sure if the Audio IC has a tunable equalizer.
Same as the 13 tbh, the mod sounds way better but running EasyEffects kills battery (software accelerated equalizers are not fun). Would be great if we could get it in firmware!

1 Like
27

I’ve had real difficulties getting Pipewire to run without crackles and pops during a CPU intensive task (gaming), I’ve tried a number of the typical pipewire troubleshooting suggestions but haven’t quite gotten it working yet. Currently I’m running pulseaudio for the simplicity, but it’s definitely a downgrade without the easyfx profiles.

1 Like
28

I agree. Any way to tag someone from Framework to this thread? It would be awesome if this profile replaces what they’re currently used for the “Linux compatibility” audio profile in their firmware right now.

I did notice that in Windows, while still not sounding great, it doesn’t sound nearly as bad as Linux without the EasyEffects profile.

Still, with or without EasyEffect, Linux or Windows… the overall volume is not that loud. At max volume, that’s here I consider loud enough. Which means that at 50% it is way too low compared to 50% with other laptops.

Anything below 30% is not usable for me, even in a quiet room (especially over the fan).

If they can scale the volume up louder at 100%, so 50% is reasonable, then the lower percentages would actually be usable for quiet room usage (hoping down to 5-10% for whisper quiet level).

1 Like
29

I noticed when plugging my headphones into the USB-C audio expansion card, EE profiles also applies to that output, making the sound more bassy. Is there any way to only apply EE profile to just the Speakers output?

30

This is likely down to pipewire using too small of a quantum for wine apps. I had the same issue on nixos, And it was resolved completely by increasing the quantum for pulse audio applications up from the default.

You should be able to resolve the issue by adding custom pulse configuration. See this thread for an example configuration. This is on the nixos forum, but it should work for any system running pipe wire and the pipe wire pulse module.

On my system, a quantum of 256 at 48 khz completely solved the crackling issue in wine games.

3 Likes
31

This is the kind of stuff that needs to be added to the framework 16 setup guides

2 Likes
32

Thanks! I’ll try that out

2 Likes