I have a notebook which had nahimic installed on windows and had alot better sound compared to linux. Yet i cannot complain about the sound but yet when i set the volume on 80% in linux i have the same sound on windows when running 30%. Today i messaged nahimic if they ever thought about creating an app. Last time i asked them they told me they wont support linux. This time i got a different message .
“ Hi Michel,
We are currently evaluating whether to support Linux and would like to ask a few questions.
Which Linux distributions are currently viable for running games? Ubuntu, SteamOS, or Bazzite OS?
Has there been any discussion among players regarding multi-channel audio support on these Linux operating systems? On Windows, this is achieved through Audio Processing Objects (APOs). However, we are uncertain whether Linux tools like EasyEffects allow game engines to recognize multi-channel audio content and perform software-based audio processing, as is possible under the Windows architecture using Microsoft’s APO framework.
Aside from handheld devices, is there a significant installation base of Linux among gamers using desktop or laptop PCs?”
Based on various sources, it appears that implementing multi-channel audio via PipeWire on Linux is indeed feasible. Thank you for your valuable insights; I will share this information with our internal team.
Regarding Linux support, we are currently evaluating it with our Tier 1 customers. Developing this feature will involve modifying the Nahimic core to implement native support on top of PipeWire, which will require a significant investment of research and development resources. I will certainly share any positive updates with you as soon as they become available.
Additionally, I can share some insider information: our development team is currently preparing to support RTX Spark.
Moving forward, Windows on ARM will be a major focus for us, followed by Linux development. I wanted to share this roadmap with you in advance.”
For all the other tiers I would recommend easy-effects and the optional lsp-plugins that may be capable to achieve the very same sound processing that they’re offering. For free.
Additionally, I can share some insider information: our development team is currently preparing to support RTX Spark.
NVIDIA DGX OS is essentially a customized Ubuntu 22.04. And easy effects as well as lsp-plugins would work there as well. In combination with pipewire that already would provide a solid foundation for a sophisticated sound environment.
I found a github page with a few profiles, the question i have is are these profiles universal since my notebook has only 2 small speakers. I am afraid those profiles might kill my speakers but maybe it’s me not trying to do stupid things / to break things.
No clue which profiles you’re referring to, but usually the wrong filter within the audio signal processing stage shouldn’t be able to overdrive the build-in speakers, e.g. pushing more current through the physical hardware than it is designed for.
In short - you may end up with an awful sound through the built-in speakers. Or simply no sound at all. But not a hardware defect.
From my understanding - even nahimic isn’t tailored towards using the built-in speakers of your laptop. The major use case they’re addressing seems to be tailored around headset use cases / in game voice chats, they don’t rely on the built-in speakers.
In short, your laptop may have two internal speakers that are only limited to single digit watt numbers at their maximum. Just some random headphones or the built-in speakers would be the limiting factor that couldn’t be fixed via sound processing.
You might be able to find equalization profiles for certain headphones that were acquired by measuring their frequency responses in a controlled setting. Usually, at least in terms of mass production, there shouldn’t be to much variance & deviations from that measured characteristics of high quality headphone. In the realm of budget hardware, not so much.
Essentially no one even bothers to measure the frequency responses of built-in speakers. Except Apple for their line of Macbooks where they do take their audio design seriously to achieve somewhat decent results. But even these do have their physical limitations that couldn’t be resolved by throwing software at the problem.
This part is wrong, if i did not install nahimic on my notebook i did not have any audio. And yes the realtek driver was installed. I did multiple tests and nahimic pushes audio through my speakers, they even have a app to test the notebook speakers.
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