I have Dell XPS 15 7590 with dual boot Windows 10 + Ubuntu 18.04.
When on Ubuntu, laptop's speakers sound really terrible. The max volume is very low and bass is basically non existing. On Windows, it is 100x better. The difference is also noticeable with external headphones or speakers. Especially bass is really missing.
Microphone has similar problem. When I call on Ubuntu, people are complaining that the sound quality is terrible and they can barely hear me. Again, on Windows I do not have problem like that.
I was trying to fix it with Pulse Effect but that improved sound only slightly. It more feels like there is a problem with sound drivers. With the microphone, I have not tried anything yet.
Is there some way how to detect what is the problem and how could it be fixed?
I partially "fixed" it with PulseEffects and it does sound much better.
This is my current setup:
I did not use Equalizer at the end at all. I altered:
Limiter,FilterBass Enhancer,Multiband CompressorandStereo Tools. It is based on help's guide (Enhancing your internal notebook speakers without using an equalizer).I had the same issue with my laptop after installing Ubuntu on it. On one hand, the speakers of the XPS are not that great, so compared to something like an Apple laptop, it's going to lack much more bass.
For Windows there is a utility that processes the sound before going to the speakers so that it sounds better. But there is no such an official application for Linux users. So what I did was to install the closest option, which is PulseEffects. You can find some help on how to install it here: Installing PulseEffects. I used the equalizer to adjust the sound with less mid-frequencies, to lessen the radio-like sound of the speakers, and bumped up the low frequencies a bit.