Select default audio device

Configuration
1

How do you set the default audio device in HA?
I have these devices.

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC236 Analog [ALC236 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 10: HDMI 4 [HDMI 4]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

The default seems to be card 0, subdevice 0, but I need it to be card 0, subdevice 1.

1 Like
2

okay after hours and finding dozens of un-answered responses I’ve figured this out for my scenario.
I’m leaving this reply here in hopes it helps. I’m using a Jabra 410 USB speaker connected directly to H.A. running on rpi. I was able to get audio output from the rhasspy dashboard (wordy intro for google to scrape)

1 - install the Terminal & ssh add-on then ssh in
2 - run ha audio info, you will get a list of devices (like OP has above)
3 - ha audio default output--name <device name from cmd above>
4 - ha audio default input --name <device name from cmd above>

in my case it was this

ha audio default output --name alsa_output.usb-0b0e_Jabra_SPEAK_410_USB_745C4B17807Cx010900-00.analog-stereo
ha audio default input --name alsa_input.usb-0b0e_Jabra_SPEAK_410_USB_745C4B17807Cx010900-00.mono-fallback

[core-ssh ~]$ ha info
arch: aarch64
channel: stable
docker: 20.10.19
homeassistant: 2022.12.7
machine: raspberrypi4-64
operating_system: Home Assistant OS 9.4
supervisor: 2022.11.2
5 Likes
3

Were you able to find a way to make non-built in connections work with this as well? I’ve got a wireless SONOS speaker that isn’t able to be set as default via the UI and doesn’t show in the above results either.

4

If it is wifi connected you mean with wireless, then it is not related to this topic.
This is about sound output directly from a sound card in the device you run HA on and Sonos have its own sound card built-in.

5

Sorry to bump this, but this thread shows up as the first result when I google for this problem and I have something to add:

The problem:

Sometimes, your device will show up, but it won’t have the correct profile selected:

[core-ssh ~]$ ha audio info
audio:
  application: []
  card:
  - driver: module-alsa-card.c
    index: 0
    name: alsa_card.usb-0d8c_USB_Sound_Device-00
    profiles:
    - active: false
      description: Analog Stereo Input
      name: input:analog-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input
      name: input:iec958-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Stereo Output
      name: output:analog-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Stereo Duplex
      name: output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo
    - active: true <------------------------------------------- !! THIS IS THE WRONG PROFILE !!
      description: Analog Stereo Output + Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input
      name: output:analog-stereo+input:iec958-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 2.1 Output
      name: output:analog-surround-21
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 2.1 Output + Analog Stereo Input
      name: output:analog-surround-21+input:analog-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 2.1 Output + Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input
      name: output:analog-surround-21+input:iec958-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 4.0 Output
      name: output:analog-surround-40
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 4.0 Output + Analog Stereo Input
      name: output:analog-surround-40+input:analog-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 4.0 Output + Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input
      name: output:analog-surround-40+input:iec958-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 4.1 Output
      name: output:analog-surround-41
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 4.1 Output + Analog Stereo Input
      name: output:analog-surround-41+input:analog-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 4.1 Output + Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input
      name: output:analog-surround-41+input:iec958-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 5.0 Output
      name: output:analog-surround-50
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 5.0 Output + Analog Stereo Input
      name: output:analog-surround-50+input:analog-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 5.0 Output + Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input
      name: output:analog-surround-50+input:iec958-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 5.1 Output
      name: output:analog-surround-51
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 5.1 Output + Analog Stereo Input
      name: output:analog-surround-51+input:analog-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 5.1 Output + Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input
      name: output:analog-surround-51+input:iec958-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 7.1 Output
      name: output:analog-surround-71
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 7.1 Output + Analog Stereo Input
      name: output:analog-surround-71+input:analog-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 7.1 Output + Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input
      name: output:analog-surround-71+input:iec958-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output
      name: output:iec958-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output + Analog Stereo Input
      name: output:iec958-stereo+input:analog-stereo
    - active: true
      description: Digital Stereo Duplex (IEC958)
      name: output:iec958-stereo+input:iec958-stereo
    - active: false <------------------------------------------- !! I WANT THAT ONE !!
      description: "Off"
      name: "off"
  - driver: module-alsa-card.c
    index: 1
    name: alsa_card.platform-bcm2835_audio
    profiles:
    - active: true
      description: Stereo Output
      name: output:stereo-fallback
    - active: false
      description: Mono Output
      name: output:mono-fallback
    - active: false
      description: Multichannel Output
      name: output:multichannel-output
    - active: false
      description: "Off"
      name: "off"
  input:
  - applications: []
    card: 0
    default: true
    description: USB Sound Device         Digital Stereo (IEC958)
    index: 1
    mute: false
    name: alsa_input.usb-0d8c_USB_Sound_Device-00.iec958-stereo
    volume: 1
  output:
  - applications: []
    card: 0
    default: false
    description: USB Sound Device         Digital Stereo (IEC958)
    index: 0
    mute: false
    name: alsa_output.usb-0d8c_USB_Sound_Device-00.iec958-stereo
    volume: 1
  - applications: []
    card: 1
    default: true
    description: Built-in Audio Stereo
    index: 1
    mute: false
    name: alsa_output.platform-bcm2835_audio.stereo-fallback
    volume: 0.857696533203125
host: 172.30.32.4
update_available: false
version: 2022.07.0
version_latest: 2022.07.0

One would assume that

ha audio default output -- DEVICE_NAME.CORRECT_PROFILE
ha audio default input -- DEVICE_NAME.CORRECT_PROFILE

would fix this, but this will only give you an error saying that the device path was not found (or something), since we can only select a device path with an enabled profile.

Specific example for my case: I bought a USB sound card (based on a Cmedia CM6206-LX chip if anyone’s wondering) with optical in- and outputs which I want to use. HA automatically selects the analog duplex profile, though (due to a quirk of the card, any analog output still gets routed through the optical output as well, so I only had to set the input, but that’s beside the point).

How to change the profile of a sound device

Thanks to this page from the Arch wiki, I was able to change the profile using pactl. The syntax is as follows:
pactl set-card-profile <symbolic-name> <profilename>

In my case, I had to use this command:
pactl set-card-profile alsa_card.usb-0d8c_USB_Sound_Device-00 output:iec958-stereo+input:iec958-stereo

After that, you need to run ha audio reload for the changes to apply.
Checking with ha audio info again yields the following:

audio:
  application: []
  card:
  - driver: module-alsa-card.c
    index: 0
    name: alsa_card.usb-0d8c_USB_Sound_Device-00
    profiles:
    - active: false
      description: Analog Stereo Input
      name: input:analog-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input
      name: input:iec958-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Stereo Output
      name: output:analog-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Stereo Duplex
      name: output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo
    - active: false <------------------------------------------- !! THIS IS NOW SET TO FALSE !!
      description: Analog Stereo Output + Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input
      name: output:analog-stereo+input:iec958-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 2.1 Output
      name: output:analog-surround-21
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 2.1 Output + Analog Stereo Input
      name: output:analog-surround-21+input:analog-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 2.1 Output + Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input
      name: output:analog-surround-21+input:iec958-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 4.0 Output
      name: output:analog-surround-40
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 4.0 Output + Analog Stereo Input
      name: output:analog-surround-40+input:analog-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 4.0 Output + Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input
      name: output:analog-surround-40+input:iec958-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 4.1 Output
      name: output:analog-surround-41
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 4.1 Output + Analog Stereo Input
      name: output:analog-surround-41+input:analog-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 4.1 Output + Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input
      name: output:analog-surround-41+input:iec958-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 5.0 Output
      name: output:analog-surround-50
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 5.0 Output + Analog Stereo Input
      name: output:analog-surround-50+input:analog-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 5.0 Output + Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input
      name: output:analog-surround-50+input:iec958-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 5.1 Output
      name: output:analog-surround-51
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 5.1 Output + Analog Stereo Input
      name: output:analog-surround-51+input:analog-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 5.1 Output + Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input
      name: output:analog-surround-51+input:iec958-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 7.1 Output
      name: output:analog-surround-71
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 7.1 Output + Analog Stereo Input
      name: output:analog-surround-71+input:analog-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Analog Surround 7.1 Output + Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input
      name: output:analog-surround-71+input:iec958-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output
      name: output:iec958-stereo
    - active: false
      description: Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output + Analog Stereo Input
      name: output:iec958-stereo+input:analog-stereo
    - active: true <------------------------------------------- !! THIS IS NOW SET TO TRUE !!
      description: Digital Stereo Duplex (IEC958)
      name: output:iec958-stereo+input:iec958-stereo
    - active: false
      description: "Off"
      name: "off"
  - driver: module-alsa-card.c
    index: 1
    name: alsa_card.platform-bcm2835_audio
    profiles:
    - active: true
      description: Stereo Output
      name: output:stereo-fallback
    - active: false
      description: Mono Output
      name: output:mono-fallback
    - active: false
      description: Multichannel Output
      name: output:multichannel-output
    - active: false
      description: "Off"
      name: "off"
  input:
  - applications: []
    card: 0
    default: true
    description: USB Sound Device         Digital Stereo (IEC958)
    index: 1
    mute: false
    name: alsa_input.usb-0d8c_USB_Sound_Device-00.iec958-stereo
    volume: 1
  output:
  - applications: []
    card: 0
    default: false
    description: USB Sound Device         Digital Stereo (IEC958)
    index: 0
    mute: false
    name: alsa_output.usb-0d8c_USB_Sound_Device-00.iec958-stereo
    volume: 1
  - applications: []
    card: 1
    default: true
    description: Built-in Audio Stereo
    index: 1
    mute: false
    name: alsa_output.platform-bcm2835_audio.stereo-fallback
    volume: 0.857696533203125
host: 172.30.32.4
update_available: false
version: 2022.07.0
version_latest: 2022.07.0

An option to do this in the GUI would be greatly appreciated; a new user might find this a bit tricky.

4 Likes
6

@bluevalien Thanks for your post. I am trying to setup the same Jabra 410 USB device. When I follow your instructions, I get this error:

image
image1160×59 8.57 KB

Any suggestions?