[alsa-devel] wrong decibel data?

[Nicolo' Chieffo]

On Fri, Apr 9, 2010 at 1:11 AM, Raymond Yau <superquad.vortex2 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Mute Capable (1 bit) reports if the respective amplifier is capable of
> muting. Muting implies a –infinity gain (no sound passes), but the actual
> performance is determined by the hardware.
>
> http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.alsa.devel/39262/focus=16100

I think you missed the point, I'll explain again.
I'm not complaining that at 0% the audio is not mute, as the bug you linked.

>>> Clemens Ladisch (developer) 2004-11-09 09:26
>>>    The AD1981B's datasheet says that the maximum attenuation is 46.5 dB
>>> (which conforms to the AC'97 specification).
>>> To mute, use Mute.

In fact my problem is that at 0% I get mute, but I shouldn't (as
reported by that developer), since the max attenuation is not -inf,
but -48 dB.
So if you prefer, you could see this issue from a different point of
view: at -48 dB the audio should be still audible, but it's not.

so you have to decide where the issue resides (but definitely not in pulseaudio)
a) it is ok that the audio is mute at 0% (in this case you have to
declare -inf dB)
b) the audio level is really -48 dB (in this case the volume shouldn't
be cut off completely, but simply quite low)
Which one do you prefer?