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How to improve audio output (volume) from Raspberry Pi

When you use a Raspberry Pi, you might notice that the audio output is very quiet. Maybe you want to watch a live stream or listen to some music – but the volume is just too low.

TL;DR: By using an external sound bar or audio boxes and switching the audio output to HDMI, the volume is significantly higher and the audio quality better.

Soundbar / audio boxes to improve sound

Additionally to the Raspberry Pi itself, I purchased a Speedlink BRIO soundbar. This soundbar features two boxes (stereo) and allows to be powered by a USB cable. No additional power supply or power input is needed. This is very handy, as it can be powered by the Raspberry Pi or by the monitor attached to the Raspberry Pi (most of modern monitors feature such USB plugs).

BRIO Soundbar from Speedlink
BRIO Soundbar from Speedlink

The soundbar features two 3.5mm audio jacks and the USB cable. Besides this, the soundbar looks nice and the price is very good!

Raspberry Pi 4 with Audio Jack

Until a few weeks ago I was using a Raspberry Pi 4b. The soundbar was directly connected to the Raspberry Pi 4, as it features a 3.5mm audio output.

Raspberry Pi 4 features a 3.5mm audio jack output
Raspberry Pi 4 (here in a case) features a 3.5mm audio jack output

I quickly noticed that I had to turn up the sound bar to maximum to get a decent audio volume. I also noticed a pretty bad audio quality with increased volume. Is the soundbar too weak? That was my first thought.

But as it turns out, the audio output from Raspberry Pi is really low, compared to other computers.

Maybe the newer and much more powerful Raspberry Pi 5 would solve the bad and low volume audio output?

Raspberry Pi 5 – no more audio jack

A few weeks ago, I upgraded to a new Raspberry Pi 5. The performance of it is just so much better than the previous model, it's definitely worth the upgrade. Besides this, watching streams (in the browser) are definitely much more fluid and run into much less memory capacity issues than on the Raspi 4.

Raspberry Pi 5 no longer features a 3.5mm audio output.
Raspberry Pi 5 no longer features a 3.5mm audio output.

But I also realized that the Raspberry Pi 5 no longer features the 3.5mm audio jack output. How would I connect the soundbar now? Using the USB cable?

Audio output using HDMI, from monitor to soundbar

The audio output on the Raspberry Pi can be changed inside the Raspberry Pi OS (formerly known as Raspbian). At the top right corner on the screen there's the audio icon. With a right-click on the icon you can select the audio output.

Right-click on audio icon to change audio output on Raspberry Pi
Right-click on audio icon to change audio output on Raspberry Pi

Obviously on the Raspberry Pi 4 you can choose between Audio Jack and HDMI. On the Raspberry Pi 5, by default, only the HDMI option is there. If you connect multiple monitors using HDMI, you get the options HDMI A-1 and HDMI A-2.

For the Raspberry Pi setup I use a 24 inch monitor from Philips. The Philips 241B8QJEB monitor features embedded speakers, however these are pretty bad in audio quality. But the number of different input and output connections on this monitor are excellent!

Obviously the Raspberry Pi 5 is connected with a Micro-HDMI to HDMI cable to the monitor. Thanks to the HDMI standard, both picture and audio from the Raspberry Pi 5 flow to the Philips monitor. The Philips monitor also features a 3.5mm audio jack for audio output. And this is where the BRIO soundbar is now connected to.

Raspberry Pi 5 audio output via HDMI to Philips monitor, from monitor using 3.5mm audio cable to BRIO soundbar.
Raspberry Pi 5 audio output via HDMI to Philips monitor, from monitor using 3.5mm audio cable to BRIO soundbar.

This means: The Raspberry Pi 5 uses HDMI as audio output. This is received by the Philips monitor and is then again sent to the BRIO soundbar using the standard 3.5mm audio cable.

The best thing with that setup? The sound quality has significantly improved, I don't hear any "audio shattering" at high volume anymore and the sound volume is already high enough with the soundbar at only 50%.

This way of improving the audio quality and volume obviously also works on the older Raspberry Pi 4, not just on the newer Raspi 5!

Claudio Kuenzler
Claudio has been writing way over 1000 articles on his own blog since 2008 already. He is fascinated by technology, especially Open Source Software. As a Senior Systems Engineer he has seen and solved a lot of problems - and writes about them.

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