# Headphone Amp for Raspberry Pi only working with Pulse, not with ALSA

**URL:** <https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/headphone-amp-for-raspberry-pi-only-working-with-pulse-not-with-alsa/12751>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [January 14, 2020, 10:11pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/headphone-amp-for-raspberry-pi-only-working-with-pulse-not-with-alsa/12751 "2020-01-14T22:11:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![onkobu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f475e1/32.png) [@onkobu](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/onkobu)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2020, 10:11pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/headphone-amp-for-raspberry-pi-only-working-with-pulse-not-with-alsa/12751/1 "2020-01-14T22:11:09Z")

</div>

When following the [guide](https://github.com/pimoroni/pirate-audio) I can successfully enable audio output for example with mpg123 -o pulse . Without -o something else is chosen and gives garbled output rendering much too fast – a 3min MP3 is finished within \<30s. aplay -L shows the correct list of devices and aplay gives clear output. (Raspbian Buster)

mp3blaster works right away with the same MP3-files, didn’t check on which device/ through which library.

aplay -L:

```
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
jack
    JACK Audio Connection Kit
pulse
    PulseAudio Sound Server
default
    Playback/recording through the PulseAudio sound server
sysdefault:CARD=sndrpihifiberry
    snd_rpi_hifiberry_dac, 
    Default Audio Device
dmix:CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0
    snd_rpi_hifiberry_dac, 
    Direct sample mixing device
dsnoop:CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0
    snd_rpi_hifiberry_dac, 
    Direct sample snooping device
hw:CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0
    snd_rpi_hifiberry_dac, 
    Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0
    snd_rpi_hifiberry_dac, 
    Hardware device with all software conversions
usbstream:CARD=sndrpihifiberry
    snd_rpi_hifiberry_dac
    USB Stream Output
```