[MPlayer-users] can't play voice recordings under ubuntu

[Silvio Levy]

Hi,

I've been using mplayer for 10+ years and suddenly I started having a
problem: when listening through earphones, any voice track will be
muted down to almost zero. 

I can listen to a music recording just fine.  When playing a movie
I hear music but once dialogue comes on, the volume drops by 60dB or
more, or else it's distorted by constant short interruptions. 
Voice-only recordings are unplayable.

This is only on earphones; with builtin-speakers or external
speakers reproduction is normal.

This is under Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS. I don't have the same problem on my
Macbook. And I didn't have the problem before this month on Linux
either. 

I'm not aware of having made any changes, but there are so
many different things controlling audio that it's a constant struggle.

I've tried to google various keywords but the hits are all from people
who are unable to get any sound.  Nothing specific about voice suppression.

Thanks for any help

Silvio Levy