PulseAudio 14 Is Releasing Soon With Better USB Gaming Headset Support

In addition to PipeWire 0.3 having shipped last week, also making it out a few days prior was a development snapshot in the road to PulseAudio 14.0.

PulseAudio 13.99.1 was released as a development snapshot in the road to the imminent PulseAudio 14.0.

In the 6+ months since PulseAudio 13, developers have been working on various audio sink changes, automatic switching to HDMI audio is now disabled by default, flat volumes are also disabled by default, there is better support for USB gaming headsets, PulseAudio honoring Xauthority arguments for X11 modules, a workaround for GNOME Sound Settings behavior, and various other changes.

On the USB gaming headset front the SteelSeries Arctis 5 and Arctis Pro 2019 headsets are among those seeing better handling with PulseAudio 14 along with the LucidSound LS31. More details on the pending PulseAudio 14 changes via their Wiki.

PulseAudio 13.99.1 is available for those wanting to help in testing this pre-release.