I could not get a pulseaudio -vvv because every time I killed it it re-spawned on it's own before I could start it. cat /proc/asound/cards 0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel HDA Intel at 0xf0800000 irq 37 1 [NVidia ]: HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia HDA NVidia at 0xcdefc000 irq 17 aplay -l **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices **** card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC889 Analog [ALC889 Analog] Subdevices: 0/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC889 Digital [ALC889 Digital] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: NVIDIA HDMI [NVIDIA HDMI] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: NVIDIA HDMI [NVIDIA HDMI] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: NVIDIA HDMI [NVIDIA HDMI] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: NVIDIA HDMI [NVIDIA HDMI] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0