KEF LSX II: USB audio (IEC958) not loud enough

If the KEF LSX II speakers are connected to your Linux (Mint) PC via Digital Output (USB audio) instead of WiFi and the audio volume is not loud enough, it might be, that the gain of the internal sound card of the LSX II is set too low:

Screenshot showing the internal sound card of the LSX II speaker set to only 25%.

To fix this, open alsamixer in the terminal: $ alsamixer

Screenshot showing the AlsaMixer in the terminal.

Then press F6 to select the sound card of the LSX II and increase the PCM volume to 100% with the arrow up key:

Screenshot showing the internal sound card of the LSX II speaker set to 100%.

Then save the settings permanently with:

s sudo alscactl store

Also check that the volume in the KEF Connect app under Remote is also set to 100%:

Screenshot of the KEF Connect app with volume control set to 100%.

Now, you can regulate the volume in the Linux Mint Sound settings…

Screenshot of the Linux Mint sound settings, where the audio output is set to Digital Output (S/PDIF) LSX II

…or directly on the keyboard with the media keys. If your keyboard only has volume -/+ and play/pause buttons such as the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard, but no previous/next track buttons, create two new keyboard shortcuts in the Linux Mint Keyboard settings:

This way, you can completely control the Wireless Hifi Speakers KEF LSX II with the keyboard (when playing music from Spotify).

Linux rocks !!!

Undocumented: You can access your speakers directly in the browser with the speaker’s IP address, e.g.: https://192.168.1.72/index.fcgi

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