Is there a trick to using use usb speakers? I am having difficulty at figuring out how to use them.

I use USB speakers with this laptop. It was a fiddle getting them to work, but once you have it sorted it stays sorted I don't know how Gnome does it, but in KDE,

System Settings > Multimedia > Phonon page.

Is the card recognised on the Device Preference tab? If so, move it to the top of the list. Not sure how to progress if it isn't, but assuming it is, go to the speaker setup tab and make sure that the correct output is at the top. You may have to check a number of possible choices to get the right speaker setup, but one should work.

If you still have problems, go to the backend page. Many people say the VLC backend is best, but GStreamer backend works best for me. If you don't have a choice of backends you will have to look at your package manager and search for them.

Hope that helps.

Just as a note, you will want to make sure the device preferences are applied to all of the categories.

Hi, this thread seems to be kind of old, but I'm facing The same problem. I have The same issue with usb speakers in KDE, in every other DE ir works like a charm, I've tried s lot of distros with KDE and all of them had The same problem. I've set The usb speakers as The main áudio output, but only The system sounds come from them, all media and streaming like youtube for example come from The built in speakers! Any one knows how to 'fix' it?

Thanks, and forgive my nas english, I'm from Brazil.

Do you have Pulseaudio installed on your system? KDE only has the ability to control applications which use it's interfaces, unless Pulseaudio is used - in which case all audio can be controlled.