List Sound Cards and Test Audio with aplay
Identify every ALSA playback device and confirm audio output works, the first step when PulseAudio/PipeWire seems broken.
Run aplay -l to list cards and devices, then aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav to hear a test voice through the default device.
01Command
Command
$ aplay -l && aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav02What it does
aplay talks to ALSA directly, below PulseAudio and PipeWire, so if the test file plays, your hardware and kernel driver are fine and the problem sits in the sound server layer instead. Each entry shows card and device numbers you can target explicitly with -D plughw:CARD=1,DEV=0 when troubleshooting multi-output setups (HDMI vs analog). Add -vv for a visual VU/progress meter while playing.
03Risk
!Warning: Playing to a raw hw: device with the wrong sample rate can produce noise — prefer plughw: or the default device; alsamixer may need a muted channel unmuted first.
04Undo
✓No undo needed — this command does not change persistent state.
05Sources
- aplay(1) — command-line sound recorder and player for ALSAEvidence: Man page documents -l ('List all soundcards and digital audio devices') and -D device selection; confirms 'aplay', '-l' and list-devices text.
- aplay(1) — Debian man page (alsa-utils)Evidence: Man page header states 'aplay — command-line sound recorder and player for ALSA' and lists the -l list-devices option.
Last verified: 2026-09-19 · Category: Media