[BUG] Alienware x16 R2 speakers very quiet and sounds very plain; CSC3551/Cirrus amp fails to instantiate (ALC289, SSID 1028:0c90)

[ReidenXerx]

Alienware x16 R2 Linux Audio / Cirrus Amp Report

Summary

Internal laptop speakers are much quieter and much worse sounds than Windows. Linux detects the Realtek/SOF speaker path, but the Cirrus smart amplifier device fails during boot:

spi_master spi0: error -EINVAL: failed to add SPI device CSC3551:00 from ACPI
Serial bus multi instantiate pseudo device driver CSC3551:00: probe with driver Serial bus multi instantiate pseudo device driver failed with error -22

This looks related to the known Dell/Cirrus CSC3551 / CS35L41 missing or invalid ACPI _DSD / SPI amp quirk class of bugs.

System

OS: EndeavourOS
Kernel: Linux 7.0.9-arch1-1
Hardware Vendor: Alienware
Hardware Model: Alienware x16 R2
Hardware SKU: 0C90
Firmware Version: 1.20.0
Firmware Date: 2026-01-26

Relevant Packages

linux 7.0.9.arch1-1
linux-firmware 20260410-1
linux-firmware-cirrus 20260410-1
alsa-ucm-conf 1.2.15.3-1
sof-firmware 2025.12.2-1
alsa-firmware 1.2.4-4
pipewire 1:1.6.5-1
wireplumber 0.5.14-1

No pending updates were available for those packages when checked.

PCI Audio Device

00:1f.3 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: Intel Corporation Meteor Lake-P HD Audio Controller [8086:7e28] (rev 20)
    Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0c90]
    Kernel driver in use: sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl
    Kernel modules: snd_sof_pci_intel_mtl, snd_hda_intel

ALSA Codecs

/proc/asound/card1/codec#0
Codec: Realtek ALC289
Vendor Id: 0x10ec0289
Subsystem Id: 0x10280c90
Revision Id: 0x100002

/proc/asound/card1/codec#2
Codec: Intel Meteor Lake HDMI
Vendor Id: 0x8086281d
Subsystem Id: 0x80860101
Revision Id: 0x100000

Kernel Audio Log

ACPI: SSDT ... (v02 CIRRUS SPKRAMPS ...)
spi_master spi0: error -EINVAL: failed to add SPI device CSC3551:00 from ACPI
Serial bus multi instantiate pseudo device driver CSC3551:00: probe with driver Serial bus multi instantiate pseudo device driver failed with error -22
snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1f.3: Digital mics found on Skylake+ platform, using SOF driver
sof-audio-pci-intel-mtl 0000:00:1f.3: Topology file: intel/sof-ipc4-tplg/sof-hda-generic-2ch.tplg
snd_hda_codec_alc269 ehdaudio0D0: ALC289: picked fixup (pin match)
snd_hda_codec_alc269 ehdaudio0D0: autoconfig for ALC289: line_outs=1 (0x14/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0) type:speaker
snd_hda_codec_alc269 ehdaudio0D0: speaker_outs=0

Current Routing

Default Sink: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3-platform-skl_hda_dsp_generic.HiFi__Speaker__sink

Analog speaker output exists and works, but volume is significantly below Windows, likely because the Cirrus smart amp is not initialized.

Related Upstream Work To Watch

• Dell missing _DSD / CS35L41 patch series:
  • https://lore.kernel.org/all/20231221132518.3213-1-sbinding@opensource.cirrus.com/
• Dell XPS 15 9530 missing _DSD bug:
  • https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=217906
• Example Dell XPS 9530 patch discussion / gist:
  • https://gist.github.com/alexVinarskis/77d55a0a0f4150576ba77e5f4241d512
• Kernel docs warning about Cirrus smart amp firmware/settings not being interchangeable:
  • https://docs.kernel.org/sound/codecs/cs35l56.html

Search Terms To Monitor

"1028:0c90" "CSC3551"
"10280c90" "CS35L41"
"Alienware x16 R2" "CSC3551"
"ALC289" "10280c90"
"Dell" "0c90" "ALC289_FIXUP"

Requested Upstream Outcome

Please add/verify support for Alienware x16 R2 / Dell subsystem 1028:0c90 with Realtek ALC289 and CSC3551/Cirrus smart amp over SPI, or advise what additional ACPI dump / alsa-info / logs are needed to safely create a quirk.

Extra Data Commands

If upstream asks for more:

alsa-info.sh --upload
sudo dmesg | grep -Ei 'CSC3551|cs35|cirrus|ALC|realtek|snd_hda|sof-hda|spi'
sudo acpidump -o acpidump.dat
lspci -nnvv -s 00:1f.3
cat /proc/asound/card*/codec#*

[ReidenXerx]

Added text diagnostics gist: https://gist.github.com/ReidenXerx/e876fc924695b61ea0105e055674bddd\n\nIncluded: report, system/package info, PCI audio info, ALSA codec dump, kernel audio log, aplay/PipeWire sink info, alsa-info output, and the decompiled CIRRUS SPKRAMPS SSDT snippet showing CSC3551 with _SUB 10280C90.\n\nI also have the raw ACPI dump generated locally as acpidump.dat and a compressed diagnostics archive if maintainers need a specific attachment/upload path.