How do I switch to another audio output sink in XFCE?

Solution 1:

After installing pavucontrol you have graphical access to several useful settings for pulseaudio including a choice for your output device. Choose the default output device in the Output Device tab:

A currently playing stream of a given application can also be moved to another device in the Playback tab from the dropdown menu next to Playback Stream on:

Solution 2:

The pavucontrol answer is correct. However I encountered difficulties to use is out of the box. I had to type the following before using pavucontrol to use my bt headphone:

pactl load-module module-alsa-sink device=btheadset

You can control if this was successful by typing:

pactl list short sinks

Output should look similar to:

0 alsa_output.pci-0000_03_04.0.iec958-stereo module-alsa-card.c s16le 2ch 44100Hz SUSPENDED

2 alsa_output.btheadset module-alsa-sink.c s16le 2ch 44100Hz IDLE

I also have a short script to move sound from alsa/pulseaudio to bt that I called 'toBt.sh':

#!/bin/bash

OCHANNEL=`pactl list modules short | grep btheadset | cut -f 1`
for i in $OCHANNEL; do
        echo "altes module $i"
        pactl unload-module $i
done
CHANNEL=`pactl load-module module-alsa-sink device=btheadset`
echo "neues module $CHANNEL"
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
        echo "No bt connection"
        exit -1
fi
SINK=`pactl list sinks short | grep btheadset | cut -f 1`
INPUTS=`pactl list sink-inputs short | cut -f 1`
for i in $INPUTS; do
        echo "Verschiebe in $i nach $SINK"
        pactl move-sink-input $i $SINK
done

To return to alsa/pulseaudio sound I've got 'toAlsa.sh':

#!/bin/bash

SINK=`pactl list sinks short | grep alsa-card | cut -f 1`
INPUTS=`pactl list sink-inputs short | cut -f 1`
for i in $INPUTS; do
        echo "Verschiebe in $i nach $SINK"
        pactl move-sink-input $i $SINK
done

Solution 3:

Sound Switcher Indicator

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yktooo/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install indicator-sound-switcher

While pavucontrol provides more differentiated options (default/fallback device versus per-application device), this tool simply changes all the above to one device, but provides easier access. Its unilateral setting can be refined in pavucontrol if necessary.

Solution 4:

Testing Xfce panel version 4.12.2: the volume indicator already has that feature. It is a pulseaudio plugin (xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin) for the Xfce panel.

The output device is listed under the main scroll given more than one sink is available; on mouse hover a list of available output devices is displayed.

So, no external application is needed for the purpose discussed here, although pavucontrol may be useful (especially given that Xfce has no specific audio settings like other desktops have).

Non-Xfce-specific tools can be also used like pasystray(PulseAudio System Tray), as explained here, similar to Sound Switcher Indicator, already mentioned under this question; pasystraydoesn't need a new PPA to be added.