Perhaps I've not described the issue well enough this isn't a dupe of the bug 1002952.
Bug 1002952 is what removes the S/PDIF for the Plantronics GameCom 780. However the analogue output for the Plantronics GameCom 780 is usably loud - as described by another in this thread on the alsa-user list http://www.spinics.net/linux/fedora/alsa-user/msg11661.html if you follow the thread the alsa guys suggest that "the headset's firmware handles the volume settings in some incorrect way". The only usable output for the Gamescom 780 is to use the digital S/PDIF. ** This bug is no longer a duplicate of bug 1002952 [meta-bug] Invalid extra "Digital output S/PDIF" device for USB cards -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Kernel Packages, which is subscribed to alsa-lib in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1241449 Title: Plantronics GameCom 780 digital output/input missing Status in “alsa-lib” package in Ubuntu: New Bug description: Under Ubuntu 13.10, the Plantronics GameCom 780 digital output/input is missing. Fix: Remove/comment out the Plantronics GameCom entry under USB- Audio.pcm.iec958_device within /usr/share/alsa/cards/USB-Audio.conf, reboot the box, and it reappears as a digital device. On my system it's line 46. When used as an analogue only device, the volume at 1% is unusably loud, as such as this device can only be used as a digital device. There appears to be no fix for the analogue driver, as it is reportedly a firmware bug, according to a alsa mailing list thread. To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-lib/+bug/1241449/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages Post to : kernel-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kernel-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp