support setting values in dBa

[n1trux]

it'd be nice if you could set the volume not only in %, but also in dBa. pavucontrol displays values in dBa, too, and pulseaudio supports it. One probably has to write a wrapper for Alsa, though.

[hastinbe]

I did consider supporting dB volume in the past, but the demand for it hasn't justified the work to do it (this is the first request for it). I decided that supporting a single volume type was easier (differences between PA and alsa-utils) and that % volume was the most user-friendly for the average user.

With that said, I'm still open to it and welcome any PRs, as I want support for as many use cases as possible. It's a simple idea that requires quite a bit of work to implement.

[hastinbe]

Been awhile, but I added experimental support for dB in d3671c5 (in the pipewire-only branch)

• Auto-detection of dB vs percentage in commands
• dB support in set, up, down commands
• -U option for dB/percentage display
• All output formats support dB
• Notifications show dB when requested
• Config file support for persistent dB display

Features:

• volume set -6dB - set volume in dB
• volume up 3dB - increase by 3 dB
• volume -U db output - display in dB
• VOLUME_DISPLAY_UNIT=db in config - persistent dB display