I have noticed this happens both in my ArchLinux PC as well as in my ArchLinux MacBook. I need to get application notifications through short audio tones and I've figured out that it's not an issue due to notifying applications but the system itself, and it happens in both systems which are widely different.When I play a short audio file, like paplay /usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo/message.oga I don't hear it the first time I play it.If I play it again in sequence, I hear it and it's played correctly, at all times I repeat it in sequence.If I wait around 10 seconds to play it again, it's muted (like in the beginning): it sounds only when warming up.The same happens for aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Left.wav, but as it's a longer tone, the issue happens just on the start of the file. At first I only hear t left, missing fron. Afterwards I hear it in full and clear: front left. If I wait 10 seconds, t left again.The issue doesn't happen if I'm playing a music file in the background in a media player. It happens only when the computer is not playing any sound.How to fix this? (except for keeping the PC playing an inaudible sound in daemon in the background to keep it warmed up always)Relevant test session where the problem persists solely using alsa:~  sudo mv /usr/bin/pulseaudio /usr/bin/pulseaudio.bak~  pulseaudio.bak --killW: [pulseaudio.bak] main.c: Couldn't canonicalize binary path, cannot self execute.~  paplay /usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo/message.ogaConnection failure: Connection refusedpa_context_connect() failed: Connection refused~  ps axu | grep -i pulsefrancis+ 31563  0.0  0.0  10796  2144 pts/2    S+   14:35   0:00 grep --color=auto -i pulse~  aplay -D plughw:0,7 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Left.wavPlaying WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Left.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 48000 Hz, Mono~  aplay -l**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: Generic Analog [Generic Analog]  Subdevices: 1/1  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: Generic Digital [Generic Digital]  Subdevices: 1/1  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]  Subdevices: 1/1  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]  Subdevices: 1/1  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0~  lspci -nn | grep -i audio00:1f.3 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:a2f0]UPDATEAfter Linux kernel 4.11.2, ALC1220 codec is in:~  aplay -l**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC1220 Analog [ALC1220 Analog]  Subdevices: 1/1  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC1220 Digital [ALC1220 Digital]  Subdevices: 1/1  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]  Subdevices: 1/1  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]  Subdevices: 1/1  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]  Subdevices: 1/1  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]  Subdevices: 1/1  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0I've connected my headphones and managed to reproduce the issue just using aplay but differently:~  aplay -D plughw:0,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Left.wav~  aplay -D plughw:0,0 /usr/share/sounds/purple/alert.wav~  aplay -D plughw:0,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Left.wav~  aplay -D plughw:0,0 /usr/share/sounds/purple/alert.wav...I had to play different audio files residing in different directories, both playbacks are cut at the start if one is played and then the other, interval between playbacks doesn't matter. If a file is played once, playing files in the same directory afterwards will not reproduce the issue, nor waiting for it to cool down (I've wait 1 minute). Same happens with paplay when turning on pulseaudio. When playing through HDMI, it reproduces in both test cases.
Short audio playback is muted, requires warming up or secondary audio in background
arch linux;audio;alsa;pulseaudio