> Maybe your speakersystem needs some rectification?

You mean the external speakers? I use headphones. I don't know what those have to do with ALSA or this issue I'm having.

> Or you can ask here:
> http://mailman.alsa-project.org/mailman/listinfo/alsa-devel

I tried writing to alsa-devel, but I didn't get any reply: http://mailman.alsa-project.org/pipermail/alsa-devel/2017-November/126934.html

> Do you have a $HOME/.asoundrc?

___________________________________________________________________________________
$ locate asoundrc
~/.steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/amd64/usr/share/doc/libasound2/examples/asoundrc.txt.gz
~/.steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/i386/usr/share/doc/libasound2/examples/asoundrc.txt.gz
/usr/share/doc/libasound2/examples/asoundrc.txt.gz
___________________________________________________________________________________

> Did you tried mpg321, moc or any other console player?

What should I try specifically?
What parameters should I use?