[SOLVED] How can I get pulseaudio to sound as good as ALSA?

Playing around in VLCs audio settings led me to discover that pulseaudio just sounds bad compared to ALSA. When I open video and music in VLC or MPV with pulseaudio, it sounds like the high end is compressed and softened. Switching VLC to ALSA makes me realize what I've been missing. Then closing it and going back to MPV+pulseaudio makes me sad. I've been reading forum posts and articles about improving pulseaudios quality and been tweaking daemon.conf but I just can't get it to sound good. Even downloaded Youtube videos sound better on ALSA if that gives you an idea just how bad pulseaudio sounds.

I have a SIGNSTEK Q5 USB DAC, outputing line-level to an Onkyo receiver, powering two passive bookshelf speakers and outputting line-level to an active subwoofer. Nothing audiophile quality but definitely not bad.

This makes me want to use ALSA for everything. But programs commonly conflict and using my laptop away from the desk becomes painful.
Code:PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="12"
VERSION="12 (bookworm)"
VERSION_CODENAME=bookworm
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"Code:Bus 005 Device 002: ID 08bb:27c4 Texas Instruments PCM2704C stereo audio DAC
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 1.10
bDeviceClass 0
bDeviceSubClass 0
bDeviceProtocol 0
bMaxPacketSize0 8
idVendor 0x08bb Texas Instruments
idProduct 0x27c4 PCM2704C stereo audio DAC
bcdDevice 1.00
iManufacturer 1 BurrBrown from Texas Instruments
iProduct 2 USB AUDIO DAC
iSerial 0
bNumConfigurations 1
Configuration Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 2
wTotalLength 0x00be
bNumInterfaces 3
bConfigurationValue 1
iConfiguration 0
bmAttributes 0x80
(Bus Powered)
MaxPower 500mA
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 0
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 0
bInterfaceClass 1 Audio
bInterfaceSubClass 1 Control Device
bInterfaceProtocol 0
iInterface 0
AudioControl Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 36
bDescriptorSubtype 1 (HEADER)
bcdADC 1.00
wTotalLength 0x0028
bInCollection 1
baInterfaceNr(0) 1
AudioControl Interface Descriptor:
bLength 12
bDescriptorType 36
bDescriptorSubtype 2 (INPUT_TERMINAL)
bTerminalID 1
wTerminalType 0x0101 USB Streaming
bAssocTerminal 0
bNrChannels 2
wChannelConfig 0x0003
Left Front (L)
Right Front (R)
iChannelNames 0
iTerminal 0
AudioControl Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 36
bDescriptorSubtype 3 (OUTPUT_TERMINAL)
bTerminalID 2
wTerminalType 0x0301 Speaker
bAssocTerminal 0
bSourceID 3
iTerminal 0
AudioControl Interface Descriptor:
bLength 10
bDescriptorType 36
bDescriptorSubtype 6 (FEATURE_UNIT)
bUnitID 3
bSourceID 1
bControlSize 1
bmaControls(0) 0x01
Mute Control
bmaControls(1) 0x02
Volume Control
bmaControls(2) 0x02
Volume Control
iFeature 0
Interface Descriptor:
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bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 1
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 0
bInterfaceClass 1 Audio
bInterfaceSubClass 2 Streaming
bInterfaceProtocol 0
iInterface 0
Interface Descriptor:
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bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 1
bAlternateSetting 1
bNumEndpoints 1
bInterfaceClass 1 Audio
bInterfaceSubClass 2 Streaming
bInterfaceProtocol 0
iInterface 0
AudioStreaming Interface Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 36
bDescriptorSubtype 1 (AS_GENERAL)
bTerminalLink 1
bDelay 0 frames
wFormatTag 0x0001 PCM
AudioStreaming Interface Descriptor:
bLength 17
bDescriptorType 36
bDescriptorSubtype 2 (FORMAT_TYPE)
bFormatType 1 (FORMAT_TYPE_I)
bNrChannels 2
bSubframeSize 2
bBitResolution 16
bSamFreqType 3 Discrete
tSamFreq[ 0] 32000
tSamFreq[ 1] 44100
tSamFreq[ 2] 48000
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x02 EP 2 OUT
bmAttributes 9
Transfer Type Isochronous
Synch Type Adaptive
Usage Type Data
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bInterval 1
bRefresh 0
bSynchAddress 0
AudioStreaming Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 37
bDescriptorSubtype 1 (EP_GENERAL)
bmAttributes 0x00
bLockDelayUnits 0 Undefined
wLockDelay 0x0000
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 1
bAlternateSetting 2
bNumEndpoints 1
bInterfaceClass 1 Audio
bInterfaceSubClass 2 Streaming
bInterfaceProtocol 0
iInterface 0
AudioStreaming Interface Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 36
bDescriptorSubtype 1 (AS_GENERAL)
bTerminalLink 1
bDelay 0 frames
wFormatTag 0x0001 PCM
AudioStreaming Interface Descriptor:
bLength 17
bDescriptorType 36
bDescriptorSubtype 2 (FORMAT_TYPE)
bFormatType 1 (FORMAT_TYPE_I)
bNrChannels 1
bSubframeSize 2
bBitResolution 16
bSamFreqType 3 Discrete
tSamFreq[ 0] 32000
tSamFreq[ 1] 44100
tSamFreq[ 2] 48000
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x02 EP 2 OUT
bmAttributes 9
Transfer Type Isochronous
Synch Type Adaptive
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0060 1x 96 bytes
bInterval 1
bRefresh 0
bSynchAddress 0
AudioStreaming Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 37
bDescriptorSubtype 1 (EP_GENERAL)
bmAttributes 0x00
bLockDelayUnits 0 Undefined
wLockDelay 0x0000
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 2
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 1
bInterfaceClass 3 Human Interface Device
bInterfaceSubClass 0
bInterfaceProtocol 0
iInterface 0
HID Device Descriptor:
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bDescriptorType 33
bcdHID 1.00
bCountryCode 0 Not supported
bNumDescriptors 1
bDescriptorType 34 Report
wDescriptorLength 36
Report Descriptors:
** UNAVAILABLE **
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x85 EP 5 IN
bmAttributes 3
Transfer Type Interrupt
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0001 1x 1 bytes
bInterval 10
Device Status: 0x0000
(Bus Powered)Code:# This file is part of PulseAudio.
#
# PulseAudio is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# PulseAudio is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
# WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
# General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
# along with PulseAudio; if not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

## Configuration file for the PulseAudio daemon. See pulse-daemon.conf(5) for
## more information. Default values are commented out. Use either ; or # for
## commenting.

; daemonize = no
; fail = yes
; allow-module-loading = yes
; allow-exit = yes
; use-pid-file = yes
; system-instance = no
; local-server-type = user
; enable-shm = yes
; enable-memfd = yes
; shm-size-bytes = 0 # setting this 0 will use the system-default, usually 64 MiB
; lock-memory = no
; cpu-limit = no

; high-priority = yes
; nice-level = -11

; realtime-scheduling = yes
; realtime-priority = 5

; exit-idle-time = 20
; scache-idle-time = 20

; dl-search-path = (depends on architecture)

; load-default-script-file = yes
; default-script-file = /etc/pulse/default.pa

; log-target = auto
; log-level = notice
; log-meta = no
; log-time = no
; log-backtrace = 0

; resample-method = speex-fixed-10
; avoid-resampling = true
; enable-remixing = yes
; remixing-use-all-sink-channels = yes
; remixing-produce-lfe = no
; remixing-consume-lfe = no
; lfe-crossover-freq = 0

; flat-volumes = no

; rescue-streams = yes

; rlimit-fsize = -1
; rlimit-data = -1
; rlimit-stack = -1
; rlimit-core = -1
; rlimit-as = -1
; rlimit-rss = -1
; rlimit-nproc = -1
; rlimit-nofile = 256
; rlimit-memlock = -1
; rlimit-locks = -1
; rlimit-sigpending = -1
; rlimit-msgqueue = -1
; rlimit-nice = 31
; rlimit-rtprio = 9
; rlimit-rttime = 200000

; default-sample-format = s32le
; default-sample-rate = 44100
; alternate-sample-rate = 48000
; default-sample-channels = 2
; default-channel-map = front-left,front-right

; default-fragments = 4
; default-fragment-size-msec = 25

; enable-deferred-volume = yes
; deferred-volume-safety-margin-usec = 8000
; deferred-volume-extra-delay-usec = 0