I have these external speakers: Sony Active Speaker System SRS-D4 plugged into a Ubuntu 11.10 laptop (same issue with a previous ubuntu desktop system.)
It's almost as if the speakers sleep after some amount of inactivity.
YouTube videos play fine with audio, but system alerts, such as when a torrent download completes, or email notifications, are not audible. Presumably since the system is sitting there not playing sound.
Does anyone know how to fix this?
EDIT: If I am playing audio such as an mp3 through Rhythmbox or YouTube video, I do hear system sounds. Sorry fi that wasn't clear. I.e. if audio is already playing I hear everything. It's as if the speakers take a small amount of time to "wake up" and play something. For short system sounds this seems to be too short of a time so I hear nothing.