After running Ubuntu for months and liking it, I for the first time wanted to use headphones and was trying to get them to work so I ran the code in step 1 https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoundTroubleshootingProcedure

-- the result was an improvement in performance, resolution, and audio.. a vast improvement. What does that suggest about what was wrong with my settings before if running this improved system performance, graphics, and my audio problem?

The command is:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-audio-dev/ppa; sudo apt-get update;sudo apt-get dist-upgrade; sudo apt-get install linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils gdm ubuntu-desktop  linux-image-`uname -r` libasound2; sudo apt-get -y --reinstall install linux-sound-base alsa-base alsa-utils gdm ubuntu-desktop  linux-image-`uname -r` libasound2; killall pulseaudio; rm -r ~/.pulse*; sudo usermod -aG `cat /etc/group | grep -e '^pulse:' -e '^audio:' -e '^pulse-access:' -e '^pulse-rt:' -e '^video:' | awk -F: '{print $1}' | tr '\n' ',' | sed 's:,$::g'` `whoami`