> It seems like testing out an old kernel is easy by comparison. However I
> don't hold out a huge amount of hope for it, since like you said, eld_valid
> = 0, which more likely indicates an EDID issue.
> 
> If you're interested, some minor code inspection shows that at least some of
> the logic is in nv50_display.c:nv50_audio_mode_set. You could add prints in
> there to see what it's detecting stuff as. You could also add prints to
> drm_edid.c:drm_detect_monitor_audio, perhaps your monitor's EDID is
> different than what it expects.
> 
> Looks like there are a few prints already, you could see what happens when
> you boot with drm.debug=0x06 which should output nouveau- and kms-related
> debug statements.

Just to stay in sync:
I'll start compiling
linux-3.7.tar.xz of 12/11/12
and report the results.
I suppose "linux-3.7.tar.xz" is actually (in retrospect) linux-3.7.0
but who (in their right mind) would have predicted in those days that there
would ever be a 3.7.1, i.e., a real follow up to 3.7 !!!???
Same for 3.8, etc.
Anyway, we'll talk about those "drm.debug=0x06" later.

> perhaps your monitor's EDID is different than what it [drm_edid.c] expects

I'm far from an expert in EDIDs but the EDID parameters as reported by NVIDIA
in its eld#3.0 and the Xorg log look pretty good (to my untrained eye).
The monitor is relatively new (of this year, I suppose) made by a reputable
manufacturer so they should know their way around what EDIDs must look like.