diff --git a/src/modules/alsa/alsa-sink.c b/src/modules/alsa/alsa-sink.c
index c5a72c321..2fdebe08b 100644
--- a/src/modules/alsa/alsa-sink.c
+++ b/src/modules/alsa/alsa-sink.c
@@ -2226,7 +2226,13 @@ pa_sink *pa_alsa_sink_new(pa_module *m, pa_modargs *ma, const char*driver, pa_ca
             pa_log_info("Disabling latency range changes on underrun");
     }
 
-    if (is_iec958(u) || is_hdmi(u))
+    /* All passthrough formats supported by PulseAudio require
+     * IEC61937 framing with two fake channels. So, passthrough
+     * clients will always send two channels. Multichannel sinks
+     * cannot accept that, because nobody implemented sink channel count
+     * switching so far. So just don't show known non-working settings
+     * to the user. */
+    if ((is_iec958(u) || is_hdmi(u)) && ss.channels == 2)
         set_formats = true;
 
     u->rates = pa_alsa_get_supported_rates(u->pcm_handle, ss.rate);