diff --git a/hw/audio/virtio-snd.c b/hw/audio/virtio-snd.c
index c80b58bf5d..4a56c00ec9 100644
--- a/hw/audio/virtio-snd.c
+++ b/hw/audio/virtio-snd.c
@@ -401,7 +401,7 @@ static void virtio_snd_get_qemu_audsettings(audsettings *as,
     as->nchannels = MIN(AUDIO_MAX_CHANNELS, params->channels);
     as->fmt = virtio_snd_get_qemu_format(params->format);
     as->freq = virtio_snd_get_qemu_freq(params->rate);
-    as->endianness = target_words_bigendian() ? 1 : 0;
+    as->endianness = 0; /* Conforming to VIRTIO 1.0: always little endian. */
 }
 
 /*