Audio quality issue through PC

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G.T

G.T

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Paganisterr
Ak Paganister
Hi all

I have a rather annoying issue that's recently appeared on my PC and I'm not sure what's going on.

I'm used to playing music through my phone, and it's very clear and crisp, but if I play the same music through my PC the highs and lows seem very distorted through Windows Media Player and VLC Player. However, the same music through Spotify sounds considerably better, and the bit rate of the music on there is less than what I have downloaded.

Anyone know what's going on? I've reset to default settings on VLC and Media Player but it's exactly the same. :confused:

Edit: And movies sound pretty awful as well. The same copy played through the Playstation sounds absolutely fine.
 
Look at things like the audio equalizer and reset it back to default, you should also try another set of speakers if you can.

Find you what kind of audio drivers are on the PC and update them from the makers site and not through windows update.
 
You could try getting a sound card(borrow or get a cheap one) since it's a possibility of the sound card going bad. Though it is strange one source sounds better while VLC and WMP does not. If it still sounds bad after the different sound card then this problem is one of those hard ones.
 
What soundcard do you have? If onboard, what chipset is it? (Probably Realtek something or other in Device manager)

I assume you're using the same speakers for playback for each device?
 
I am using onboard, Via High Definition Audio using Realtek drivers.

Apon more investigation I installed Winamp and Media Player Classic Home Cinema, and both seem to be fine as well. I re-tried normal Media Player and VLC and Media Player seems to be fine now, but VLC is definitely screwed up. It's the main player I use so it would be cool to fix that. I uninstalled VLC, asked it to forget settings, reinstalled it and it's still the same.

I'll update my drivers anyways.

And I have tried 2 different headphones, both worth around £100, so the issue isn't with those.
 
http://218.210.127.131/downloads/
These drivers have a built in EQ and all sorts of other things:
ISyJz.jpg

I suppose it looks like that. Find that, mess with it.

I would recommend you buy a real soundcard though, onboard is beyond crap.
 
What cheap okay sound cards are about?

I don't need anything major really, I just need a card with optical outputs because I have a 5.1 amp and a optical surround mixamp for my headset.

I'll get back to you on those drivers, the servers are really slow at the moment...

Edit: Also what benefits would I get from having one?
 
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You would get a better and deeper sound quality. I was listening to a $12 Rosewill Sound Card and it sounded very nice with ACDC's Back in Black. Great highs and lows. I found one online for you here. It's a PCI Express card(won't work in a regular PCI card). Or if you rather use a PCI slot then grab this card. Both cards have great reviews and sound both sound better than onboard.
 
Ah okay, they look good! Didn't realise they were so cheap.

I saw this one at a local store and seems to have good reviews. May have to go buy one. :P Any issues with this at all?
 
Even a cheap card is a good upgrade, but of course the more you spend the better (to a point, the more expensive you get the more features you don't need.)

I would go with an Auzentech if I were looking for a new card, but I'd be spending some money.
But I also had a Creative XF-i Elite Pro, which was $350 when I bought it.

Have switched to USB interfaces because they have what I need. Currently using a Presonus Audiobox and have nothing bad to say about it.
 
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Hmmm. Has the same C-Media brand as the rosewill card I mentioned and that card had a 96Khz sampling rate. It will do as a replacement but I would grab this card for the higher playback sampling rate.
 
Okay.

I don't think I'll be fussed with the higher playback rate to be honest - my Astro Mixamp only accepts 96 so I wouldn't benefit from any higher. It's so cheap that I could upgrade if I wanted to. :P

Also, another issue which I think is related is that the mixamp also has a "surround" button, which virtualises 5.1. When I turn it on on my PC all the sound is shifted to the left of the headset and is less clear, but the only way to make it sound better is to turn on "A52 over SPIDF" in VLC. It even seems to improve the VLC sound problems. No other player seems to have this ability and I can't turn it on for music. It doesn't do this sound shift at all on the Xbox either and music sounds fine on it, so it must be soemthing to do with the PC. So I'm wondering if it's a driver issue not detecting SPIDF properly (still happens with that driver provided above). My friend says it sounds fine though his identical headset, but his Mobo did cost twice as much as mine.

It all just seems waaay tempremental and complicated to pin down what's wrong. I'm just wondering if a sound card would sort most of these issues out. Or not...
 
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A 10 year old Celeron PC made me worry about everything and that was the worst I had to go through with working on it for 2 and half weeks. Though that Novatech card won't be hard on the wallet if you get the same results.
 
Yeah hopefully.

In fact, I didn't realise that other one was only 48K through SPIDF, so I'm gonna squeeze budget and get this one instead (the lesser one of what you linked).

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/components/soundcards/90-YAA0K0-0UAN0BZ.html

And yeah, hopefully it sorts out some of the issues. Definitely the 5.1 works properly on my headset through Xbox for everything - only though VLC's SPDIF option on my PC...
 
MistaX
I would recommend you buy a real soundcard though, onboard is beyond crap.
Click to expand...

To be fair on-board is not that bad now, heaps better than it was. And with 80% of people using X-Brand **** speakers (including me) it's perfectly sufficient for most people.
 
And those cheap nasty soundcards are the same as onboard so why waste a PCI slot and money.

If you need a soundcard get a good creative one.
 
Casio
To be fair on-board is not that bad now, heaps better than it was. And with 80% of people using X-Brand **** speakers (including me) it's perfectly sufficient for most people.
Click to expand...

The Realtek HD, which is the most recent mainstream onboard audio, is equal to an old Soundblaster Live.

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/479546/quality-of-realtek-hd-onboard-audio
Do some reads. TL;DR: analog output is terrible, but the optical out is identical to everything else.

Grayfox
get a good creative one.
Click to expand...

All Creative cards are good. All Creative drivers are awful.
 
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I've decided not to go for it... It mainly seems to have sorted itself out. And fiddling around with Winamp the audio quality seems way better than before. Games may still be an issue but as long as they have a headphone setting it seems to be better. Just the Crysis 2 demo doesn't seem to have one so it sounds weird. Full game should though (hopefully...).

If I do get the funds I'll invest in a good one rather than the £30 or so ones mentioned.

Cheers for all your help!
 

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