Lets talk PC Audio

m4gicfour · Apr 20, 2011

entropy13 said:
The knob is already at max and the older speakers are still louder.

Good thing they're the "rear" speakers (the ones with the volume control I ticked as the "front speakers").

So there, volume control is here in the PC itself.

Oh that sucks. I don't know about your sound device, but some (creative for sure) have per-channel volume control. Check the software, even though it's a longshot, you might be lucky.

Funtoss · May 5, 2011

well detailed information!! gosh this helped me so much i got more bass and more BETTER sound from my speakers now, and also know what 5.1 is! :L

Mussels · May 5, 2011

Funtoss said:
well detailed information!! gosh this helped me so much i got more bass and more BETTER sound from my speakers now, and also know what 5.1 is! :L

exactly what i wanted to hear. even if only you benefited from this thread, then it was worth it.

Wile E · May 6, 2011

Mussels said:
exactly what i wanted to hear. even if only you benefited from this thread, then it was worth it.

I have to agree. The more light we shed on PC audio, the more likely we will be to get more high quality hardware.

imperialreign · May 8, 2011

Wile E said:
I have to agree. The more light we shed on PC audio, the more likely we will be to get more high quality hardware.

Agreed as well. There's been too much muddying the waters over the last few years by manufacturers. The audio market is growing, thanks heavily to the HD TV and home entertainment growth, but there are too many un-informed customers out there being had by the "specifications wars" going on right now.

claylomax · Aug 21, 2011

Do the settings in Vista sound properties have to match my sound card drivers? I mean when you click in Windows sound playback/speakers/properties/advanced and there are a bunch of options to choose from like: 16/24 bit combined with different sample rates; in my card drivers I can only select the sample rate. I just want to get the most of the card as I'm a noob when dealing with the sound in Windows. I use it for gaming (speakers) and music (speakers and headphones) as the onboard sound on my mobo is really bad (not even a Realtek), the sound leans to one speaker and I get crackling noise when the computer boots. Thanks. EDIT: I use Foobar2000.

claylomax · Aug 21, 2011

Anybody?

Mussels · Aug 21, 2011

those settings are the same. they automatically sync up.

claylomax · Aug 21, 2011

So I can leave the windows settings to whatever and then change my sound card settings, right? :confused:

Mussels · Aug 21, 2011

claylomax said:
So I can leave the windows settings to whatever and then change my sound card settings, right?

they're the same thing. changes in one will affect the other, unless you're talking about two different sound cards.

claylomax · Aug 21, 2011

All right then. Another question though, how about the GX button? Is it a substitute of EAX? Can I use it with any game?

Mussels · Aug 21, 2011

claylomax said:
All right then. Another question though, how about the GX button? Is it a substitute of EAX? Can I use it with any game?

i dont know the feature first hand, but likely it just turns on their EAX 2.0 emulation, to make it appear like a creative card (with only EAX 2.0 support)

m4gicfour · Aug 21, 2011

Mussels said:
they're the same thing. changes in one will affect the other, unless you're talking about two different sound cards.

should affect the other. I've seen a few (likely driver issues) where they didn't. It's good practices to check that the change hit both, especially if it doesn't behave the way it should for how you have it set.

MilkyWay · Aug 22, 2011

I also noticed that my headphones sound marginally worse on the front audio panel connector. Via onboard on my motherboard.

m4gicfour · Aug 22, 2011

Some sound devices use different DACs/OpAmps on the front vs Rear connectors. It may well be that they sound better on one because there is better hardware wired to that connector. Now, on an onboard chip... who knows.

Mussels · Aug 22, 2011

MilkyWay said:
I also noticed that my headphones sound marginally worse on the front audio panel connector. Via onboard on my motherboard.

you're effectively using an extension lead when you do that, so yeah, it can lower quality. i've had antec cases where they shared a ground on the front panel jacks with the rest of the case, so you'd get all sorts of feedback noise - especially from moving the mouse on USB, you could HEAR it move.

m4gicfour · Aug 25, 2011

OHAI. I liek mai S/PDIF wireless plox. KTHXBAI

niko084 · Sep 13, 2011

random said:
Simple is all I know at this point , although I wouldn't think it would be a good idea to do actual compositions without an audio interface that would just be silly.

You would be correct I work with Ableton Live and Sonar Producer, I used to use a soft modded Creative card using hacked EMU ASIO drivers, it functioned and that was about it... Get your 10th effect in and your 4th synth and you can say goodbye.. Click click pop pop... Humph..

Moved to a Saffire Pro14, problems all gone.
Latency gets even more important when live mixing through Ableton, sucks when you enable an effect on your mixer and you don't hear the change for a 1/2 second, really ruins the mix.

Outside of that however it means fairly little as long as it's not ridiculous.

Meizuman · Sep 20, 2011

Would it be better to just skip sound cards altogether and take the sound out of my Radeon via HDMI? Then get a decent multi-channel amplifier and be done with it.

I've been using few different sound cards, Audigy SE, Live! 5.1 (loved the kxproject driver) and now I bought ESI Prodigy 7.1 HiFi just to find out that all the nice features are only supported in XP and there is loads of interference when using a USB mouse. Surfing the web is just interference to my ears. The card makes annoying background noise all the time. Volume control works like ass. With this card, windows volume is 10-step, at 10 (0-100) volume is at max, at zero or muted, sound still plays. Cards own control panel works but everything should be done from there.

Add to that... Sidewinder X6 volume knob in Win7 is like playing slots, you never know if the volume goes to max, to min, or just freeze, mostly it just bounces up and down.

My head is about to explode because of the thing that no component/peripheral that I buy, will work as they should. How much money do I have to pour in the crappiness of todays consumer electronics industry that I can get what I want? Seems no amount will be enough.

/rant

naoan · Sep 20, 2011

Q : Do you think that software player has any effect on SQ at all?

repman244 · Sep 20, 2011

naoan · Sep 20, 2011

Cool, which one do you recommend?

Octopuss · Sep 20, 2011

Does anyone around own the new revision of Auzentech X-Fi Forte?

D4S4 · Sep 20, 2011

naoan said:
Cool, which one do you recommend?

winamp + realtek x-fi drivers if applicable. then you have to go to output options in winamp and set the nullsoft directsound output to use anything that says (realtek x-fi) next to it, depends on how your speakers are connected.

this only goes for onboard audio, generally i have found the primary sound driver option to sound the worst so try to use anything other than that.

edit - good thread btw :toast:

Mussels · Sep 21, 2011

Meizuman said:
Would it be better to just skip sound cards altogether and take the sound out of my Radeon via HDMI? Then get a decent multi-channel amplifier and be done with it.

I've been using few different sound cards, Audigy SE, Live! 5.1 (loved the kxproject driver) and now I bought ESI Prodigy 7.1 HiFi just to find out that all the nice features are only supported in XP and there is loads of interference when using a USB mouse. Surfing the web is just interference to my ears. The card makes annoying background noise all the time. Volume control works like ass. With this card, windows volume is 10-step, at 10 (0-100) volume is at max, at zero or muted, sound still plays. Cards own control panel works but everything should be done from there.

Add to that... Sidewinder X6 volume knob in Win7 is like playing slots, you never know if the volume goes to max, to min, or just freeze, mostly it just bounces up and down.

My head is about to explode because of the thing that no component/peripheral that I buy, will work as they should. How much money do I have to pour in the crappiness of todays consumer electronics industry that I can get what I want? Seems no amount will be enough.

/rant

if you go digital (HDMI or SPDIF) then the soundcard is out of the equation, and quality all comes down to the decoder/speakers.

naoan said:
Q : Do you think that software player has any effect on SQ at all?

yes. i use winamp, but i dont use any software tweaks or equalisers. they're only there to make up for a crappy soundcard (EG, bass boost makes up for its lack of clarity in bass by just making it louder)

D4S4 said:
winamp + realtek x-fi drivers if applicable. then you have to go to output options in winamp and set the nullsoft directsound output to use anything that says (realtek x-fi) next to it, depends on how your speakers are connected.

this only goes for onboard audio, generally i have found the primary sound driver option to sound the worst so try to use anything other than that.

edit - good thread btw

primary sound driver just uses whatever your default is in windows, so it wont sound any different at all. personally i found the modded realtek drivers made no difference - even with the Xfi drivers installed and crystalliser tweaked, my auzen still sounded better at default settings.

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Lets talk PC Audio

m4gicfour

Funtoss

New Member

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

Wile E

Power User

imperialreign

New Member

claylomax

claylomax

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

claylomax

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

claylomax

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

m4gicfour

MilkyWay

m4gicfour

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

m4gicfour

niko084

Meizuman

naoan

New Member

repman244

naoan

New Member

Octopuss

D4S4

Mussels

Freshwater Moderator

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