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Poor Sound under Vista Home Premium

Discussion in 'Windows Vista' started by Joe McElvenney, May 31, 2009.

  1. Hi,

    Any help in improving the sound quality of my machine would be very much
    appreciated. It is particularly poor (broken up) on such sites as
    YouTube although it wouldn't win any prizes either when playing CDs or
    MP3 files. I am not very critical sound-wise so it has to be poor for me
    to notice. There is a slight issue with my monitor speakers but the
    sound is still poor on headphones connected to the line-output socket.

    My setup is Vista 32-bit Premium, Audigy SE sound board, Intel 1.8GHz
    dual-core, 2GB RAM and an MSI micro-ATX MB. I have loaded what I believe
    to be the latest sound drivers although things are actually marginally
    better with the on-board, RealTek HD sound chip. BTW, my download speed
    is reasonable at about 5MB/s.

    If this has already been done to death in this group - apologies.


    Cheers - Joe
     
  2. RalfG

    RalfG Guest

    "Joe McElvenney" <ximac@btinternet.com> wrote in message
    news:0hg425575m8ft7okvlov5iil30vbu22h6m@4ax.com...
    > Hi,
    >
    > Any help in improving the sound quality of my machine would be very much
    > appreciated. It is particularly poor (broken up) on such sites as
    > YouTube although it wouldn't win any prizes either when playing CDs or
    > MP3 files. I am not very critical sound-wise so it has to be poor for me
    > to notice. There is a slight issue with my monitor speakers but the
    > sound is still poor on headphones connected to the line-output socket.
    >
    > My setup is Vista 32-bit Premium, Audigy SE sound board, Intel 1.8GHz
    > dual-core, 2GB RAM and an MSI micro-ATX MB. I have loaded what I believe
    > to be the latest sound drivers although things are actually marginally
    > better with the on-board, RealTek HD sound chip. BTW, my download speed
    > is reasonable at about 5MB/s.
    >
    > If this has already been done to death in this group - apologies.
    >
    >
    > Cheers - Joe


    You've got considerations of audio CODECs as well as sound card drivers and
    speakers. Either sound card option should be able to play the Vista sample
    files flawlessly. Media types not supported by Microsoft (ie. Flash videos
    from YouTube) will require 3rd party CODECs or players in order to play
    properly. Note that the available bandwidth at YouTube and other such
    streaming media sites has as much effect on playback quality as your own
    connection speed.

    First off, unless I'm mistaken neither of your sound card options
    (Realtec-Audigy) has an amplifier in it to drive speakers with. They only
    have line-level or digital outputs. They may drive headphones adequately but
    both require you to use self-powered/amplified speakers otherwise.

    If you aren't going to use the on-board Realtec audio then uninstall its
    drivers and disable the on-board audio in the computer's BIOS. That should
    help.

    Apparently the Vista drivers for Audigy have been problematic from the
    beginning but more recent drivers perform better. When you update the
    drivers uninstall the old drivers first. Follow Creative's installation
    instructions exactly, take no shortcuts.
     
  3. beamish

    beamish Guest

    "Joe McElvenney" wrote:

    > Hi,
    >
    > Any help in improving the sound quality of my machine would be very much
    > appreciated. It is particularly poor (broken up) on such sites as
    > YouTube although it wouldn't win any prizes either when playing CDs or
    > MP3 files. I am not very critical sound-wise so it has to be poor for me
    > to notice. There is a slight issue with my monitor speakers but the
    > sound is still poor on headphones connected to the line-output socket.
    >
    > My setup is Vista 32-bit Premium, Audigy SE sound board, Intel 1.8GHz
    > dual-core, 2GB RAM and an MSI micro-ATX MB. I have loaded what I believe
    > to be the latest sound drivers although things are actually marginally
    > better with the on-board, RealTek HD sound chip. BTW, my download speed
    > is reasonable at about 5MB/s.
    >
    > If this has already been done to death in this group - apologies.
    >
    >
    > Cheers - Joe
    >

    Hello, Suggest removal of the sound card. Vista should enable the onboard
    sound.
    If problem check the BIOS for sound enabled.
    Had same setup found the sound card not as good as the onboard sound.
    Using a pair of powered external stereo speakers, will help.
    Check the onboard sound settings ,"after installing speakers and removing
    sound card".
    Use the Realtek Audio Manager and volume control to check the set up.
    Start with default settings and make small changes to improve sound.
    This is what I did and have reasonable stereo sound at this time.

    take care.
    beamish.
     
  4. pacinitaly

    pacinitaly Guest

    I just updated my IDT/Sigmatel drivers (again) no diff, I keep losing
    sound.


    --
    pacinitaly

    ASCII stupid question, Get A Stupid ANSI
     
  5. Hi,

    Thanks both of you for your suggestions. I have removed the Audigy SE
    card/drivers and enabled the on-board RealTek HD chip which has improved
    matters. I intend to get a pair of powered speakers but am a little
    short on space so will have to find a pair that will fit into my setup.
    This still leaves the 'bitty' sound in streaming audio such as YouTube
    and BBC i-player. The downloads are buffering OK so perhaps Vista and my
    machine are not capable of doing several things at once. Under XP Home,
    on the same computer, there wasn't a problem but I don't intend to
    revert just because of that.


    Thanks - Joe
     
  6. beamish

    beamish Guest

    "Joe McElvenney" wrote:

    > Hi,
    >
    > Thanks both of you for your suggestions. I have removed the Audigy SE
    > card/drivers and enabled the on-board RealTek HD chip which has improved
    > matters. I intend to get a pair of powered speakers but am a little
    > short on space so will have to find a pair that will fit into my setup.
    > This still leaves the 'bitty' sound in streaming audio such as YouTube
    > and BBC i-player. The downloads are buffering OK so perhaps Vista and my
    > machine are not capable of doing several things at once. Under XP Home,
    > on the same computer, there wasn't a problem but I don't intend to
    > revert just because of that.
    >
    >
    > Thanks - Joe
    >

    Hello,
    Check the Realtek Audio Manager and the volume control. Adjustments can be
    made.
    With your system hardware and software and download ability the problem
    should be a adjustment to some setting and not the basic system.
    take care.
    beamish.
     
  7. RalfG

    RalfG Guest

    If stereo is all you require there are a number of 2.1 speaker systems that
    don't need a lot of desk space but have a pretty good range of sound because
    of the additional bass speaker which sits on the floor, or on a low shelf.
    I'm thinking of the Logitech X series (X-230, X-240) in particular but
    there are probably others with even smaller main speakers that may suit you.
    Speakers can even be wall-mounted in some cases. Of course if you're one
    who prefers ear-splitting sound levels there are options out there for that
    too. ;-)

    Sound volume levels aren't affected by the connection speed. IIRC the Flash
    player plugin for YouTube has its own volume control (icon) that may be set
    too low. I suspect that the I-player has something similar. If it isn't
    that, the Realtek sound manager (and Windows as well) has settings for what
    type of speaker configuration you are using. It could make a difference if
    it is set to 4 or 5.1 channel sound and you only have 2 speakers connected,
    especially if bass redirection has been enabled and all the low frequency
    sounds are being channelled off to a non-existent bass speaker.

    "Joe McElvenney" <ximac@btinternet.com> wrote in message
    news:nej7255rg3ujhqiehe8h306h1at5kqv7ft@4ax.com...
    > Hi,
    >
    > Thanks both of you for your suggestions. I have removed the Audigy SE
    > card/drivers and enabled the on-board RealTek HD chip which has improved
    > matters. I intend to get a pair of powered speakers but am a little
    > short on space so will have to find a pair that will fit into my setup.
    > This still leaves the 'bitty' sound in streaming audio such as YouTube
    > and BBC i-player. The downloads are buffering OK so perhaps Vista and my
    > machine are not capable of doing several things at once. Under XP Home,
    > on the same computer, there wasn't a problem but I don't intend to
    > revert just because of that.
    >
    >
    > Thanks - Joe
     

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