Sound Quality

[David Kelsey]

When I had XP dual booted with ME, there was a very noticeable difference in
sound quality in ME's favour. ME was full and mellow, while XP was thin and
weak. Now XP SP2 on its own continues to stutter and stumble during the
startup and closedown sounds, and downloaded music has a background slight
rumble like very distant gunfire. I have the latest sound drivers for my
Realtek AC97 on board sound on an MSI K7T266 Pro2 motherboard, and the
latest Direct X. I have also set Windows Media Player (also current) as the
default player, and removed Total Recorder after I found it interfered with
iTunes. I've plugged and unplugged the speakers and cables, but nothing
improves matters. So, two questions please - has anyone any ideas on
solving the problem in XP, and/or is there any way of using the ME codecs or
whatever in XP? Incidentally, the stutter often goes away if I play the
sounds in Control Panel.

All suggestions gratefully received.

David Kelsey

 

[R. McCarty]

Just a question, When you installed the Realtek drivers have you used
the support software (Mixer, Speaker configuration, EQ) ?
It may not be a driver, codec - but coloration effects of the support
software.

I would use those tools and make sure that things like Noise reduction,
Equalization and "Spatial" settings are off.

Also, before you upgraded to the latest driver package, did you uninstall
any previous support software via Add/Remove programs ?

 

[David Kelsey]

Thansk for your response. This system has very little under the volume
settings, but there is a separate app called Soundman which has a
mixer/equaliser and sound effects with 23 environments to choose from, each
of which is editable (not by me, I don't think.). It has always been set to
none. The equaliser offers the usual range of sound types, but again, all
are off. There is noise suppression for a microphone, also off. I don't
want to play with it - I just want normal sounds with no unwanted
aberrations, so I have not set anything. I probably wouldn't know what to
set anyway. I just have two speakers of no great quality.

This lot is all there has ever been on this system, both under ME and XP,
over about three years. I didn't alter anything under ME either, but the
sound was perfect for me. I have reinstalled XP twice on clean drives.

Do you have any suggestions for areas I should look at? I thought the
default settings would be fine, as one would expect. I have even tried
bootvis in an attempt to change the loading sequence, which might have been
causing a blip, but it also happens on shut down, so that seems unlikely.

I'll play with the equaliser, as you suggest, but I don't really know what I
am doing.

Thanks again
David

 

[David Kelsey]

Interesting. Of all the settings in the equaliser, the only one which made
a difference was called 'powerful'. This eliminated the stutter, which is
the good news, but the bad news is it only eliminated it on the second
playing, which doesn't help much, as it was the shutdown sound I was using.
I've tried every other environmental or fx setting, and none of them do much
except as above. We seem to be getting somewhere, though.

David

 

[R. McCarty]

Thanks for the follow-up. It's a somewhat difficult area to diagnose.
I wouldn't think you'd have a perceptible change in audio quality from
ME to XP.

There are a number of settings/variables connected with Audio.
In the Sounds/Audio applet in Control Panel I would check the Audio
(TAB) and make sure the correct hardware is being used. Also, it
(deficiencies) could be the Sample, Data rate used by the Hardware.
Also, codec priorities might be different between ME & XP. Speaker
settings can add "Coloration" if the settings are for any 5:1 or other
multi-channel outputs when you have a standard Stereo speaker
setup.

It's an aggravation to have a situation with something as basic as
Audio/Sound. You might want to visit some of the Realtek based
forums and see if other users with your motherboard/Chipset are
having issues. By the way have you updated your Chipset driver
package ? Also, I would check the actual Sound Card in Device Mgr.
and verify the driver revision. Most sound cards require multiple
drivers and if some are mismatched it might account for "Abnormal"
output/tone response.

 

[David Kelsey]

Thanks again. I can't believe it, but after all this time, I have never
actually checked out the speakers! I bought new ones about the time I
installed XP, and kind of assumed they would be OK. I have just tried the
sound with my best earphones, and it blew my socks off. No stutter, no
rumble, and fantastic sound. Black mark to Labtec then.

Thank you for your help in suggesting things and forcing me to do the
business properly! It doesn't account for the difference between XP and ME,
but maybe these speakers just work better with ME. When I get some new
ones, I'll know. How often is it that the simplest things get overlooked.

David

 

[kurttrail]

Interesting. Of all the settings in the equaliser, the only one
which made a difference was called 'powerful'. This eliminated the
stutter, which is the good news, but the bad news is it only
eliminated it on the second playing, which doesn't help much, as it
was the shutdown sound I was using. I've tried every other
environmental or fx setting, and none of them do much except as
above. We seem to be getting somewhere, though.

Have you looked for an updated driver on the net?

--
Peace!
Kurt
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