The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    SRS sound enhancer

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by vorob, Apr 2, 2011.

  1. vorob

    vorob Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    83
    Messages:
    1,140
    Likes Received:
    59
    Trophy Points:
    66
    Anyone tried to understand how this crap works? From my point of view it makes you speakers to sound like its earphones but you are not wearing them, instead they are lying on table, that's how i hear sound with this "enhancer" enabled.

    For thous of you who don't understand, check realtek driver panel, its there.
     
    vorob, Apr 2, 2011
    #1
  2. DivineAura

    DivineAura Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    20
    Messages:
    338
    Likes Received:
    7
    Trophy Points:
    31
    I only use it to increase max volume for my Razer Piranha headset lol.
     
    DivineAura, Apr 2, 2011
    #2
  3. kcljj

    kcljj Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    82
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    I have a set of Creative T20s and notice that the various settings do make some difference. The movie settings for example, helps making speech stand out. But I feel that with a good pair of speakers or headphones, it makes no difference.
     
    kcljj, Apr 2, 2011
    #3
  4. AlienTroll

    AlienTroll Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    319
    Messages:
    598
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I actually quite like the SRS sound effects. They do make a huge difference for me. The SRS feature is another thing that makes the M11X a wanted PC.
     
    AlienTroll, Apr 2, 2011
    #4
  5. DivineAura

    DivineAura Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    20
    Messages:
    338
    Likes Received:
    7
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Actually SRS labs do have separate SRS sound enhancer program (with a price) for those laptops (my super outdated 7150m gfx) without SRS enabled.
     
    DivineAura, Apr 2, 2011
    #5
  6. AlienTroll

    AlienTroll Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    319
    Messages:
    598
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Yeah I know they have a separate SRS program. But its a little neater with Realtek.
     
    AlienTroll, Apr 2, 2011
    #6
  7. DDriver

    DDriver Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    3
    Messages:
    50
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Recent studies showed that 70+% of respondents prefer SRS enhanced sound over any other enhancer (dolby, etc) or pure sound.

    I personally use SRS to improve low freq for my 2.1 system and to increase space volume of sound. This is first 3D audio stuff that actually works for me. But presents are kind of sucks.
     
    DDriver, Apr 3, 2011
    #7
  8. kent1146

    kent1146 Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    2,354
    Messages:
    4,449
    Likes Received:
    476
    Trophy Points:
    151
    Yeah, it's a software algorithm that processes stereo sound for purposes of surround sound emulation. I took a look at it when I was looking to get better surround sound effects via headphones from my laptop. It does
    2.0 source audio --> 2.0 output audio (attempts to emulate multi-channel).

    The results from SRS were kind of crappy. I eventually went with CMSS3D Headphone Mode with a Creative Labs X-Fi USB SB1090 sound card. It puts out fantastic surround effects. It does:
    5.1 source audio --> 2.0 output audio (downmixed surround sound)

    The X-Fi SB1090 sound card costs $50, and requires me to deal with the hassle of an external USB sound card. But the quality of the surround sound on the X-Fi SB1090 is so superior to the RealTek SRS, that it makes the added cost and hassle worth it for the incredibly convincing immersion you get.
     
    kent1146, Apr 3, 2011
    #8
  9. DDriver

    DDriver Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    3
    Messages:
    50
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    15
    By definition there would be a huge difference in quality of this two approaches (apples and oranges).
     
    DDriver, Apr 5, 2011
    #9