G73JH - Audio Options for a Budding Audiophile???

Hello,

I've been a lurker here for the past year, which is how long I've had my G73JH-A2. First, I want to thank everyone in this forum for the time and effort that they have contributed to making my experience with this laptop a far better one than if I was on my own.

Second, I have a decent set of headphones on order - the Shure SRH940. Have any of you used DAC's, Amp's or DAC/Amp's with your laptop? I was thinking about getting an external iBasso D6 DAC/Amp and running 24 bit/96,000 Hz audio through the USB > DAC/Amp > Headphones.

Info on iBasso D6: iBasso

Has anyone experimented with 'high quality audio' using these laptops? What are the strengths and weaknesses of our built in sound card in this kind of application? If so, please post your experiences, observations and recommendations. Many thanks!

 

The best output I've measured on the Realtek solution was 100dB SNR with 24/96... which is just slightly better than the 16bit limit of 98dB... in other words, mediocre.

I upgraded with the Creative USB HD, which sports a nice 114dB capacity, and an amplified headphone port. They say it's good to 330Ohm, but I find it more realistic to 150Ohm cans.

My only caveat with it is that it lacks 16/44.1 direct output.

 

You really can't go wrong spending $200+ on an amp. But spending less than $200, you really can't go particularly wrong either, so long as you remember you're buying a sub $200 amp - you might as well stick to a cmoy reference off ebay, or a FiiO from deal extreme.

 

Hi Chastity, this seems like a nice sound system .. three questions regarding the Creative USB HD:

1. Did you have to remove the existing Sound Blaster Software (EAX 4.0 etc) from the G73JH prior to installing all the Sound Blaster software that comes with the USB HD ? Does it come with equivalent software ?

2. Does the Realtek onboard sound have to be disabled in order to use the USB HD ?

3. Can the HD USB drive the internal speakers/headphones of the G73JH or are you restricted to using the headphone jack/outputs of the USB HD itself ?

Thanks ..

 

1) I uninstalled the X-Fi MB software, as this unit supplies the updated THX Pro suite, with EAX5 support for ALchemy.

2) No, no need to disable Realtek, just need to change the USB HD to default playback.

3) You can not drive the internal speakers, and the gain in fidelity would be lost on them anyways.

 

Hi, Chastity:

Interesting unit at a great price. Have you ever had any problem with the DAC in your unit 'clipping' at the higher bit rates due to data 'overload'? I tried to find out which receiver and D/A chips are in the Creative USB HD, but so far no luck.

Also, what is your subjective opinion of the relative increase in sound quality over the stock card? Are there dramatic improvements in clarity, tightness of bass and depth of soundstage (the '3D sensation')? Finally, what kind of cans are you using? Many thanks!

 

1) No data stream clipping. Just use a happy USB2.0 port.

2) The DAC is the AKM AK4396VF.

3) Yes, it's very noticeable difference from the stock headphone port, plus it has 1/4" ports for real headphones. It also has a proper toslink if you need one, and RCA line-out if you want to use an external amp.

4) I can drive my Sony MDR-SA5000 from the on-board amp. My HD580s need an external amp however. (Not important tho, since I've been using the Sony's primarily)

5) Audio quality is on par with my desktop setups in the past, and I'm talking the Audigy 4 Pro, X-Fi Elite Pro, tho not as good as the Auzen HD HT > HDMI > Yamaha RX-V863 w/ Burr Brown 124dB DAC. This setup has better amplification and analog path. (No duh!)

newegg has them for $85 shipped.

Overall, it's a good external DAC for the sub-$100 price. You can also look at the uDAC 2, but I went with this because I wanted to test it's gaming support. (No 5.1 > headphone surround mixing )

 

I have an iBasso D1 and Sennheiser HD650s, which should be comparable to the D6 and Shure SRH940s. It's a great sounding setup and should help to keep you from getting that 'itch' to upgrade... at least for a little while.

 

The uDAC 2 also looks like a great value. On their website, they discuss USB port selection: To minimize noise and dropouts, connect your audio interface to a port at the back of your computer. Ports on the computer’s face, monitor or keyboard generally don’t perform as well. If you use a USB hub, choose one with its own AC power adapter.

If there are differences, which USB port on the G73 would you guys recommend using?

 

I think they may be referring to desktops, that sometimes have unpowered (or underpowered) front USB ports. On the G50/51 series I remember the rear port had less noise for some reason, maybe because it wasn't on an add-on card. I'm not sure about the G73 having any difference between ports, besides the JW/SW that have one USB3 port.

 

I figured they were referring to desktops, but I wonder how do the various USB ports on the G73 differ? Is there is mix of card and mobo mounts? I have a JH, so no USB 3.0 for me -- which right now might not be a bad thing, because some folks on the forums at head-fi.org seem to be having some teething problems with their gear and the new 3.0 ports.

 

The right ports are on the mainboard, the left is on an add-in card with the audio. Again I'm not sure if there is a difference between the ports (in terms of noise) on the G73. See: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asu...475907-asus-g73-series-disassembly-guide.html

 

the USB ports of the G73 series are all solid 2.0 performers... I use ports on each side with indifference. Never tried the 3.0 port... then again I use my JH primarily.

 

After many hours of research, I finally decided which headphone DAC/amp my G73JH was going to sail into the sunset with: the Yulong U100 (in black).

Yeah, I never heard of them either. However, this is apparently the hot DAC/amp ticket in it's price range, so I pulled the trigger. $225 including shipping direct from the manufacturer in China.

After posting here last week, the uDAC2 mentioned by Chastity quickly became the front runner. It was small, cool looking and made in the USA. At around $120, I thought I was done. Then I accidentally stumbled upon a thread by an engineer who took the manufacturer to task for not properly validating the published specifications. (Don't worry Chastity, even the majority of the folks who really follow this stuff didn't know either. )

So, if anyone is intrigued here are two reviews that were very helpful:

The New Recommendation: The Yulong U100 USB DAC | Headfonia

Review: Yulong U100 compact USB DAC/amp - Head-Fi.org Community

 

Hi Chastity .. does this do 16/48 direct output ? Does it do 16 bit at all ?

 

Yes it supports 16/48, just not 16/44.1

 

Hi Chastity, I have a question for you!

I just bought the Creative USB HD and my headphones suffer from quite a bit of popping and crackling. As with you, I use it with my G73JH. Have you experienced any issues with this card?

I uninstalled the old Creative package and ran driver sweeper before installing, and I have also tried uninstalling the realtek drivers(both regular audio and HDMI) as well as reinstalling the Creative USB HD drivers.
Can you, as the merciful being you are, tell me how you installed it step by step?

Edit: Oh, and I am also unable to access the creative audio control panel as well as the entertainment console. It says that there is no supported audio device. I am running Windows 7 Ultimate x64.

Edit2: My headphones are the AKG k450.

 

1) You can leave the Realtek Audio drivers installed.

2) First, remove any and all things Creative. You can follow up with Driver Sweeper 2.90 for Creative.

3) Reboot, and then install the Creative package that came with your USB HD Disc.

 

I'm sad to say that it didn't help. Still the same weird popping. And I still cannot open the audio control panel and the entertainment console. In the advanced tab of the speaker properties the default format is 16 bit, 48000 hz (dvd quality). Is this how it should be?

I tried connecting the device to my brothers computer that runs windows vista x86 and even without installing any drivers it worked wonderfully. So I'm guessing that this has something to do with windows 7 x64 compatibility.

I'm really disappointed with this purchase thus far, hope I can fix it with your(not only you Chastity ) help. Thank you for any assistance!

 

Seeing that I am using it on Windows 7 x64, I would hazard to say it's NOT a compatibility issue. However there is something wrong with your current setup. Since I do not know your PC's history, it's hard to guess from here.

If you followed my instructions, then you have some conflict with perhaps other hardware. I would try updating the drivers for ALL your current hardware. (Intel INF & SATA, Atheros WiFi and LAN drivers, Realtek, etc.)

I'm going to guess that you don't update anything other than the video and perhaps the Realtek drivers.

I would also uninstall the Creative drivers and apps, and see if the device works properly with no drivers. If it does not, update the other hardware drivers, or disable them in Device Manager to find which one is conflicting.

 

Quite the contrary actually.

Two and a half weeks ago I installed an SSD, and of course made it my boot drive. Windows 7 x64 Ultimate was installed and I updated everything from scratch. Most of the drivers from your asusrog page, including chipset, SATA and LAN drivers. The wireless card was replaced by yours truly quite some time ago with a intel 6300. P4G 1.1.37 and the keyboard "fix" is also in place, as well as your vBIOS and BIOS version 213. I have even updated the firmware of my 500 GB seagate drive. So as far as I know I'm as good as completely updated. Latest Realtek drivers as well.

I am currently running the march 23 preview 11.4 catalyst driver, could that be the culprit? What are you running? Asders mobility mod for the latest release? Maybe I should go back to the latest WHQL driver and see if that helps.

And the programs I've installed are mostly game related(Steam or stand-alone games) and Office as well as Vuze. And small benchmark programs like FurMark and so forth.

Arg, I hate this.

 

I'm using the Mar29 release that doesn't need a mod

 

Yeah, that was the one I had installed too actually, was confused there for a second.

Installing the 11.3 driver set didn't help either way.

I must say I'm tempted to return it. It's apparently so incredibly random how
creative works from one system to the next. Even when the systems are nearly identical, like ours.

Balls.

 

Do yourself a favor and run DPC Latency Tool. Audio issues like that are usually from stream failures.

 

Never exceeds 500, always stays in the green. Max 476 Avg 150-200. Tomorrow I'll try using another usb cable, and maybe I can rustle up some more headphones to try out with it. If I can't fix it by tomorrow I think I will return it. Maybe. Thanks for the help so far Chastity, if you have any other ideas please let me know. Time to go to bed.

 

Sorry to double post, but I had to ask one last question.

Do you have any issues with the programs that is on the driver disk? I can't start any of them. Ok, the volume panel is available in the bottom right of the taskbar, and I can access it. When I click the icon I get a list that contains a volume button as well as a list of two programs, Creative entertainment console and Creative audio control panel.
But when I click either of those I get an error.

When I click entertainment console I get a message that says: There are no supported audio device available. You need to close the application. Click OK to close the application now.

When I click the audio control panel I get a message that says: The audio device supported by this application is not detected. The application will exit.

The same messages appear when I attempt to use the autoupdate feature. The autoupdate recognizes the USB Sound Blaster HD, but none of the updates(only one "important", ALchemy, the rest is pretty much bloatware) is installed, and as stated, these errors pop up.

 

I get those errors when the USB HD isn't plugged in.

 

Very strange. I'm returning it. Thank you again for helping me with these issues.

 

It's not strange... the software is designed and licensed to the soundcard. If it isn't present, it reports an error.

 

Seems that the problems were all solveable with a creative update. Shame to return a computer because of software problems.

 

That's not what I meant. I meant that it is strange that with my particular setup the card apparently isn't recognized by the computer, even though it was visible in the devices and printers window and in device manager. That is what the issue is here, at least it seems that way when I put two and two together with the info you've given me.

@ DCx: Thankfully it's not a whole computer I'm returning, just an external sound card. But I suspect that Creative would have a whole lot more happy customers if they would just spend a bit more time and resources in the testing/driver department.

 

Sorry that you are having so many issues with it... I've used mine in several machines w/o mishap. Maybe you just need a replacement?

 

Update:

After returning the USB X-FI HD I have not bothered with installing the original sound blaster HD software until today. As I'm at my parents house for easter I didn't have access to my G73JH utility disc, so I downloaded the pack from Chastitys driverpage.

The thing is; after unzipping the files the pack would not install on my computer, at least not with the setup file placed in the main folder. A message pops up and it says that it can't find any compatible devices. I went around this by going into the audio folder, and then the setup folder, then running the setup.exe found there. This installed the creative volume panel, audio center, wavestudio and ALchemy. I can access all these features with no problems after installing the compatibility pack(but not before installing it). But it doesn't seem like it installed any drivers.

The reason I say this is that when I hover the mouse pointer over the creative symbol on the corner of the taskbar these lines are shown: "Volume Panel (null) (Realtek High Definition Audio)".

Does anyone know what may cause this error of sorts? Can it be because I didn't install the files from the disc? I had no issues with installing the Creative software from disc the last time I did a fresh windows install, not even a month ago. I did a repaste a couple of days before the fresh install, so if something went wrong then it shouldn't have worked then either I think...?

I use both driver sweeper 2.9 and CCleaners registry fixer when uninstalling/installing audio and video software. The audio through the headphone out is functioning properly, as far as I can tell. Both the newest Realtek drivers are installed, no problem with those.

Does Realtek and Creative share the same chip on the motherboard?

Help!

Edit: Seems like I should read some of the stuff in the ***READ BEFORE POSTING*** thread. Man, I'm such a tard sometimes Now if I could just find a DVD-R somewhere...

 

I burned the driver and app disc iso onto a dvd, and followed the procedure written in the last part of this post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/516054-creative-audio-center-lock-up-fix-15.html#post6972978

Thing is I still get "Volume Panel (null) (Realtek High Definition Audio)" when hovering over the Volume Panel button in the taskbar with the mouse pointer.
Is this normal?

Sorry if I seem like a person with a severe case of hypocondria, but then again, maybe I am one. Especially after all this time with random problems with this computer in general.

Thanks!

Edit: And when I check the Enable Bass Boost box in the Audio Center the program stops responding...

 

I would just use the SB X-Fi MB 1.1 package and use the patcher.

 

Update: I received my Yulong U100 DAC/Amp and headphones (didn't want to wait for the new Shure SRH940 delayed release, so I went with the SRH840 instead) and wow - what a difference! The DAC/Amp literally installed itself in about 15 seconds and now there's no looking back.

Whether you spend a little or a lot, I highly recommend bypassing the internal sound card if audio quality is important to you.

 

Yep, that's what I ended up doing.(or end up doing, when I get my stuff)

I installed the SB X-Fi MB package from this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/519478-creative-x-fi-mb-your-g73-realtek-hd-2-48-a.html
It works without any issues after installing the latest Realtek driver. It sound quite a bit better than just using the Realtek drivers, that's for sure, and it will do nicely until I receive my new gear.(What did you mean by using the patcher Chastity? The Windows 7 compatibilty thing is only for the original Creative software that came with our G73's as far as I know, couldn't find anything else.)

Well, anyway, after the failed attempt at installing the X-Fi HD USB I returned it, and ordered something else in stead. What did I order you may ask? I'll tell you!
I ordered the fiiO E7 DAC/AMP, the fiiO E9 headphone AMP, and a couple of days before(initially thinking it would go with the X-Fi HD USB) I ordered the AKG Q701 headphones.

I just hope I don't run into any more problems with the audio on this laptop, nothing would be more relieving to me than plugging all them suckers in and be met by static-free, glorious sound!

 

I used to have the G73 and ran audio through an iBasso D10. The sound from my old pair of shure se535 sounded worse than straight out of the audio jack for some reason... This was not the case when using my westone um3x or monster turbine pro gold though.

 

From what I hear the iBasso D10 is a nice piece of kit. Unfortunately, I don't know much about in-ear cans.

 

For anyone using an amp and a decent pair of headphones, I highly recommend making sure that THX TruStudio is turned off. You paid for nice equipment, no sense messing it up with terrible EQ settings.

 

I didn't find any THX software on my G73 - but I did a clean install of Win 7 shortly after I received it. 'Just curious - did it ship with that orginally?

 

I did a clean install of my G53 the moment I got mine, as well. I can't say with 100% certainty that it came installed from the factory, but I think that it did. It was on the G53JW driver CD (so maybe it's not on the G73?).

IIRC, Creative was just a single item on the driver CD, even though it installs ALchemy and THX TruStudio, neither of which do I ever plan to use.

 

I only reinstalled the essentials, so that's probably why it's not on there now.

Luckily, the hardware I bought is completely independent of any software on the laptop. Plug>Play>Enjoy!

 

Just got the Creative USB HD for my G73JH - Chas, thanks for recommending it ! Fairly happy with the purchase - easy setup, crisper sound & more detail in music now.

Having fun going thru my music collection again and usually hearing something new - never noticed how distinct the high-hats in Smooth Criminal was earlier ! (MJ version, not the Alient Ant Farm crap)

 

That's one of the coolest aspects of having these DAC's. I, too have had more fun listening to my old favorites and finding all kinds of little details I never heard before.

 

It also gives you an excuse to get some great new headphones

 

I finally received them, and it went as well as I could hope! I'm now very happy with my setup! The FiiO E9/E7 combo is definitely recommended, specially at their price!