Envy 14 Audio Issues- lots of background noise. Earbuds hissing. Missing driver or software?

Hi. Really hoping I can get some help from someone here.
Just received my new Envy 14 about a week ago.
Have done a clean install of Win7 and overall am really happy with it.

Problem: I'm using fairly high quality in-ear earbuds (Ultimate Ears SuperFi 5vi) and there is a lot of background noise. As in, if the earbuds are plugged in and there is nothing playing, I can hear a light hissing. These earbuds are abnormally sensitive so that might be part of the problem. However, my last lenovo laptop and my iphone do not have such a problem. I would expect a lot more from this laptop and I'm confused as to whether this is normal.

Potential reason: following my clean install, I do not recall installing any specific audio driver and/or beats audio application. I also see neither of these on the "drivers and downloads" page for the Envy 14. Looking in my Device manager I do not see any errors, but I'm also confused exactly what the audio device is. Is it the "ATI High Definition Audio Device" or is that only for HDMI-out audio?
I see "HP MediaSmart Music Software" only hp's driver page but I'm assuming that is just trash bloatware.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

swsetup/drivers/audio

it should be IDT audio

 

flashback, I actually have the same earbuds as you

On my Envy 14, I feel like almost all headphones are noisy. I always hear hissing and stuff like that. Maybe I'm just used to a cleaner source, but I think the Envy 14 audio system is kinda noisy for the headphone jack :/

Just wondering, did you notice that you only need the audio turned up like 5% and it's already really really loud? (I can't turn the audio up past 15% or so before I feel like it's gonna break my ears)

 

there's a possibility that this is being caused by that old envy 17/idt audio in general bug where the microphone is screwing stuff up. It's an IDT audio thing apparently.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/6347979-post1478.html


otherwise the headphones and the envy 14 don't work together well due to how the audio jack is powered (it has more gain and uh other things than regular laptop audio jacks)

 

Thanks for the input everyone.

did some more searching and finally found:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/504259-static-e14s-headphone-jacks.html

In summary, yes, this is a common problem with the envy's and sensitive headphone. There is a mic problem that some people have but it is a seperate issue and I have verified that it is no my problem.

Solution: Buy new headphone or buy an "attenuator" which essentially adds a resistor in line with your headphones to bump up the impedance. Some have reported that they feel like the attenuators change the tone of the music unevenly. As magusdraco said, it seems like the jack on the envy 14 is particularly powerful which may be advantageous for larger over-ear headphones that are not as sensitive as mine (115 dB SPL/mW, 1kHz) but sucks for most high quality in-ears.

 

Yeah, I really can't get the audio much above 10% before it is uncomfortably loud. this is pretty unfortunate and a problem I've had with a couple of devices now but nowhere near as bad as with the envy 14. as I said in my last post, we can buy an attenuator which will somewhat solve the problem (both the hissing and ridiculously loud output we get) but it is just kind of a pain in the to deal with in my opinion. I really wish there were some way to turn down the power internally... ugh

 

I've been trying to dig through the registry to find if it's possible, but so far no luck. What I found interesting was that if you look at sound options in control panel, you can see the green bars moving up and down based on the sound that's going on. Once you plug in headphones, the green bars will max themselves out, which means that the software is upping the gain on the sound a lot.

 

I feel that the HP Envy 14 sucks sound wise in most every way possible. Its a joke.

A loud setting is approximately 6-7 in Windows 7 using Sony MDR-V900HD, anything more than 10 is torture. Yes, my system hisses pretty bad at times - but I have noticed switching which headphone out you are using sometimes lowers the hiss substantially. The other thing I noticed is that when using headphones typically setup for 1/4" out (professional headphones of any kind), the edge of the connector contacts the case, not allowing the jack to go deep enough, this means unless you jam th connector in there the audio output has a really "strange" and low quality + low volume sound to it.

The speakers are super beamy and aimed at your chest, combined with no lows and a very low output. My DV6000 was MUCH MUCH louder than this. I had to adjust the EQ up to be able to hear certain Megavideo videos in a quiet room. Its hard to share music with people gathered around this laptop.

For an audiophile laptop I kind of feel like this is a joke. Maybe I am the only one. As a music producer I was hoping to use this laptop for some things while on the go or away from home, if the sun and the moon align I don't mind doing some things, but I couldn't imagine using this laptop for anything serious sound wise - a MBP would be much better. Sorry for the rant. At least Dr. Dre thinks it sounds good?

 

In my humble opinion Beats Audio has built an empire on marketing and BS. Hear what you have been missing with our software powered audio solution...

Thanks but I can turn up the volume and bass on my own. I have a rather nice set of buds myself, and I find it a little bit rediculous that at 5% volume I have to clench my teeth. For some softer music you can even hear the power noise.