8130 sound

Great laptop so far but the only real issue that I have is the a problem with the sound quality. Now I'm not exactly an audiophile but even plugging in my earphones sounds terrible...
I've been playing around with the THX, installed the sound driver from the drivers disc and even ended up removing THX, but nothing seems to work.
The sound is a bit scratchy and does not come out strong.
Help?

 

sound quality on mine is very good (and I AM an audiophile). it's not "world class" or "knock your socks off good", but it's better than many of the laptops out there such as every HP I've heard/owned, and the only unit that sounds better is my Harmon-Kardon equipped Toshiba Satellite from about 5 years ago. Something is wonky with yours--either a driver issue or a defective sound-card circuit.

 

I'd suggest getting an external audio card. What earphones do you have currently and what will you be using your laptop sound card for? Is it mainly for gaming or for music?

 

The sound is fine when I game. It just doesn't sound very good for playing music. I'm was using my Gummy earphones that I also use for my ipod.

 

Which Windows?

 

Windows 7 Home Premium

 

In that case, I'd suggest buying an external video card from Creative. They have many options in a variety of price ranges. With the right deal, you could get one for under $30.

The sound on your notebook is the quality one would expect. The majority of laptops don't have onboard sound cards that would suffice for audiophiles. Fortunately, there are cheap options that can fix this problem .

 

I think Clevo's speakers are no good for anything but Youtube and TV shows. For the other stuff you're gonna need headphones, but the problem is that the onboard sound can't power any decent cans properly so you gotta buy a USB sound card. I use the Micro II and it works wonders but I hate the volume control (ramps up too steeply). In your case though it probably wouldn't be worth buying a sound card for $10 earbuds

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely use that if I deem my sound sub par when my order arrives.

 

Have you tried changing the sound settings in Windows from speakers to headphones?

 

The headphone amp on this laptop is a known weakness, several of us brought this up as a hope-to-fix on the future model.

Some headphones require more power than others to be driven properly.

That means that if you don't choose power efficient headphones the sound is going to be terrible. You can get an external headphone amp if you don't mind spending $$$

 

I got a 8130 on the way, guess I should go ahead and order a soundcard too, sounds like it won't do my IE8s justice

Can't be too upset about it though, was probably going to get one eventually anyway so I could use virtual 5.1 when gaming.

 

Just get an external USB DAC/HP Amp.

 

I understand laptop speakers are not the best, but even my $10 earphones sounded much better on my old crappy laptop. For this laptop it bad either way using laptop speakers or earphones.

I can't seem to find the setting in windows to change from speakers to headphones.

This bothered me more than expected, usually I don't care as long as its decent. Other than the sound performance, everything else seems to be good. It plays all my games on pretty high settings and the temperatures stay cool.

 

I remember in Windows XP you have to change the settings in Control Panel in "Sound" or something like that. Otherwise, it would sound quite bad. I remember if I didn't do that for my 5.1 system when switching between HP and 5.1, it would sound quite weak and distant. Maybe Windows 7 changes it automatically now?

I'm using Sennheiser 280 Pro 64 ohms version, it sounds fine to me.

 

Is the 8130 similar to the 8170?
I kinda mess around with the settings for headphones/speakers when switching to one another, and the difference is huge

In the realtek audio manager, checking stereo while using headphones will produce a more vibrant sound quality, and also changing the THX effects to headphones
Do the same for the speakers I guess

I'm extremely happy with the sound quality of my 8170. Then again, I do not know if its similar to the 8130...

 

They are very similar in terms of sound. The only difference is that the 8170 has more speakers (5 versus 2). The sound chipset and THX software is otherwise the same.

 

Ah, that explains the case eh

 

Tried my Audio-Technica ATH-M50 headphones and like others have said it sounds like dudu. Lucky I also bought a Fiio E6 Headphone Amp along with my headphones and it made a huge difference.

 

Does it sound bad, or is the volume just really weak? If it sounds bad, then the DAC of the sound card is also bad and you will also need an external DAC. Might as well just buy a USB sound card.

 

I wouldn't say its bad, I've heard worse. I think its just underpowered.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

 

The problem is the powering. I have several headphones, and some sound much worse then normal, while others sound only a little bit worse. However, once I attached a headphone amp (no usb DAC, just an amp), the sound was significantly better, every time. So really, you just need to buy an amp, though I suppose you might as well purchase a DAC if you want to go all the way, though those usually cost a bit more. Anyway, I'd recommend a Fiio E6, since those are really cheap.