How to fix sound in headphones!

*New update*
Most Sager owners at notebookreview.com have agreed that the Creative X-Fi Go! Pro is a great value as an add-on USB sound card. The device plugs in like a standard USB device and provides better sound quality and more bass than the onboard Realtek codec.
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Here is how you fix the sound and bring back that rich, bassy sound you remember from a more normal computer with a decent amp:

First, make sure THX is installed and registered. Now,

1. Go to sound in control panel
2. Make sure "Speakers" is selected, and click configure in the bottom left
3. Select 7.1 Surround, do not uncheck any options
4. Feast your ears on the difference between stereo (HORRENDOUSLY treble driven) and Quad/5.1/7.1 while listening to a song. Yes, any of the three options will work, but I keep 7.1 on so I make sure the maximum power is being output through my headphone jack.

Also, go to properties for the speakers, then enhancements tab, and disable all sound effects, Equalization sucks the most.

In THX, only enable "Speaker," (though Surround sounds great for speeches and commentary, not music though) and if you have 7.1 enabled in Windows sound, use "external speaker" for a slightly larger sound stage than the already good headphone option.

In addition, for highest bass:

*If Windows/Realtek is in Stereo mode*
1. THX in headphone mode: Set crossover from 80hz to 200hz
2. THX in external speaker mode: Set crossover from 80hz to 200hz

*If Windows/Realtek is in Quad/5.1/7.1 mode*
1. THX in headphone mode: Set crossover from 80hz to 200hz
2. THX in external speaker mode: Set crossover to 10hz

*Update*

E-Wolf (please welcome him!) recently stated on page 4 that "There is another workaround. Just uninstall THX crap, dowload and clean install new 2.7 Realtek drivers. Set speakers config to 7.1. Sounds much better without this THX software. And yes the bass is back."
Link: Realtek Definition Audio Codecs

I may test this myself, however it usually is a good idea to stay with the official Sager drivers until we know it is safe to use the stock Realtek drivers.

 

sounds better on stereo to me.

 

By the way you can still adjust the crossover frequency when using headphone mode in THX with 5.1/7.1 in Realtek and if you want to take full advantage of the 7.1 sound through stereo headphones, select headphone mode in THX setting.

 

yeah the annoying treble is caused by the setting in thx, you need to switch it from built in speakers to headphones or external speakers, basically what the built in setting does is sends the bass to the built in sub, instead of the speakers, since your headphones dont have a built in sub all you get is the treble, so you just need to switch it external or headphones, you dont need to change it to 5.1 or whatever keep it on stereo, and if you need more bass, use the speaker size enhancement on the thx settings.

 

With windows sound set to stereo, THX built in sounds like crap, then headphones and external only semi crap. Set Windows sound to quad, 5.1, or 7.1 and now Headphone and External sound much better but now almost exactly the same, while built in is still crap.

Hackness, I think Realtek follows whatever Windows is and vice versa, unless you were already saying that.

To Exposed88: I think stereo sounds good SQ wise, but it still sounds like no bass is being pushed, no matter the THX setting.

 

What Realtek does is provide a shortcut that sets the windows 7 playback device setting, and what THX does is take what's output from the on board playback device and downmix or upmix depending on your setting and how many jacks you use and also the THX mode you choosed and modify whatever came from the on board soundcard, the Stereo/5.1/7.1 setting in realtek != THX setting, if you set realtek to 7.1 and use headphone mode in THX, it'll become virtual 7.1 surround sound, good for games.

I guess the speaker option doesn't really work well for 2.0 headphones, I use an analog 5.1 headset, when using headphone mode it'll turn into a 2.1 headset that plays virtual 5.1 surround sound and the subwoofer still works and still gets powerful bass, the on board soundcard is pretty nice if you do have a headphone that has built in subwoofer with CEN/SUB jack, a lot of options will become available to you, and the sound is decent after tweaked.

 

Thanks for the helpful info. I have the Sennheiser HD 201 which is a normal stereo headset. It is curious how the sound from my HP desktop (vista) sounds like the "virtual surround" you mentioned (7.1+headphone mode). It doesn't seem virtual at all, it seems just normal and unrestrained. With the sager it probably is enhanced/virtual surround like you say, while the stereo mode is just deprived of bass but maintains the sound stage width and SQ similar to my HP.

 

Forgot to mention, to enable virtual sound you need to enable surround sound in the THX panel, I've tried 40% and 73%, can pinpoint pretty well in BF3 and Crysis 2.

 

Why do I get this message when I try to open THX? 73485d3f6d0187b7d147f7b0c0ac7e36.png
Then if I click 'Yes,' it says there are no supported audio devices...

 

Did you click on the register THX or something like that on your desktop since you first received the laptop?

 

I don't think so..? Where can I find that?

 

It should be on your desktop, if you deleted it by accident you can still go to Start/Creative/THX TruStudio Pro/Activate.

 

You're a GENIUS!!! Thank you so much! +Rep

 

Haha It's funny. The people on page 1 were right. When I didn't have THX activated, my speakers sounded great. But hearing everyone talk about THX made me think I was missing out on this amazing sound. As soon as I activated it, my speakers turned in to complete crap. To make it sound like I had it, leave your control panel settings on "Speaker." Just go to THX, turn all the main settings off, go to settings and make it "Headphones." Good as new. :]

 

The support for 2.0 headphones and built-in speaker is pretty bad on the P150EM/P170EM, only headphones with discrete speakers or 5.1/7.1 speakers will make it shine (The ones with CEN/LFE jack), when it works it's amazing .

 

I use my Turtle Beach x41's in the S/PDIF :]

 

That's a nice dolby 7.1 headset, when you use S/PDIF does it output also the subwoofer channel seperately or rely on the full range channels and let the headset add the bass itself?

Or you have the laptop output only stereo and let the headset do the dolby 7.1 process?

 

I leave my settings pretty much default. The headset has such a full sound by itself. The bass is EXTREMELY crisp. If I want more bass, I turn the speaker size up, in THX. Plus, the x41's have a built-in bass boost button. And on Realtek, I have the Digital Output on 24 Bits, 48000 HZ (Studio Quality.) That makes the biggest difference in quality. :]

 

So basically the bass boost that came from THX when using S/PDIF is altered into the full range channels rather than seperating it for a seperated subwoofer. Personally I haven't been able to identify the difference between 16 bit and 24 bit in sound quality so I kept it 16 bit 48000Hz Good to know the headset can do it all by itself, good solution .

 

That's where the bass has been hiding! thanks a lot, i can actually listen to deadmau5 now, lol. Now THX surround sound sounds like crap, but I don't even bother to use that

 

I leave all the THX settings off except for "Speaker," when I want more bass. :] Just make sure you have "Headphones" selected in your settings.

 

trayeberle the problem with using the S/PDIF is the audio chipset is not licenced and thus not able to use Dolby Digital Live encoding so games will only be able to output a stereo LPCM signal (this is because officially S/PDIF does not have the bandwidth available for uncompressed 5.1/7.1 channel sound - even though it does).

If you use the ASUS Xonar U3 which does support Dolby Digital Live all games will be encoded with Dolby Digital 5.1 and you can make proper use of your headphones.

Alternatively just use the 7.1 Dolby Headphone facility in the U3 along with the analogue out.

The U3 is on a different planet compared to the audio chipset in the P150EM.

 

That's odd. Oh well, my games sound fantastic with my x41's. I'm more than happy.

 

It may be different for others, but for me, when Windows/Realtek is in 7.1 while watching YouTube videos, THX headphone mode blends the stereo signal to mono and amplifies it, while External Speaker is less amplified but in mixed in stereo.

While playing music with Windows Media Player, though, Headphone and External Speaker sound almost exactly the same, with both sounding like normal stereo signal.

 

+1 on the U3... Was the best thing I had bought for 16€ by a long shot (now just to find an adapter for the optical out that the previous owner had lost)

 

Any recommendations for a good external USB sound card for use with Ultimate Ear ear buds? I don't mind spending some money for a good one but the smaller the unit the better.

 

Did you not turn on THX surround when using 7.1 model in the Realtek with THX headphone mode? It doesn't work without it.

 

The ASUS Xonar U3 which we have just been discussing and I use with my Etymotics and Ultimate Ears.

 

Seconded. The U3 is great with my sennheiser HD595.

 

Anyone tried the fiio e17?

 

How do I adjust the THX settings? I open it up, go to Settings, and all I get is a drop down menu that I can't click on that says "Select your speaker setup".

EDIT: Nevermind, got it working.

So I need to enable Surround in the THX settings to get virtual surround sound in games? And what does the slider under Speakers adjust?

 

Yes turn on surround and adjust it to your liking, and don't forget to set Realtek to 7.1 channel, THX panel to headphone mode. The slider under speaker adjusts the dB for the bass that's altered into THX 2.0 channel. If you are using external speaker mode with CEN/SUB jack plugged in it'll show subwoofer gain +15dB instead.

 

THX surround is bogus. I did try it though, and it only separates some things, but still sounds mono. Remember that I mentioned headphone and external mode sound the same in all windows things like WMP. This is just happening in Chrome with YouTube.

 

This is not for sources with stereo sounds... It's for sources that come with 5.1/7.1 channel.

 

Is there a real fix? Or is this true hardware related poor performance? You can't fix poor hardware, unless this is just a silly driver issue.

Otherwise i'm going to have to grab a USB sound card somewhere.

 

It's a workaround to boost the sound quality to mediocre levels. Grab that USB sound card.

 

There is another workaround. Just uninstall THX crap, dowload and clean install new 2.7 Realtek drivers. Set speakers config to 7.1. Sounds much better without this THX software. And yes the bass is back.

 

You have got to be kidding me. You mean with the new Realtek driver, the sound in 7.1 is bassier than the sound than 7.1 with the official Sager driver? Is the volume output any louder?

 

Try it. Just uninstall thx crappy soft . On my Clevo P170EM it works like a charm.

 

I have the FIIO E17, it is outstanding. It doesn't do surround sound but I'm fairly confident it is several notches above the Asus U3 in SQ.

Anybody else tried the new Realtek drivers? I'd love to get decent sound out of my laptop without resorting to external speakers/headphones and soundcard.

 

I haven't tried them yet and probably won't since they aren't Sager official, but I have a short story to tell.

This night I got back from my Dad's house to my dorm and setup my laptop with every thing needed. I turned on the laptop and went directly to WMP to bask in the pleasure of the X-Fi Go! by playing some Avenged Sevenfold and immediately noticed some thing very screwed up with the sound. I would hear lisps in the vocals in areas I wasn't used to and the whole recording sounded just off. I took out the X-Fi and plugged into the Realtek output. The sound was, as always, crappy, but also had this new music issue. As a side note, I've further found that not only is the bass lacking with the Sager sound out, but the sound stage is tiny too, disregarding the depth that bass would bring. The lack of power from the Realtek amp is too obvious.

Anyways, at this point I'm freaking out that the head phones I've gone through many years with have finally failed. I take them off, and see that the little "L" mark wasn't on the correct side of my head. The end.

 

No difference for me, still no bass.

 

Anyone concerned about sound, I would strongly recommend going through the "sound card?" thread.

 

I don't think this has been mentioned before but I know of another way to fix the sound. Personally, I prefer it because THX always reset to the speakers option so I would have to manually select headphone mode. Anyway, what I did was just not install THX(only tried this on a clean install but just uninstalling it should work) and just used the Realtek control panel equalizer settings to get the sound as close as possible as I could to my other laptop(playing the same song). I have two presets currently, both work fairly well but IMHO the 2nd is a bit nicer. Anyway, if you want to try this out it should work nicely. You can still plug in 5.1 speakers and use the built in sub on that just remember to reset the equalizer settings to default.

BTW, what I do to set my settings up with my own saved presets is just lay the image over top of the Realtek control panel and alt tab back and forth while adjusting the sliders. Not the most eloquent method but I have no idea where in the registry Realtek saves the settings(if it's in the registry at all, might be saved to a file somewhere).

 

hmm i don't have a sound effect tab in my real-tek config

 

I don't either, and that would still not fix the low volume-output issue. A good fix for the lack of bass, though.

 

If you have THX installed then that tab is hidden.

What low volume output? My headphones sound level was about the same on both laptops while testing and the output was pretty close.

 

On my P170EM, I installed clear Win7x64, then installed native Realtek 2.70 drivers. Initially, no THX was installed. Both speakers and headphone output (either headphones or stereo speakers connected to the jack) had almost no bass. I tried to install THX and play with crossover frequency but it had a very little effect (even a cheapest external USB audio adapter produces much more intensive bass with a flat equalizer settings). So I have uninstalled THX because it's completely useless. Later, I upgraded to Realtek 2.71 drivers but there was no change in sound quality.

BTW, THX installs no drivers, only APOs. I'm afraid it simply performs software signal processing and equalization.

Bass problems are reported by many ALC892 users. By the other hand, some motherboards have ALC892 on board and it sounds good. P150EM/P170EM schematics don't contain suspicious parts around ALC892. I really don't understand why Clevo headphone jack produces such terrible sound.

 

yeah the THX software is pointlessly bad

 

I know my post includes info on how to mess with THX, but at this point, I would recomend just getting an external adapter, and it seems most of you would agree. I own the X-Fi Go! Pro and it has significantly better sound quality. The maximum volume output is at least triple in power and the bass is certainly present. Most of all, the sound doesn't sound like metal scraps getting blended. Just don't mess with the onboard audio. It is all crap no matter what you do with it, and THX just makes things confusing.