NP8150 - bad sound quality, when using headphones

Hi I recently bought a Sager np8150 and so far I am very pleased with it. However I am a little surprised with the bad sound quality of the of laptop, when I use my headphones - AKG K450
The sound seems bad, especially when compared to the sound when I am using my headphones with my Ipod Touch. I tried reinstalling the realtek audio drivers and tweaking some sound options from the control panel, but that didn't help - the bass quality still sounds bad, compared to my ipod. Has anyone else encountered that kind of problem ? And is there way to increase the bass level?


Sorry for my bad English, but as you can see I am not a native speaker

 

Hopefully a newer driver will fix your problem. I had distorted sound with my Toshiba laptop for more than four months and tons of updates from Realtek. Eventually they released a driver that brought all the goodness of the Harmon Kardon speakers in the Toshiba to life. I knew all along it was a driver issue, because the sound changed based on which drivers I would have installed so I knew it wasn't the hardware. Good luck!

 

it has something to do with the laptop itself. i have the same problem. it's got something to do with how much power is directed the headphones port or something (

 

The headphone jack does not provide enough power to push a decent set of headphones properly. I have the same issue when using my AiAiAi TMA-1 with the NP8170.

Since you're already buying decent cans (and you know about head-fi), it's time to invest in an amp or DAC.

I recommend a FiiO E7.

 

Is there any other way around this that doesn't require buying a separate amp/dac?? kinda sucks that the laptop is generally pretty great but the headphone jack is such a let down.

 

A notebook that cost this much and are made for gaming is ridiculous having such flaws.

 

yeah it really is ridic. such a shame

 

Wonder why my 8130 doesn't suffer from that problem?

 

it's a problem that is applicable to this model only i feel

 

They overdid the cost cutting on headphone amp.

You need a seperate headphone amp

 

yeah that sucks...fortunately I already own a usb dac (to drive my Ultrasone Pro 900)

 

Somewhat dissapointing reading this. If the quality is comparable to like my old dell XPS 1530 then I really don't mind, but anything worse is somewhat upsetting; especially if there's no fix for it.

 

my 8130 got the same problem too considering getting an extention USB audio jack...

 

yeah it really sucks

 

Thanks for replies guys. I am really disappointed that my laptop for 1700$+ can't handle simple headphones. I have to say that turning the THX true studio settings does help a bit, but still it is far from the sound quality that is supposed to be.

 

i bought an 8130 a month ago and it suffers as well. it's as if the frequency floor is cut off at like 500Hz or something, and if you listen REALLY close with detailed headphones, you can hear the sound being pulled back or reined in when it's supposed to get louder. i think it's some weird normalization (which i have unselected in Realtek).

overall, the sound quality is absolute crap, and had i known that it was that bad, i would have probably gone with a different manufacturer. it's sad because the performance of the machine is great, but i'm using SOLID headphones with it and there is nothing in the way of software or drivers that have made any difference for me.

in all likelihood, it's just really cheap components on this side of the laptop.

 

Because of the complaints here, yesterday I switched from using only my powered ALtecs, to trying my Koss Porta Pro headphones, and also my Bose QC 15's (I'm not normally a Bose fan, but those headphones are excellent). Because I haven't yet loaded down my 8130 with iTunes yet, I listened to the high quality stream of Pandora (the paid version). Bass seemed to be fine during the limited listening I did through both headphones. Having said that, the Bose is exceptional for detailed, extended bass (no tubbyness). I wonder if the issue you guys are having has to do with the specific impedance of your headphones?

 

His K450's only has a 32 Ohm impedance so he shouldn't have a problem driving it with the headphone jack.

 

Read this! make sure your realtek audio manager is not set to 5.1 or 7.1, that is what would cause these problems.

 

Well my k450 are far from the professional headphones, but still when I am using them with my ipod the sound is great, compared to the sound from the laptop.
@aduy, that was one of the first things I did after I found the problem, but unfortunately it was set on stereo by default :/

P.S. dave, Pandora is an awesome track

 

ok just though of something. in thx click the triangle then settings and put your speaker type as external, then lower the crossover to the minimum, that should improve the range of output frequencies. also disable smart volume, surround and smart dialogue, they will mess up the tone.

 

Noticing really comes down to which headphones you own. I really don't think the jacks are "bad", it just lacks low end punch.

That said, I can't imagine why you'd expect a decent set of headphones to sound good directly through the laptop. With every notebooks I've owned, I always thought the realtek soundcard and headphone jack suck on their own, which is why I've always kept an external soundcard.

If you need a cheap solution, the Creative X-Fi GO is a good entry point. The next step up would be the X-Fi 5.1 USB card. After that, you might as well buy the E7.

 

The headphones aren't the problem. My 8130 lacks bass on the headphone jack as well.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...ke-your-sound-quality-level-try-solution.html

Would you let me know if this helps at all? If you want more bass, you also have an adjustment i'm the same area I mention above to similarly boost it.

 

aside from a seperate headphone amp, the only thing that is going to help is choosing more power efficient headphones

Higher/lower impedance headphones aren't necessarily more efficient.
Function of driver material, magnet assembly, enclosure, etc..

 

the sound quality is so bad and so distorted?

 

Ipod's have above average sound drivers. On board sound on laptops absolutely suck, especially when trying to respond to proper headphones. I have the HD 598's and I'll probably be purchasing an external AC for proper acoustics.

 

That good to know cause the only laptop I have ever had was a macbook and the sound is amazing!

 

The current gen iphones and ipods use the Cirrus Logic integrated codec/amp, which is much much better than the Realtek integrated sound card. Using a USB DAC will solve the problem of mediocre audio.

 

any external USB audio jack recommended ? not expecting much.. jst about the same quality as the ipod jack ... n as cheap as possible as i m still a student lol

thanks

 

about as cheap as they come

Amazon.com: FiiO E7 USB DAC and Portable Headphone Amplifier (Black): Electronics

 

Are you kidding me? That thing is huge and expensive. Are there no other alternative? Are other laptop (MSI, ASUS, Alienware) have the same issue or is it just the sager model?

 

*except the Macs. And some studio xps's. But other than that, it's a problem among all notebooks. They can't give the 200$ quality that $200 headphones are supposed to give.

 

How is the sound quality of the speakers themselves? And what exactly is the problem with the headphone jack?

 

Sound quality of the speaker itself is good, about average for me since I am a n audiophile. The sound in the headphone jack is bad and distorted.

 

Did you,try uninstalling realtek and thx like one user mentioned earlier? Does that help?

 

Does it have good bass? And would it be better than normal speakers from like a 600 dollar 3 year old laptop?

 

Do you think this is the best headphone amplifier for the price? What kind of difference will I see from the just the ipod to the ipod+amplifier. I'd be running audio technica M50's. How loud could I get the bass?

 

My music doesn't require much bass so can't say for sure. I only have a Macbook as a comparison and Macbook audio is some of the best on a notebook. I can say that the normal speaker work fine, though I wish they were more louder.

 

Thank you, I'll probably hook up my turtle beaches to the digital out of my p170. Do you think this will get good sound quality?

 

Good to have crappy headphones

 

Ignorance is bliss haha jk

 

As many others had stated, the amp is not powerful enough to drive a decent set of headphone. I'd recommend the X-Fi Sound Blaster line for you, if only P150HM had an ExpressCard slot. Unfortunately, recent trend seems to be in favor of axing ExpressCard slot from notebooks on every price range, and Clevo jumped in the wagon. Maybe get a portable speaker like Altec's Soundbar or Logitech Z205 ?

 

a review of the e7 FiiO E7 Review

 

Is turtle beachs a external speaker or a headset?

 

Perhaps a stupid question but have you guys tried removing the Clevo/Sager supplied THX and Realtek drivers and installing the generic Realtek drivers from Realtek

I did this on my P150HM and it resulted in much better sound quality, even out of the headphone jack.

 

You would connect the amp thingy (I have x41s) to the digital out on the p170 via optical cable. And they transmit a wireless signal to the headset

 

Internet here is too dam slow to download anything yet, but I really hope that work.

 

Keep me posted if it does.

 

I tried it and it doesn't make a difference on my NP8130. Bass is still very weak through the headphones. One side effect is that it also made the internal speakers much quieter, so it wasn't worth trying in my case. I'm thinking it's a hardware issue. It's a shame because I really don't feel like buying an external headphone amp or sound card.