improve sound quality of virtually any laptop with realtek audio

UPDATE: 11/21/2010

after further searching the web on ways to increase sound quality of laptop,
i came across this very interesting article about Asus G73JH creative software
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/519478-creative-x-fi-mb-your-g73-realtek-hd-2-48-a.html

i follow the steps to install it but sadly lots of my programs are crashing because of the modded driver

i read further and i try the suggest method of other member to use official Realtek 2.52 but unfortunately the X-FI MB didn't recognize the driver so it refused to even install

then i found this very interesting post made by DarknessKnight
http://forum.notebookreview.com/6799772-post97.html

to my surprise it REALLY DID WORK

and on top of that i never had a single crash

i can now use bass boost, crystalizer, effects, alchemy, svm, etc without a problem

also it has a bonus, its got EAX support for up to 4.0 so older games will sound much better



for anyone looking for ways to improve your sound, i highly recommend that you try this software because it really improved my overall sound experience




WARNING!
-I HELD NO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU BROKE YOUR COMPUTER!

-USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK

-MAKE SURE YOU UNINSTALL REALTEK DRIVER AND CREATIVE SOFTWARE THEN MAKE A REBOOT!

-MAKE SURE YOU USE DRIVERSWEEPER THEN SELECT CREATIVE AND REALTEK THEN ANALYZE AND CLEAN AND REBOOT!
Phyxion.net | Driver Sweeper | Products | Products



-INSTALL THE MODDED DRIVER BY daniel_K(MAKE SURE YOU RIGHT CLICK AND RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR AND YOU SELECT INSTALL DRIVER BECAUSE IT IS NOT DIGITALLY SIGNED)
Realtek R2.46 Mod (Daniel_k).7z

-AFTER THE MAKE SURE YOU MAKE A REBOOT OTHERWISE X-FI MB WILL REFUSE TO INSTALL

-DISABLE YOUR ANTI VIRUS(THE ACTIVATOR WILL GET A FALSE POSITIVE ALARM AND WILL NOT EXTRACT IT COMPLETLY

-EXTRACT X-FI MB 1.1 AFTER THAT EXTRACT THE X-FI MB 1.1 AND RUN SETUP(MAKE SURE YOU SELECT FULL NOT CUSTOM!)
X-FI MB 1.1

-REBOOT AND PRESS F8 THEN SELECT SAFE MODE(TO INSTALL THE ACTIVATOR)

-EXTRACT THE LICENSES GENERATOR VIRUS ALERT

-RIGHT CLICK THE RUN.BAT AND SELECT "RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR"

-the tree "CTLXXXXXXXXX.KGA should disappear after you run the RUN.BAT

-then reboot

-ENJOY YOUR MUCH MUCH BETTER SOUND QUALITY



WOHOO!!!

BIG CONGRATS TO SEB. VETTEL FOR WINNING WDC 2010


for anyone interested in F1 2010 MODS AND BUGFIXES CHECK OUT THIS THREAD
[PC] [MUST HAVE]BUG FIXES + MODS compilation[WARNING FOR 56k MODEM users!!!] - Codemasters Forums

 

i'll give it a trie but i wonder how it will handle my system since i have a 2.1 setup integrated with the machine

 

those drivers in the link are realtek r2.52
we are now on realtek r2.54 which came out on 5 nov 2010, which i have loaded on my acer 8930
there looks to be nothing extra added to them by dell, they are just standard realtek drivers that you can get off the realtek website
which is were i get them from
i really like the audio from the 8930, it has 4 speakers and a sub inside and i havent heard a better sounding laptop

 

I assume this is only for Dell?

I'm on a sony and my realtek HDA says Driver Version 6.0.1.5992

 

I have a feeling that laptop has really good speakers, which is probably why it sounds good.

 

Was gonna say something then I saw your title and I'm like, it's all good

 

just go to the realtek site and get there latest drivers
Realtek

the version number you have is just sonys numbering

 

First of all +rep!!!! thank you mate that driver owns it improved my sound quality heck a lot especially with the 5.1 speaker emulation on .... impressive

& for those who say it is the same as realtek drivers .... I am sorry it is not because if you check the installed driver files you will see a gazillion of the files which aren't in the original realtek driver for example:

MaxxAudioAPO.dll
MaxxAudioAPO20.dll
MaxxAudioAPO30.dll
MaxxAudioEQ.dll
MaxxAudioRealtek.dll
MaxxAudioRealtek2.dll
MaxxVolumeSDAPO.dll

so it is not the same ... it doesn't even sound the same

 

not so mate
i have just checked my realtek drivers i downloaded off the realtek site and they have all the files you have listed

maybe you and the op were using an older driver that didn't have those extra files and thats why you hear a difference
but for us guys that keep there drivers upto date there was not difference in sound quality
but as said those drivers he listed in the first post are just the standard r2.52 realtek driver you can get off the realtek site
i don't know when realtek added those extra files to the drivers but i have just checked r2.52/r2.53 and the latest r2.54 and all contain the maxxaudio files

 

Confirmed.

Michael

 

I'm stuck with the crappy sigmatel stuff...good work nonetheless though!

 

No matter how good your drivers it cant do anything for you if you have poor hardware

Im using the 2.54 drivers the newest ones, but I dont expect much of laptop speakers even a high end model like the Asus G73, my headphones come on and my DAC gets plugged in when its time for any serious listening.

This bypasses both the hardware and software limitations of a laptop.

 

This is not true.
In fact high end laptops comes with better drivers with extra features and driver customisation with 3rd party sound software companies.
The latest OEM driver from Realtek usually do not come with the extra tweaks so I recommend googling a high end laptop with a Audio Codec similar to the ones found in your laptop.
Some laptop driver ALC CODEC is found and collected here. Much better than OEM Drivers.

 

The new drivers are just the DRIVERS not the software.

I still have all the creative xfi software and abilities.

My point being though that no matter how good your drivers/software it cant make bad hardware suddenly be good. It may help make it sound better but you cant make cheap laptop speakers suddenly be high quality no matter what you do.

 

Considering the drivers are free, it is good enough.

 

i have found that all these so called 3rd party customised dll`s on that site you list are infact in the OEM realtek drivers, i have checked r2.52/r2.53 and the latest r2.54
so they havent been added by msi/asus or acer to there drivers

 

Check the download size.
It means something.

 

Ok listen up folks. This thing is a suite of post processing effects. You may find that many of the extra dlls are actually similar in function to native VST signal processing tools used by people that make music on their computer except that these ones use the live monitor output as the input. Like VST they will load down your cpu though ow much depends on your native sampling rate, how many of these signal processors you are running simultaneously and how many channels you are affecting.

Notably, these tools are:

1) a combination compressor/expander/noise gate (suppresses sudden changes in volume, reduces dynamic range but the corollary of this is that you can turn up the volume higher and not futz out the speakers. Also gates out signal below a predefined threshold.) Note: if you play 2x identical sounds where 1 is very slightly but noticeably louder than the other, most people will pick the louder one as sounding better. Its a weird but consistent listening phenomenon that works up until the loudness becomes discomforting or painful.

2) Bass Boost. This probably uses some type of fourier analysis to detect the lowest frequency and highest amplitude partial in realtime and then uses an EQ or some sort of resonant filterbank to add a partial one octave below that.

3) Treble Boost. Hard to tell what this is from their product description but it is more than likely a high shelf EQ and/or a (high) frequency dependent stereo widener.

4) an EQ. This is a straight up paragraphic EQ which can be quite useful for sound shaping but it also gives you enough flexibility to completely warp the sound you are listening to. For example, you can change the lowest pitch reference, you can filter out all the low and high frequency content leaving only 'telephonic' sound or you can use it to make basically anything sound incredibly unnatural.

This would be akin to going into custom RGB mode on your monitor. For instance, you may not be happy with the way a picture of the open sea looks so you boost alot of blue to really bring it out. But then you change image to something thats very yellow (like a beach) and it now looks really green because theres too much blue. When you use EQ it has the same effect, it can make something sound a little more sparkly in the treble but then you change songs to something with really loud klangy hihats and the treble becomes unbearable.

5) a Stereo Widener. This is a simple but clever trick that you can do in audicity manually if you like but which this does in realtime. It delays the left channel a couple of milliseconds after the right channel or vice versa. As you increase the delay you will get a...'rotational' sort of effect and an exaggerated sense that the sound is coming from the far left and right at the same time. Increase the delay enough and eventually one channel will be perceived as an echo of the other.

This can exaggerate stereo effects and make them sound cooler but it wrecks mono compatibility because of destructive phasing.

6) 'Maxx Dialog'. This is a weird one. It looks like it takes a stereo pair and sums both to mono. Then it remixes this back into the original stereo pair and gives you gain control. I'm not sure what to make of that but if you think it makes things sound better then fair enough.

Conclusion:

What these tools do is give you some control over the auditory illusion that the sound is trying to present. However, at some point it is important to realise that that the engineer/producer recorded and mixed the audio a certain way and that it was a deliberate, creative decision. Therefore, it is just as easy to defeat the illusion as it is to enhance it. Now theres no harm in trying to squeeze a little bit more bass out of tiny speakers and these tools let you do that though that too is something of an illusion because the woofers will be so small that they won't be able to produce low bass with linearity anyway.

That said, what counts is your enjoyment and that will subjectively vary from person to person. I would like to point out though that the absolute biggest improvement the average person can do for sound quality is to simply buy bigger and better built speakers and to listen to them in an environment that sounds pleasant. Everything else is more or less irrelevant to a point and that point almost certainly will not concern consumers (i.e. you won't be buying soundcards for the amount of simultaneous audio and MIDI I/O they can provide).

 

Yea I agree
On those custom drivers certain low pitch notes sounded terrible but overall I still think it sounded much better.
Thanks for the info

 

I have found the Turtle Beach USB device to be the simplest way to greatly enhance the sound from a laptop. (only $29) link here: USB Sound Card | Audio Advantage Micro II | Turtle Beach

Actually, the improvement is significant and provides excellent sound.