Sound Quality Frustrations

[myriad1973]

About two months ago I upgraded my computer that came with the onboard Realtek ALC889 HD chipset. After using the Realtek ALC655 AC'97 for 5 years, and had no real problems with overall sound quality, I'm having trouble getting good sound quality with this new chipset playing back MP3's.

Now granted I know MP3's by nature don't provide the best sound quality, but my children usually hold my home theater hostage watching NickJr most of the evening. But anyway, the driver-based software equalizer that comes with the Realtek chipset presents a lot of playback compression and some distortion on all playback material causing almost a wavering effect you can detect, and I have no control over the input gain. I tried using Windows Media Player's EQ, but like always it sounds like crap, so forget using that. I've been trying to tweak the sound with Winamp, but some recordings make it hard to use an EQ because of the loudness war or the input signal during recording was too hot and I end up having to disable the EQ during louder passages. This is even present using better third party EQ's like AIXcoustic's Electri-Q.

I'm not sure what the solution is outside of buying a separate sound card. I wonder if maybe there might be a third party driver available somewhere for download that doesn't have the gain set so high?

Does anybody that uses this chipset had the same problems and found a solution?

 

[rmalak]

I have this same Realtek audio chipset on my Gigabyte motherboard and am streaming it out to the AVR through my ATI videocard's HDMI. I have absolutely no sound issues with mine. I have never used EQ settings of any king though. They seem to add static and degrade the sound. I use the AVR to do any EQing that needs to be done to get a good FR in room.

So my opinion is that the in computer EQ is most likely your problem and should be disabled.

 

[yepimonfire]

One of two problems here is occuring. One, its an issue with the driver, try uninstalling the driver and re-installing it. If that doesent solve the problem then the sound card itself is the problem. If thats the issue i would return it and get it replaced. Im not exactly sure what the card is hooked into but maybe its output is too high for the device. See if you have the same issue using headphones. In my experience, i have owned two realtek soundcards and wasnt really impressed with either of them. I don't really think they are very good soundcards.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Lets try to dissect the issue - What type of computer you have ? Desktop or laptop? OS type and version (I assume it's a pc, desktop and win7 - right?).
How's your audio system connected? Is it connected directly to your LR Onkyo 805?
Have you tried Foobar2000 ??

 

[myriad1973]

It's a custom built desktop using a Gigabyte GA-890FXA-UD5 motherboard. It has the Realtek ALC889 chipset onboard. I'm running Windows 7. I don't have a line out to my home theater. I'm using Logitech 2.1 speakers. I haven't tried using Foobar, although I don't know if that will help the problem. As I said before, it sounds like as if the input gain (via the sound driver) is set too high. Maybe I need to contact Realtek about this?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

http://www.amazon.com/Behringer-UCA202-Audio-Interface/dp/B000KW2YEI/ref=pd_cp_MI_0_map

Yesterday it was $30, but even at $50 that would still be great deal.
Get this and forget about issues with onboard crap audio

 

[Hi Ho]

I have never head onboard audio that sounded good. The difference can be astonishing between onboard audio and a dedicated sound card whether it be internal or USB.

 

[myriad1973]

The idea of outputting to my home theater would be great, however I already have my PS3 to play MP3s over the media server I have set up on my PC. This issue I'm speaking of is strictly for playing music on my computer. I guess a possibility is rounding up my old Soundblaster Live I've had stored away or buy a new sound card.

 

[sholling]

The 889 is a decent sound chipset but 's still on-onboard. Are you using it to drive powered speakers? Or are you using it to feed a receiver? What speakers?

My advice is to uninstall the driver and then reinstall, then with no EQ play a CD. That get's us a baseline and tells us if it's the source material. If that doesn't do it then I'd look at an HT Omega or Asus Xonar DS. I'd also rerip you CD collection to flac format instead of playing MP3s. You can still keep your MP3s for the portable and PS3 but have lossless flacs for the computer.

 

[myriad1973]

The reason I chose MP3 over FLAC was simply for compatibility purposes with all my media devices. My cell phone, iPod, car stereo receiver, SACD player, PS3, and media server all support it and not FLAC (universally). If all of them supported FLAC, I would have certainly had used that format or better yet pure PCM WAV format if it was practical. On my home theater I usually playback everything on disc unless it's a title I have only on MP3. Not to mention I really don't feel like going through the time and trouble of reextracting my whole catalog in a different format, at least not right now.

But anyway, I installed Realtek's new driver update, and it seems to be of higher sound quality. I don't notice any obvious distortion on the titles I have played back so far. They must have done a lot of tweaking.