Side speakers play too quietly

[Darcorn]

I have an update on the cannot hear side speakers thread. I have bought an additional stereo cable and they started playing but now there is another problem. Side speakers play much quieter than the others. I have put every speaker on max volume and they play normally but side speakers are just too quiet even on max volume. What's wrong???

I have a SB X-Fi Titanium Pro S/C and Creative inspire T7900 7.1 speakers. Running on Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit

Any help greatly appreciated!

Patrick

 

[astrallite]

Surround output is typically lower on most movies; they are used for ambiance, except during panning scenes when they will play at the full volume.

 

[Darcorn]

Thanks for the reply astralite! I have been thinking about this problem and have a suggestion. Could it be caused by the cable itself?? The cable is different than the others so it could have a different impedance rate. I've heard somewhere that this can cause the speakers to play quieter than usual

Any theories on this?

 

[Petrofsky]

There are a lot of superstitions surrounding (pun intended) speaker wire. They are all false. As long as it's copper and heavy enough, it's perfect. You'd have to be running hundreds of feet to even have to think about other effects, like ohmic loss or interference. I use zip cord, like for lamps, from the hardware store, because it's way overkill for resistance, it's easy to work with, and it's relatively cheap. You could have gold-clad Monster Cable to the left speaker, and old car jumper cables to the right speaker, and you wouldn't hear any difference at all. You could have ethernet cable to one, and 300-ohm twin lead you found half-embedded in the ground for the other, and you'd be fine. At audio frequencies, impedance effects are beyond negligible, and at the power levels a speaker uses any normal interference is deep down in the grass.

 

[Darcorn]

So how can I fix this problem???

 

[Petrofsky]

I looked at your speaker system at the European Creative store (they don't have 7.1s at the US store!), and I looked at the specs and the user's manual for your card. (The manual says nothing about the software bundle, so nothing about upmixing, which is a suspect here.) I Googled on <xfi titanium pro "side speakers">. I'm starting to think that your source is 5.1, and that's why the side speakers aren't working. Another possibility is that the driver is a bad one. I would try going into the software and setting everything to default, and turn off all enhancements.

You don't say what your source is. Are you gaming or playing DVDs or what?

 

[Darcorn]

The effect is the same either with playing movies, gaming or listening to MP3s. You say that I am totally screwed then?

 

[Petrofsky]

... I am totally screwed then?

Not "totally". I'm still looking into it.

Your problem actually quite interesting. For instance, the possible reason that the US Creative store doesn't carry 7.1 speakers is that US (NTSC) DVDs don't encode 7.1 sound. (note the "full stop") For that you need MP2 audio, which only the PAL standard mandates. Look on the DVD box for some sort of MP2 logo. There are more and more Blu-ray discs in 7.1, though, a partial list of which can be seen on Blu-ray.com.

Only your more modern, high-end games use 7.1. I'm still looking for that list.

MP3s will play in stereo, not 7.1, as far as I can tell.

Your card might be able to upmix to 7.1 if you can figure out how to tell it to. I don't have that software on my computer, and I am not familiar with it, so I can't help you there. Poke around in your settings, and check your help files for "upmixing".

 

[Darcorn]

My card has a feature called CMSS 3D which upmixes 5.1 to 7.1 but the problem is that I want all 8 speakers to play at the same volume. Now it is that 6 speakers play at constant same volume whilst the side speakers are really REALLY quiet even though I raise their volume to the max

 

[Petrofsky]

...I want all 8 speakers to play at the same volume. ....

Oh. I guess I didn't understand what you meant before. I have to ask, why would you want to do that? I'll bet that what you describe is normal. The surround speakers, I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, are meant to provide ambience and therefore don't need to be as loud as the front ones.

 

[Darcorn]

I just worry that if I can't hear the side speakers then for example I won't have that effect when someone calls from the right side then right side speaker works and so on. I am now talking about movies of course

 

[saaiello]

Have you tried using the the test tones where it will test each speaker with a tone when it does they should all play at the same volume. If they do all play at the same volume during the test tone then your system is working fine and makes me think you are having a mixing problem. On my setup I have a matrix mode for listening to music which will play all the speakers at the same volume if I turn it off I can barely hear side rear and center speakers and this is perfectly normal.

 

[Darcorn]

When I turn the speaker test in the Creative Audio Console, the side speakers do not play at the same volume as the others but noticeably quieter. I don't think it's a system problem

 

[saaiello]

Does your motherboard have on board audio maybe try the on board and see how it sounds. It's worth a shot.

 

[Darcorn]

Already tried and to put it frankly........it s%$^%$s. No surround sound at all (even though it's a Realtek HD Audio card). It was for this reason that I bought X-Fi. Couldn't stand the onboard sound card

 

[Petrofsky]

If you got no surround sound out of an HD onboard, you probably had a driver problem. What is your motherboard? Creative also is well known for flaky drivers, and that might be what we have here.

Now, I don't know W7, but in Vista you can go into ControlPanel/Sound and test the speakers there. That's where I would expect to hear equal loudness from each speaker. That works for my 5.1 setup, but I don't have any experience with 7.1.

 

[Darcorn]

W7 has an identical speaker test as Vista although the situation's the same as in Creative Audio Console's speaker test. Side speakers are much quieter than the others

 

[Petrofsky]

We've reached the limits of my knowledge. The only thing I can suggest is to make sure all enhancements are off when testing and to swap the side and back speakers to rule out the incredibly unlikely case where the side speakers are bad.

About Creative, I hate them. I had been buying SoundBlasters since the early days, when they made you do things to get their stuff to work, and they're still doing it. While everybody else's equipment is Plug-and-play, theirs is plug-and-monkey-with-it-for-weeks-until-you-give-up-in-frustration-and-blame-yourself-even-though-it's-their-drivers.

 

[Darcorn]

I swapped the cables as you suggested Petrofsky and now side speakers work like a charm but rear speakers are reeeeeeeeeeally quiet. Starting to be very annoyed here :/

 

[omnimodis78]

Darcorn - I can help you but I'd like to know which OS are you using (ie. Windows 7, etc). Also, which speaker system are you using?

I'd also like to just follow up on that fact that if you use a surround speaker set, you should always use the same cable and if possible, always match the length for the front/center and rear speakers. In other words, the cable length for the left, center and right speakers should match, and while the rear speakers generally use longer cables, these 2 should also match. It's not a critical issue, but it's the right way of doing it.

 

[Darcorn]

Thank you Omnimodis! My OS is a Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit. My soundcard is a SB X-Fi Titanium Pro (the one with the black cover). My speakers are Creative Inspire T7900. Your suggestion about the same cables may be what is needed here although I haven't been able to test it out yet

 

[Darcorn]

I almost forgot!! What kind of cables do you recommend me to get? I mean what make and model. Thank you

 

[omnimodis78]

Darcorn, you're welcome. Don't run out and buy new cables just yet - it's best to look at "free" fixes first and then go to the next stage of investing in cables, etc, if needed!

Firstly, you have good stuff - good sound card and good speakers! To rule out any settings issues, repeat the Windows speaker test (yes I know you already did it, but just do it again)! Make sure you DO NOT select full range speakers as your speakers are not full range!!

Also, disable CMSS-3D - do so both in the Creative Console Launcher and Speaker Properties (Sound blaster tab) - make sure you repeat this in both the Music and the Game modes. Ensure that you have 7.1 selected! In the creative console launcher, go to Speakers and Advanced - and ensure that all volume sliders are balanced. Make the necessary changes here. If they are - and still your side speakers are lower than the rest, then you could just increase the volume for each side speaker to balance it out. This would be a free (and a sure) fix.

That's about it for now. Let me know how it goes!!!

 

[Darcorn]

All my speakers are balanced at 100 (for the purpose of speaker testing), CMSS is disabled at places you suggested but still the sides are noticeably quieter than other speakers. I also unticked full range speakers in Windows as you suggested. Should I tick surround speakers or leave both unticked? Thanks

 

[omnimodis78]

Darcorn, leave everything unticked for full range! Your system in terms of settings via windows is not full-range, so nothing ought to be ticked. Can you confirm that you disabled your onboard (motherboard) sound via the BIOS? I've seen issues where this wasn't done - so if not yet, then please proceed to do so (you should always do this regardless if you're using a dedicated sound card). By your estimation, what is the discrepancy of volume between the rear speakers and the side speakers (say, side speakers are only half as loud as the rear, etc.)?

Also, try this: in the control panel go to sounds, properties (for your sound card), levels tab and click on the balance button beside the play control volume level. Check for the channel volume levels in there also.