Realtek HD EQ Presets

[HaakonXCI]

Hello, I'm wondering if anyone has a recommendation for which EQ setting I should use in the Realtek HD audio manager. I use the onboard audio on my 780i and have a 2.1 PC speaker setup hooked up to it. I use it for everything and for a while I had the equalizer setting set to "Rock" but today I've been using "Powerful". Now this makes the sound quality somehow go up but forces the volume to go up with it which isn't too much of a problem but I'm wondering if there is a way to achieve this EQ preset normally but without it being too loud. (edit: to elaborate on this I can really only describe it as being either the brink or at times becoming distorted or getting crackly)

I tried tweaking the settings from "None" to the "Powerful" manually but it somehow didn't sound the same. So now I'm wondering if there's some hidden settings that I can't see or if my mind is playing tricks on me here.. The music and everything sounds great with this preset on though since to me anyways, the subwoofer sounds like it finally turned on haha but now everything needs to be mitigated because it seems like it raised the general volume.

Basically should I just deal with it or is it some simple solution like just turning down the volume slider in the panel or somewhere?

 

[damasvara]

Personally, I think you should turn off the preset EQ to flat and the volume to 50%. The reason I'm saying this, is because the EQ greatly affects the sound reproduction. The volume setting at the Realtek control panel is also responsible for instability of the audio output. Setting it at 50% will give the speaker some space before the sound it reproduces becomes distorted.

Instead of setting the Realtek, Use the EQ and volume control at the music player program. That way the speaker will have a more predictable behavior with the sound reproduction. Although I prefer both the audio player and Realtek settings' at default/flat, but apparently this is not the case for you, a rock music lover.

To give us a better view of your situation, please post detailed specification of the audio components involved. The speaker, audio player, other setting, etc. We'll see what we can do to help.

 

[HaakonXCI]

Speakers: Altec Lansing BXR 1121
Audio Player: Winamp (latest)
Driver: Realtek HD Audio R2.52
Volume in windows: 100%
Volume in winamp varies (currently at 38%)
Volume on speakers 3/12th I'd say
EQ on Winamp is set to Rock
EQ on Realtek Manager is Powerful

I've been testing the audio with these songs..
For lows-mids - Visual Installation by Lance Hayes
For mid-high - Sweet Child of Mine by Guns n Roses
For all around - La Villa Strangiato by Rush

All of which performed well and sounded much better than the other presets including mixing some like default flat for both made it sound reasonable, then rock was better then powerful made it sound like gold.

Maybe it's my ears or speaker setup but it's sounds very saturated rather than dry on other presets. I heard some minor distortions from some games like Battlefield: Bad Company 2 when something crazy happened like rockets, grenades or being a gunner in a chopper firing the high pitch minigun. I adjusted the volume accordingly as you suggested though and indeed that problem went away but ended up being too quiet generally which is what I feared.

I attempted a 2.1 fix as someone else suggested on guru3d forums about forcing 5.1 and disabling all but the sub and that did indeed make the subwoofer even more prominent but it seemed too much and at the same time not enough for the Rock setting.

Maybe I'm just stuck with this?

 

[damasvara]

Dude! Déjà vu! Your speakers is exactly the same type as mine. :lol: :lol: :lol:

What are the odds of that happening?

Anyway, you're clearly having a conflict in settings, take my advice and fine tune the Winamp for music listening. As for the speaker quality itself, as much as I hate to admit it, the price tag speaks on behalf of its quality. The speaker can't go too loud due to the low maximum RMS. As the rule of thumb on speaker stated, the higher the the rated RMS and the bigger the subwoofer is, the louder it sounds. As a fellow user of the said speaker, I know its limitations like I know the hole position on my underwear :lol:

Modification won't help much, since the maximum RMS is unchangeable.

The bottom line is, you can't expect too much out of the Altec lansing BXR1121. You can, however, fine tune the settings through experiments. Like I said before, leave the control panel volume at 50%, assuming you don't let the Winamp gain direct access to this function. Fine tune the speaker volume at 3/4 max. Only raise the Realtek's volume control if you feel that the sound isn't loud enough.

The higher the volume settings, the more you'll force the speaker to work over limit, which eventually, results in noise distortion. I can feel you, dude...

 

[HaakonXCI]

Ah I think I see what you mean here. By raising the volume on the speaker itself it's basically giving it more room to breath while lowering the windows control panel down to 50% mitigates the distortion and as for winamp thats the variable and just keep it in that format? It seems now that it's putting through more power it has a higher range coming through.

It might take me a while before I find the perfect settings here and controls for all applications but this is great for music anyways Thank you.

Also indeed that's strange that we'd have the same speakers haha. Picked mine up a few years ago at a walmart for $15 and thought I'd go back the next day to pick out some $50 ones but these really do the job quite well.

 

[damasvara]

Exactly my point! By knowing the limitations of the speakers, you'll be able to determine the ideal settings required to achieve the expected result. Good luck on setting up the parameters.

What, $15? I really need to apply as a US citizen... :lol: The hardware prices there are so cheap.

You're very welcome.

 

[HaakonXCI]

Best answer selected by HaakonXCI.