The sound isn't as loud and dynamic...why?

[kivblue]

I have Asus Sonar DG soundcard and it was working so perfectly until I moved my rig to a new case, all of a sudden the sound isn't as loud through the headphones, I figured the front panel cable was crappy so I tried the direct output in the back-plate but it sounds the same. What possibly could be wrong with the sound card, I mean if it's not working it shouldn't even produce any sound but it does, it just sounds so much weaker. Could it be that the amplifier is toast? Does a sound card still produce sound without an amplifier?

Just to be sure, I've checked my headphones on my smartphone, and it pumps out much louder audio than the sound card so headphones are not the culprit.

 

[bigkid]

if you're connected digitally i think you need to have dolby digital or cmss-3d option selected --- maybe base boost?

 

[gamerk316]

Just to clarify, this was a clean move, no reinstalls or anything, right?

 

[kivblue]

Just to clarify, this was a clean move, no reinstalls or anything, right?

Yeah, everything was the same, just a different case. Before this happened I swapped out the motherboard and CPU so had to re-install the sound card driver and didn't have this problem then. I already have tried re-installing the driver this time as well, the sound is still weak sauce, when I try different settings in the Xonar control panel, I can tell that the effects do work, but surround sound doesn't work at all.

I tried the on-board audio just to see if there was any difference in audio quality, and it sounds almost exactly like on-board audio! I think the headphone amp is busted....dang I really liked Xonar DG's audio quality for the cheap price.