Tinny sound when using headphones Vortex II

Hey all! Proud Vortex II 17" owner here. I've noticed that while the on board speakers play sound just fine, when I plug in my headphones the sound is very tinny. I've tried this with several sets of headphones and the result is always the same. Terrible quality audio, no bass, really tinny, quiet.

Can anyone else replicate this or help out in someway. I have version 6.0.1.6526 of the Realtek Drivers installed. The Audio codec is listed as ALC892

Having the same issue. Sound is fine through laptop speakers and lush through my 2.1 Creatives, but tinny and poor through headphones.

Just doing a bit of experimenting...Uninstalled the Realtek driver, rebooted and allowed Windows to install standard High Definition Audio driver. This driver recognizes when headphones are plugged in and changes the icon accordingly. I don't think the Realtek driver does this. Maybe this has something to do with it? Still testing so will report back any more findings...

P.S. Sound is still tinny with Microsoft driver....

Nope... Tried everything, different audio driver versions, THX Studio Pro uninstalled / installed. Still crappy sound through headphones. Something wrong here I think.

I am very sad to be in the same position as you guys. anyone resolved the problem yet? Its very odd. Id expect tinny sound from the laptop speakers and awesome bassy sound with decent headphones on? Where as the sound through the speakers is fairly decent for a laptop, and rediculously poor through headphones.

Please let me know if there is a sollution to this, cause i most certainly expect better from a machine of this price! Thanks guys

Is there an equalizer setting in the Realtek HD Audio Manager that you can use to modify the sound?

There isn't an option for headphones in the Realtek HD Audio Manager, only "Headphone visualisation" which doesn't do anything

Played around with the manager as well but no luck.

Try this
Open the Voume Control, open the Options menu, select Properties, select Other, select AC97 Controls, choose OK and change volume of Front/Rear to maximum (If using 2 speakers or headphones) or middle (If using 4 speakers)

I use a sound blaster audigy 2 with the external control panel. When I plug in my earphones sometimes I need to change the position of the sound from front to back 1st depending on how the sound/movie file is decoded. For eg With earphones in it will NOT play correct if it is on 7.1 settings while watching a movie. I must change to stereo for headset to work correctly.

Hope this helps and if not you find a solution soon.

OK. I think I've cracked cracked it. THX TruStudio Pro is the key. Sound quality, both speakers and headphones, improves with these options ON in TruStudio Pro: "Surround", "Crystalizer", "Speaker".
ALSO! You need to switch to STEREO in the "Speaker Configuration" drop down of the Realtek HD Manager when using headphones. It would be nice for this to happen automagically but it doesn't.

I am using version 6.0.1.6526 of the Realtek driver. It seems that this may be the reason why you have to shift from a 5.1 to Stereo Speaker config (I heard other's complaining in the Clevo forums)

BTW: TheVortex II is the same config as a Sager Np8170 (and Clevo P170HM). I couldn't find my original driver CD so I downloaded drivers and TruStudio here:
http://www2.sagernotebook.com/pages/notebooks/download.cfm?ProductType=8170

The TruStudio app is also on your driver CD under the option drivers.

is it right that a £1000+ machine that is THX approved should have less bass than my 5 year old ipod?? cause it feels wrong

It's put me off. It's bananas. Same as the headphones problem. I've never heard of any other laptop suffering the same problems and as you say definately not one that cost.over grand.

I fail to see the issue. If you install all the software that came with your laptop the audio is sweet as a nut. Speakers and headphones.

jamhow said:

I fail to see the issue. If you install all the software that came with your laptop the audio is sweet as a nut. Speakers and headphones.

Click to expand...

Followed all thos steps and apart from cleaner trebles and a bit of reverb sound is the same. No bass?!?! Is this purely an sound card problem i wonder? is the sound card upgradable?

Definitely got my bass back so you must have a different issue to me.. Sorry

When i got my machine I was disappointed in sound as well, especially when my mediaeval Dell sounded better. But after some research turned out that you have to hit Fn+5 (NOT Fn+F5) to activate all the speakers. At the start it sounded like only one speaker was working. But now it’s OK. I’m not sure does this affect headphones as well or no.

Right! Recieved my creative aspire speakers today 2.1. I have now finally got a good sounding laptop, and that included speakers and headphones. Jacking the earphones into the speakers gives them a slight bass boost, so I can stop moaning now.

I am once again a satisfied PCS customer and highly recommend their VORTEX ii To anyone who is interested in buying one.