Recently purchased an 17.3" Octane II laptop for modern gaming and am nearly done with setting it up. I'm trying out my games with headphones on, and I'm noticing that the sound quality is generally not that great...
My laptop had the standard "Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack" sound card, as I didn't want to have to bother with an external card. I also separately bought myself some new SONY headphones (http://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/headband-headphones/mdr-zx660ap) which seem to be the latest model of the previous design I bought for my last laptop a few years ago. But I've found that when playing games with my headphones on, I'm finding the sound quality to be not good enough. It's obviously really hard to describe, but it feels like sounds are a bit fuzzy, especially for voices, which almost seem like they're behind everything else. (Like I said, hard to describe.) I don't think it's an issue to do with headphones, as when I use my old headphones maybe the sound is a little clearer, but not as good overall quality, while when I plug my new headphones into the old laptop I don't have these same problems.
I tried re-installing the audio driver (i.e. Realtek Audio Manager), which made no difference, and I've also now installed the optional "Sound Blaster X-Fi MB5" software, which I always had switched off on my previous PCS laptop. I've tried playing around with it, but it's not helped hugely. Trying the software's different sound profiles (e.g. Music, Movies) seems to really make listening to my iTunes music a bit weird, and in the end for gaming I've tried the "Voice" profile, then cranking right up the Crystaliser and Dialog Plus settings. It's perhaps an improvement but I don't think it's perfect... and because sound is so subjective and hard to compare with in memory, I feel like just installing this software, even when it is switched off, has made the sound quality worse!
So yes, very hard to work out what's going on or how to get a crystal clear audio experience. I was thinking I might call PCS Customer Support to see what they know about laptop sounds, but I was wondering what other people's experiences were. Have you found similar issues with laptop audio? What settings did you change to make things good for you? This is really becoming a big issue for me...
My laptop had the standard "Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack" sound card, as I didn't want to have to bother with an external card. I also separately bought myself some new SONY headphones (http://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/headband-headphones/mdr-zx660ap) which seem to be the latest model of the previous design I bought for my last laptop a few years ago. But I've found that when playing games with my headphones on, I'm finding the sound quality to be not good enough. It's obviously really hard to describe, but it feels like sounds are a bit fuzzy, especially for voices, which almost seem like they're behind everything else. (Like I said, hard to describe.) I don't think it's an issue to do with headphones, as when I use my old headphones maybe the sound is a little clearer, but not as good overall quality, while when I plug my new headphones into the old laptop I don't have these same problems.
I tried re-installing the audio driver (i.e. Realtek Audio Manager), which made no difference, and I've also now installed the optional "Sound Blaster X-Fi MB5" software, which I always had switched off on my previous PCS laptop. I've tried playing around with it, but it's not helped hugely. Trying the software's different sound profiles (e.g. Music, Movies) seems to really make listening to my iTunes music a bit weird, and in the end for gaming I've tried the "Voice" profile, then cranking right up the Crystaliser and Dialog Plus settings. It's perhaps an improvement but I don't think it's perfect... and because sound is so subjective and hard to compare with in memory, I feel like just installing this software, even when it is switched off, has made the sound quality worse!
So yes, very hard to work out what's going on or how to get a crystal clear audio experience. I was thinking I might call PCS Customer Support to see what they know about laptop sounds, but I was wondering what other people's experiences were. Have you found similar issues with laptop audio? What settings did you change to make things good for you? This is really becoming a big issue for me...
