Built-in audio chip quality is terrible

[quadlt]

Hello everyone,

I am here to hopefully solve this problem I keep having and it's killing me.
I already googled to death about this problem but nothing came up even close to what I'm dealing with.

Here's the longer story:
I upgraded my PC, that includes a new motherboard, GPU, RAM and PSU. Today we're focusing on the motherboard, it's audio chip to be exact. Since then my rear audio jacks provide 50% of volume and just overall bad quality (fizzling on bass and etc.) compared to my old Intel's mobo. My headset has nothing to do with it. However, interestingly my speakers seem to provide fine audio quality. Now I have to use my front headphone jack for headphones (which is 2 times better in quality than my rear, does it seem normal?) and rear microphone jack for good mic quality (because front one is bad). That is some cable mess and I want to use my 'better' audio chip for better sound quality.

TL;DR:
My new mobo's audio chip has worse quality than my old mobo and even than the front audio ports on the same mobo.

Everyone seems to have an opposite problem to me - their front jacks are worse than rear. But that doesn't help me. I've tried redownloading different versions of Realtek's drivers but nothing helped.

My motherboard: Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3
Audio chip it uses: Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec (this is the chip right? :s)

Hope somebody has any ideas.
Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I also posted about this on Realtek's forums without an answer for about a month now. (not even waiting for one anymore...)

 

[Zap]

Hello quadlt, and welcome to AnandTech Forums.

I upgraded my PC, that includes a new motherboard, GPU, RAM and PSU. Today we're focusing on the motherboard, it's audio chip to be exact. Since then my rear audio jacks provide 50% of volume and just overall bad quality (fizzling on bass and etc.) compared to my old Intel's mobo. My headset has nothing to do with it. However, interestingly my speakers seem to provide fine audio quality.

Maybe a difference in impedance? This is especially important if your headphone/set or microphone is "higher end." I had a similar problem with a microphone. It wasn't a part of a headset and it wasn't one of those cheap microphones on a stick/stand. It is a handheld microphone. I have a microphone clip and a little stand for it. Quality is great. Or, was. New motherboard, no sound. My mic is 2.2kOhm. Typical sound cards expect higher impedance, thus requiring lower power to drive.

It may be similar to your issue with the headset. The speakers won't have that issue because they have their own amplifier. You can do the same with your headset. Look up "headphone amp." Unfortunately microphone amps aren't as common, but they are still available.

 

[Concillian]

It sounds like a contact issue within the connector. I don't think a difference in impedence would matter between the front and rear jacks.

Seems like I'd be contacting the motherboard manufacturer if the item is still under warantee. Otherwise, you're probably SOL.

 

[quadlt]

And I thought I know about these things...
So basically I need to try a headphone amplifier
OR
contact my motherboard's seller?
Did I get it?

 

[cmdrdredd]

Yeah, you can get a cheap headphone amp off amazon and see if it helps. Amazon will do no hassle returns if it does not fix it.

 

[Wall Street]

It sounds like a contact issue within the connector. I don't think a difference in impedence would matter between the front and rear jacks.

The impedance can matter. The rear jacks of modern motherboards usually assume that they will be outputting at line level into at least 1000Ω (e.g. the amp on a set of Logitech Z-5500 speakers has 8000Ω input impedance) so they have a capacitor coupled output straight from the DAC. The front jacks often have an extra op-amp after the DAC to drive low impedance devices (e.g. 32Ω headphones).

 

[tential]

In my HTPC setup, I have my sound go over HDMI usually. But, sometimes I hook up my phone, PC, or laptop over a headphone jack. The audio difference is very noticeable.

I'm guessing a soundcard might have better luck. I will say, one reviewer (OCclub?) did review all the haswell mobos and there were a couple who got terrible volume. Not sure the details though.

 

[quadlt]

In my HTPC setup, I have my sound go over HDMI usually. But, sometimes I hook up my phone, PC, or laptop over a headphone jack. The audio difference is very noticeable.

I'm guessing a soundcard might have better luck. I will say, one reviewer (OCclub?) did review all the haswell mobos and there were a couple who got terrible volume. Not sure the details though.

Well my motherboard is not for haswell CPUs.
I did try a really cheap sound card (Creative Sound Blaster 5.1 VX), but that also came out with really low volume (tho the quality was fine). I didn't want to use it because even my speakers were barely 'hearable' on volumes they used to be fine on. I guess I would also need an amplifier using the sound card?

 

[Zap]

I guess I would also need an amplifier using the sound card?

Some higher end soundcards have built-in headphone amps. Shop wisely.

 

[quadlt]

Some higher end soundcards have built-in headphone amps. Shop wisely.

I already spent too much into this and I'm really not interested in buying anything else.

 

[bononos]

Well my motherboard is not for haswell CPUs.
I did try a really cheap sound card (Creative Sound Blaster 5.1 VX), but that also came out with really low volume (tho the quality was fine). I didn't want to use it because even my speakers were barely 'hearable' on volumes they used to be fine on. I guess I would also need an amplifier using the sound card?

If your old soundcard also gives the same problem then something else is clearly wrong. Check the realtek control panel to see if everything is configured properly.

Did you google your motherboard model for the same issues or look through the Asrock forums? You might have to rma to fix your issues.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I assume you've raised the output volume and have selected "headphone" in the sound control panel and in any realtek software?

Sounds silly to mention I know, but sometimes things like this are overlooked easily.

 

[quadlt]

If your old soundcard also gives the same problem then something else is clearly wrong. Check the realtek control panel to see if everything is configured properly.

Did you google your motherboard model for the same issues or look through the Asrock forums? You might have to rma to fix your issues.

I mean what could be wrongly configured? I could try posting some speedcap's of my realtek CP if you need.
As I said in the OP, is already posted about the problem on their forums. No answer since then tho.
By the way, what does RMA mean? I've heard it somewhere before.

I assume you've raised the output volume and have selected "headphone" in the sound control panel and in any realtek software?

Sounds silly to mention I know, but sometimes things like this are overlooked easily.

Not sure what you're talking about.
Are you talking about 'Mute the rear output device, when a front headphone plugged in' (which makes my headphone act as 'Speakers') and 'Make front and rear output devices playback two different audio stream simultaneously' (which makes my headphones act as 'HD Audio 2nd Input') options?

 

[cmdrdredd]

I mean what could be wrongly configured? I could try posting some speedcap's of my realtek CP if you need.
As I said in the OP, is already posted about the problem on their forums. No answer since then tho.
By the way, what does RMA mean? I've heard it somewhere before.



Not sure what you're talking about.
Are you talking about 'Mute the rear output device, when a front headphone plugged in' (which makes my headphone act as 'Speakers') and 'Make front and rear output devices playback two different audio stream simultaneously' (which makes my headphones act as 'HD Audio 2nd Input') options?

No I mean tell windows and the drivers you need to output through headphones and not 5.1 speakers.

 

[quadlt]

No I mean tell windows and the drivers you need to output through headphones and not 5.1 speakers.

Oh my.. How do I do that? :$

 

[cmdrdredd]

Oh my.. How do I do that? :$

In the sound control panel select your output device and configure. Make sure it is not sending a full 5.1 output. This has caused me to notice lower quality audio since I am using stereo headphones. If you have the realtek HD control panel or something like that, you can tell it you are using headphones and not speakers there too.

I am not saying this is the problem but when I do that I get better headphone audio. Worth a shot anyway

 

[Slammy1]

Ground fault? Make sure you don't have 2-pronged plugs in the same circuit, verify the gound in the socket.

 

[quadlt]

In the sound control panel select your output device and configure. Make sure it is not sending a full 5.1 output. This has caused me to notice lower quality audio since I am using stereo headphones. If you have the realtek HD control panel or something like that, you can tell it you are using headphones and not speakers there too.

I am not saying this is the problem but when I do that I get better headphone audio. Worth a shot anyway

No difference.

Ground fault? Make sure you don't have 2-pronged plugs in the same circuit, verify the gound in the socket.

Once again, I'm a 'noob' at this, no idea what to look for.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Well it was worth a try. Good luck.


This happens with all headphones right? Not just one pair?

 

[quadlt]

Well it was worth a try. Good luck.


This happens with all headphones right? Not just one pair?

Whoa, now that you've mentioned it, I tried listening to same stuff with my old SteelSeries 3H, and it was fairly louder than on my current 5Hv2, though fizzling on bass still occured.

 

[Zap]

fizzling on bass still occured.

That may be distortion from turning it up too much. If you have to set the volume almost all the way up to get "acceptable" volume levels, you will be better off with a headphone amp.

 

[quadlt]

That may be distortion from turning it up too much. If you have to set the volume almost all the way up to get "acceptable" volume levels, you will be better off with a headphone amp.

Well I did not have any of distortion using my old motherboard, nor using my front jacks on the current one. It's just something wrong with the rear ones.

If you have time, could you find an example amplifier so I would know what around to look for? There are loads of different so called 'headphone amplifiers' as I search on ebay at the moment.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Something like this would provide a little more output power. It's for portable applications but at 32ohms it'll give you 100mW. If it doesn't help just return it to amazon. You can get into expensive stuff but unless you know for sure it'll help, better off with something for $23 first.

http://www.amazon.com/Fiio-E5-FiiO-H...ywords=fiio+e7

 

[quadlt]

Something like this would provide a little more output power. It's for portable applications but at 32ohms it'll give you 100mW. If it doesn't help just return it to amazon. You can get into expensive stuff but unless you know for sure it'll help, better off with something for $23 first.

http://www.amazon.com/Fiio-E5-FiiO-H...ywords=fiio+e7

Oh boy, getting one of these will be a problem in my country.
Still can't believe how this can change over a mobo.

Anyway, thank you everyone, I appreciate it!

 

[cmdrdredd]

Well, you could always try to RMA the mobo and see if a replacement will be better.