Serious distortion from PC sound system

[Goi]

Hi,
I'm using my dad's PC now since mine is kinda dead, and I've noticed some serious sound distortion. At first I thought it was the speakers, so I changed to another set of speakers, with similar results. I also tested the original speakers with my portable CD player and it was crystal clear with no distortion. Since the soundcard's an old PCI Monster3D, I thought maybe it's the soundcard, so I put in a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, but still I get the mad distortion. So, if it's not the speakers nor the soundcards, what can it be? Can it be that noisy inside the case electromagnetically or something? The distortion is really bad, like someone put the volume way past the max and it was clipping real bad. Turning down the soundcard and/or speaker volume only makes the volume lower, the distortion is still there.

 

[Howard]

Was it always like that?

Have you tried reinstalling the drivers?

 

[PurdueRy]

Does it occur when you play DVD's?

 

[Raduque]

try checking the advanced options in the Volume app. Somebody might have turned the Treble and Bass sliders all the way up.

 

[Goi]

Well, I don't really know if it was always like that, since I'm only using this PC coz mine is down, and my dad doesn't really care much about audio other than the windows sounds. I don't think it's a driver problem though, since both the Diamond MX300 and the TBSC exhibit the same problem. I haven't played DVDs with it, but so far both CD audio and mp3 exhibit this problem. I've played some video files(avi/mpeg) and most of them are fine, but some of them are also clipped/distorted.

I think it might have to do with a line/gain/volume mismatch between the soundcard and the speakers, since the speakers are some powered monitor speakers rather than computer speakers. I wouldn't expect a problem though, since I've been using separate amp/speaker setups foralmost all my PCs and never once had such a problem.

Raduque, the TBSC that is currently on the PC has its own audio console that replaces the default windows volume control panel, and doesn't have treble/bass controls. I tried going to the default one and there isn't an "advanced" button there either.I tried messeng aroudn with the WMP equalizer, and turning the bass down reduces the distortion to acceptable levels, but it sounds a lot worse than the same song being played by my portable CD player, with a noticable lack of bass.

 

[Ghouler]

I do not have a definite answer but try following:

1) Active monitor speakers often have sensitivity knob.
It sounds as if this was turned all the way up (or down, depending on scale).

2) If you can check cables, or simply take another pair.

3) Not sure about this sound card but some old sound cards had separate headphone put and separate line out. Now this is done in software.
Headphone out selection might result in more distortion as signal is amplified on the sound card and the quality of this amplification is relatively poor. So make sure you use line out and have selected 2.0 speakers in Audio tab in Control Panel.

Hope this helps..