Volume Too Low (multiple OS) Realtek

[Syndacate]

Hey,

I'm getting annoyed with my audio volume.

On my old system, running Ubuntu & XP I had the same audio drivers (realtek). In Ubuntu it was too fu8king low - OSS, fine, whatever. In XP I'd only have to put the volume about ~33% and it'd be good for headphones for any game I play, and the speakers can be adjusted fine with the external volume control from there.

Now I got a new computer, similar audio card, same drivers, and I'm having the same problem I was having in Ubuntu, but now it's under Windows 7 x64. I can crank it up to 100% and that's "just enough" for a game, sometimes a bit too low. It seems to be a bit louder max since I uninstalled the realtek drivers, but still too low.

At this point I'm just pissed, it doesn't seem like there's a clean software answer to this like XP had, maybe it was just that particular audio card vs this one? I'm not sure.

In any event, I don't expect anybody to really be able to help me, so I'm leaning towards an amp. I haven't seen one for PC's but coming from the car world I'd have to assume they exist for pple that want to crank their speakers up loud.

Can anybody point me in the direction of an audio (can be external, or an internal card) amp, so I can jack up my volume regardless of OS at will. This crap is starting to annoy me, I'm not deaf or anything but it seriously impedes on my day to day schedule when I can't enjoy something at the volume I want it at. Was looking for something inline or along those lines, my speakers are standard non-optical (orange/black/green....more coolors) 5.1 1/8" audio computer jacks.

Any help here?

Thanks in advance.

 

[astrallite]

What speakers do you currently have? If you have computer speakers they would have a built-in amplifier and you can't send an amplified signal.

 

[Syndacate]

Dammit. Even my last ditch effort failed .

They're Logitech X-540's I believe (judging by pictures of logitech speakers found on google b/c I'm not near them right now).

Is there anything I can do? I'm almost at the point where I'm ready to buy a dedicated audio card - can that do it? (probably not).

This is stupid, all I want is the ability to turn crap up, I'm not pushing my speakers & I'm not pushing my headphones - It's not like I"m trying to "overclock" the speakers - I just want to not have issues hearing them - and my hearing was actually rated above avg on my last hearing test . Stupid .

 

[astrallite]

You need new speakers capable of greater power handling. I don't really think there's a point dumping $200+ on a receiver to power a set of speakers you can find online for $50 (also it's not possible since Logitech uses proprietary connections).

 

[Syndacate]

You need new speakers capable of greater power handling. I don't really think there's a point dumping $200+ on a receiver to power a set of speakers you can find online for $50 (also it's not possible since Logitech uses proprietary connections).

No offense, but I think you're quite wrong.

I've had, with the right drivers, these speakers cranked up fine - same goes for the headphones, all three sets, on my old system. This is in no way a headphone/speaker issue, it is strictly with the audio card and/or the drivers.

These ear buds go in deep, I've never had a need for anything above 10-25% volume on an iPod or tops and about 25% on windows XP with a different integrated audio card (also by realtek). Same goes for my speakers, I generally, when listening to music on my old system, with these speakers, and the older ones before them, kept the system volume around ~50% and had (on these speakers) the volume also about 40-50%, and it filled my room quite nicely.

Now, I have those same pair of ear buds, plus the ones I take to work every day (still only need ~10-25% vol on my iPod), plus my girlfriend has the same ones, and at 100% system volume, I can almost be okay playing a game or listening to music - and that's three pairs of headphones (yes, the same kind) - ON TOP of that, I also have real headphones (non-ear buds) that cover your whole ear, even them, it's dealable at about 90% sys volume, with the headphone volume turned up all the way - it used to be around 30% with my old system. As for my speakers: If I put the sys volume on ~100%, with VLC @ 400%, about 60% speaker volume is usually okay to watch a movie - which is ridiculously higher than what I had to put it on to hear the same with my old system (same speakers).

In short, this is failing around the world - it's not just one pair of speakers or headphones which can be the culprit, also, the fact that they work absolutely fine on my old system is more proof than that - also, my laptop, which I haven't mentioned, only requires second (out of 8 or 10 or something) notch volume to be able to hear quite clearly with said earbuds.

My old system had an Abit motherboard (IC7-G) with a realtek integrated audio card, running XP 32bit & the realtek drivers installed.

My new system has an EVGA motherboard (141BL-E760 3x SLI classified ed.), again, with a realtek integrated audio card, I started with the drivers installed, it was complete shit, I uninstalled them, it's either a bit better or the same, still is low as all shit.

I don't believe this was related to the volume problem I mentioned in Linux on my old system what-so-ever, because that was low across the board regardless of what was plugged into it, I think that was just an OSS driver issue, regardless, I only mention it because this isn't the first time I've had issues with the volume being too low, and would like the ability to amp it at a hardware level, so I'm not dealing with shitty drivers not cutting it.

For the above, I don't believe it's me needing better speakers which can handle more power - the sheer number of devices that's affected and how they are is proof enough of this.

EDIT:
PS: I don't know what proprietary connections you're talking about, as far as I can tell, it uses standard 1/8" audio jacks for sound.

 

[magnetik]

I agree you could always get a cheap headphone amp. You could always try to boost audio with software or plugins. If you're playing dvd's you can also install ac3 filter and boost through it for dvd audio.

 

[kencheeto]

Are you using the rear motherboard I/O jack? My front panel jack gives super low volume compared to the I/O plate jack.

 

[gesicht]

in win7 my laptop seems much more quite then when i had XP, there is an option under play back devices/enhancements called "loudness equalization". it made a world of different watching TV shows on hulu.

turn that on and see if makes a difference. my desktop has realtek ALC889A run win7 64 and it sounds find. what realtek chip do you have in your system ? i checked evga's website and it was useless in giving me the actual chip type.

 

[astrallite]

I agree, these are some of the finest speakers ever designed in the history of western civilization.

 

[JamesL]

My guess is that you had your soundcard outputting headphone out instead of line-out.

Typically, you want a line-out signal when its going to be amplified (such as a power amp, receiver, or one built into your speaker).. but if it's not getting loud enough, most soundcards (that I've dealt with) can treat any of your rear jacks as a headphone out, which is capable of a much higher output.

 

[Syndacate]

I agree you could always get a cheap headphone amp. You could always try to boost audio with software or plugins. If you're playing dvd's you can also install ac3 filter and boost through it for dvd audio.

Yeah, I want it boosted all around, so an amp would probably be more along the lines of what I'm looking for. Not to mention I trust a hardware fix more than a driver fix.

Are you using the rear motherboard I/O jack? My front panel jack gives super low volume compared to the I/O plate jack.

Although my ear buds are typically plugged into the front panel, the headphones I was speaking of which cover my whole ear are plugged into the rear, into an 1/8" 1-to-2 splitter (on the green plug) (which was also on my old computer, which wasn't having any effects on the volume) and they are significantly quieter than they were. Though that's an interesting concept though, I can see the front panel jack being lower as that's typically designed for headphones - but typically the OS recognizes this and some of them adjust the volume accordingly (different speaker profiles for with and without headphones plugged in). I'll double check this when I get home, though.

in win7 my laptop seems much more quite then when i had XP, there is an option under play back devices/enhancements called "loudness equalization". it made a world of different watching TV shows on hulu.

turn that on and see if makes a difference. my desktop has realtek ALC889A run win7 64 and it sounds find. what realtek chip do you have in your system ? i checked evga's website and it was useless in giving me the actual chip type.

I'll check the audio chip when I get home, I'll also look into that menu you speak of.

I agree, these are some of the finest speakers ever designed in the history of western civilization.

Which ones, the ones I have? I love them with the exception that they don't have an optical port - but I got them for my birthday so it's alright .

My guess is that you had your soundcard outputting headphone out instead of line-out.

Typically, you want a line-out signal when its going to be amplified (such as a power amp, receiver, or one built into your speaker).. but if it's not getting loud enough, most soundcards (that I've dealt with) can treat any of your rear jacks as a headphone out, which is capable of a much higher output.

I'm assuming that whether it's amplified or not at the jack is determined by the OS via drivers. As windows is seeing when I plug in or unplug something, I'd have to assume its backend is working correctly (as it's all proprietary I kind of have to assume) and it's telling the sound card to output in headphone mode or speakers.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for the responses, guys, you gave me some great ideas, actually.

I'll look into the things posted here when I get home in about 8 hours & post back.

Thanks .

 

[Syndacate]

Okay, here's the answers to some of the unanswered questions ('cept the OP of course ).

- The audio jack in the rear and as well as the headphone jack in the front appear (as far as I can tell, anyway), to put out the same volume levels.

- Turning on the loudness equalization DID increase the volume a bit, but I can still listen to VLC @ 400% and system volume @ 100% and it's about average, maybe a bit lower. This was with 2 different pairs of ear buds. It's, like I said, a bit better with full ear covering (whole ear) headphones, but still quite low.

- The audio card (integrated) is of type: I installed the realtek audio drivers from EVGA again, as windows only reported it as "high definition generic" for the name, after installing the drivers it simply shows up as "Realtek high definition audio" I can't find, through the Realtek audio manager, anyway, the type of audio card it is.

As far as the realtek manager is concerned, it can tell whether I have the front jack plugged in or not, so I'm to assume that it's sending the signals correctly to the card, as it's closed source and I can't check to see if it is.

So I guess back to the original question - is there any way to amp the power inline going out of the jack?

 

[Syndacate]

bump*

Anybody?

 

[John721]

I'd probably look at throwing a dedicated sound card in there just to see what happens. Consider something local that has a good return policy just in case the end result isn't acceptable. Even something basic (that has reasonably updated drivers). Especially before trying to amplify a line level output signal running into a speaker's amplifier.