Audio issue with new PC

[PSR]

Hi there. Wondering if anyone might be able to help with an issue I have with new PC bought from Overclockers.

PC:
cpu: i7 14700K
gpu: 4070 RTX super
mobo: Asus B760-F
ram: 32gb
os: Windows 11
speakers: 2.0 creative speakers connected via 3.5mm jack

So, problem is that when either watching a youtube video, or trying to play a game, the audio coming from my speakers is very distorted, a lot of crackle to voices which is very unpleasant. With youtube volume at minimum I can turn my speaker volume up and the sound is kinda ok but not completely. Problem is, when I have youtube volume high (or max, how I normally use it) then turn the speaker volume up, there is the sound distortion. Problem is just persistent inside a game, voices are very crackly, ruining gaming experience.

Since friday night I've tried to find a fix but I'm mostly poking around in the dark. Watched a few youtube vids but solutions there not working (disable/re-enable devices, drivers etc). Read plenty of webpages but not with successful resolution. One example of similar issue I'm having can be found here: https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/intel...lify-level-quot-resets-to-extreme/td-p/920061

I have tried updating drivers from ASUS website and have had a weird realisation. I installed what I though were latest audio drivers from ASUS but it instead seemed to install a few bits of software: DTS Sound Unbound, Realtek Audio Console, Sonic Studio 3 and Sonic Radar. I've been playing around with these and noticed a couple interesting things:
1: with Realtek Audio Console, on Speakers page, there's an Amplify level. Sets to Extreme by default. I can change to Performance and this sounds sooo much better, yet I cannot save this setting and it defaults to Extreme with every reboot of PC.
2: within Sonic Studio 3, on Sonic Studio page, select Advanced Mode, device manager lists Headphones, Realtek Digital (for Spdif) and Speakers. Now, when set to speakers the distortion is there BUT if I change to Headphones the distortion is gone. But these are not headphones they are speakers... what is going on?

Is there a way to resolve this? Do I have a faulty motherboard?

I appreciate I could go forward using Sonic Studio set to Headphones setting, but I've spent over £2.5k on this new setup and would really rather things are working as they should be before I accept bodge fixes. Unless someone has a solution, I want to call overclockers tomorrow to ask them if they can sort it, since it's rather annoying/upsetting to be honest. I know it's not their fault as such but I don't know what else to do. Is it normal for custom built PC's to have these kinds of issues?

What do you folks think please?

 

[Werewolf]

I'm not familiar with your motherboard or the speakers in question but as a stupid question how old are the speakers? and that exact model are they? (I vaguely remember some speakers being designed to work from the headphone ports on things like computers and other devices that did not have a dedicated line out).

IIRC a lot of PC speakers can be run from either the headphone socket or a line out as the signal they use is similar but line out is a fixed level (IIRC something like 1 volt peak to peak) whilst headphones is more variable, and from what i remember a lot of modern soundcards especially on motherboards use software to select what the connections do (so a socket can be a line out or a headphone out).

By the sounds of it you've got some sort of software issue going on, given that from what you're saying the speakers work ok if you set the output to deal with them as headphone and if you turn the amplify level level down (you tend to get much more distortion on sound the higher you set amplification)

Also which connector exactly are you using for the speakers?
IIRC most motherboards have at least one or two line outs (depending on if they do surround of some kind), as well as headphone and mic at the back and it's common for the software that is installed to ask you what you've got connected when you plug something in so it can set the port up.


Unfortunately i'm not much help i know, i've not got any experience with recent asus boards but have torn some hair out over how windows and the various bits of software deal with sound (i swear there are something like 3 different places where windows hides sound settings and none of them reliably communicate/save changes between each other let alone third party software).

 

[Tetras]

I have tried updating drivers from ASUS website and have had a weird realisation. I installed what I though were latest audio drivers from ASUS but it instead seemed to install a few bits of software: DTS Sound Unbound, Realtek Audio Console, Sonic Studio 3 and Sonic Radar. I've been playing around with these and noticed a couple interesting things:
1: with Realtek Audio Console, on Speakers page, there's an Amplify level. Sets to Extreme by default. I can change to Performance and this sounds sooo much better, yet I cannot save this setting and it defaults to Extreme with every reboot of PC.
2: within Sonic Studio 3, on Sonic Studio page, select Advanced Mode, device manager lists Headphones, Realtek Digital (for Spdif) and Speakers. Now, when set to speakers the distortion is there BUT if I change to Headphones the distortion is gone. But these are not headphones they are speakers... what is going on?

You could try downloading the drivers direct from Realtek instead and installing less of them.

If the defaults aren't saving, it might be to do with folder permissions. Did you install it as an administrator? Is it possible to change the save location?

Sonic Studio, might be something to do with the number of channels or the optimisation the software tries to do.

 

[PSR]

You could try downloading the drivers direct from Realtek instead and installing less of them.

If the defaults aren't saving, it might be to do with folder permissions. Did you install it as an administrator? Is it possible to change the save location?

Sonic Studio, might be something to do with the number of channels or the optimisation the software tries to do.

Can't see Realtek drivers to download.

Regarding defaults not saving, there isn't even an option to save within Realtek Audio Control, therefore also no save location. Yep, installed as admin.

 

[PSR]

I'm not familiar with your motherboard or the speakers in question but as a stupid question how old are the speakers? and that exact model are they? (I vaguely remember some speakers being designed to work from the headphone ports on things like computers and other devices that did not have a dedicated line out).

IIRC a lot of PC speakers can be run from either the headphone socket or a line out as the signal they use is similar but line out is a fixed level (IIRC something like 1 volt peak to peak) whilst headphones is more variable, and from what i remember a lot of modern soundcards especially on motherboards use software to select what the connections do (so a socket can be a line out or a headphone out).

By the sounds of it you've got some sort of software issue going on, given that from what you're saying the speakers work ok if you set the output to deal with them as headphone and if you turn the amplify level level down (you tend to get much more distortion on sound the higher you set amplification)

Also which connector exactly are you using for the speakers?
IIRC most motherboards have at least one or two line outs (depending on if they do surround of some kind), as well as headphone and mic at the back and it's common for the software that is installed to ask you what you've got connected when you plug something in so it can set the port up.


Unfortunately i'm not much help i know, i've not got any experience with recent asus boards but have torn some hair out over how windows and the various bits of software deal with sound (i swear there are something like 3 different places where windows hides sound settings and none of them reliably communicate/save changes between each other let alone third party software).

Speakers are Creative Pebble 2.0. They are a few years old now but never had any problems before. Decent enough little set of speakers.

Speakers are plugged into green LINE OUT socket on back of mobo. Only socket that might be headphones is on front of case, since there is a headphones symbol next to it. However, distorted sound is present there. Already tried that

Thanks for commenting

 

[Finners]

I know you said you tried the latest drivers, have you updated the firmware as well?

ROG STRIX B760-F GAMING WIFI | Motherboards | ASUS UK

Get more FPS with the ROG Strix B760-F, thanks to its hyperfast DDR5 support and best-in-class power solution for Intel 13th Gen processors.

rog.asus.com

I have the same audio chipset on my board and honestly its pretty bad, bad enough that I now use an external soundcard. What's bad about it is that its actually a hardwired USB device and not a hardwire PCI device like it would have been in the past.

So its worth looking at USB drivers which I believe will be bundled with your chipset driver. As well if it improves if you unplug any USB devices as they are notoriously electrically noisy. You might have a USB device that isn't well shielded for example

 

[PSR]

I know you said you tried the latest drivers, have you updated the firmware as well?

No I have not. Honestly a little unsure of how to do that. Don't I need to go into BIOS for that? Don't I need a USB stick for that? I actually don't have one to hand right now.

I have the same audio chipset on my board and honestly its pretty bad, bad enough that I now use an external soundcard. What's bad about it is that its actually a hardwired USB device and not a hardwire PCI device like it would have been in the past.

So its worth looking at USB drivers which I believe will be bundled with your chipset driver. As well if it improves if you unplug any USB devices as they are notoriously electrically noisy. You might have a USB device that isn't well shielded for example

I have updated the chipset drivers which possibly removed an audio 'pop' when windows boots. At least, it was there but gone now.

I will look at removing USB devices when the noisy audio is playing, see what difference that makes. Thanks for the response

 

[Finners]

No I have not. Honestly a little unsure of how to do that. Don't I need to go into BIOS for that? Don't I need a USB stick for that? I actually don't have one to hand right now.

It's just like updating drivers, will be a .exe file you run and then reboot. As you are on windows 11 you might have to run it as admin. its on that page I linked to above

 

[ATIorNvidia]

If you go to windows sound settings > device properties > additional device properties > advanced are you able to disable the audio enhancements/allow applications to take exclusive control options?

Sounds like some software EQ that's clipping the output. If the above doesn't work you could try preventing the services (of sonic studio or whatever else) from starting up at boot.

 

[freddie64]

It says that the green line out port does not support spatial audio, so make sure it is turned off in settings.

 

[PSR]

It says that the green line out port does not support spatial audio, so make sure it is turned off in settings.

Is already off. Thank you.

 

[PSR]

If you go to windows sound settings > device properties > additional device properties > advanced are you able to disable the audio enhancements/allow applications to take exclusive control options?

Where exactly is that?

Sounds like some software EQ that's clipping the output. If the above doesn't work you could try preventing the services (of sonic studio or whatever else) from starting up at boot.

Ironically, it seems that software is helping somewhat, by offering me the opportunity to select Headphones for these speakers.

 

[ATIorNvidia]

Where exactly is that?

Ironically, it seems that software is helping somewhat, by offering me the opportunity to select Headphones for these speakers.

The audio enhancements option above spartial audio in the image above, is it there?

Anyway, I googled "Realtek Audio Console amplify level resetting" and it seems like an ASUS problem. Did you try to download the generic Realtek drivers from their website? https://www.realtek.com/Download/List?cate_id=593

 

[Quartz]

the audio coming from my speakers is very distorted,

Are you plugging your speakers into the front panel or the rear I/O port? The audio cable inside the PC is particularly prone to electrical interference, so try the rear connection.

 

[mattyfez]

Might be a stupid question, but have you plugged the audio cable in fully? Sometimes the sockets can be pretty tight if it's a new motherboard.

 

[Quartz]

Might be a stupid question, but have you plugged the audio cable in fully? Sometimes the sockets can be pretty tight if it's a new motherboard.

And are you using the right connector? Some connections are 3-way (left, right, mic) and some only 2-way.