Channel issues w/Asus Xonar U7

jch

jch

jch

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3 Oct 2008
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11
Hi all,

With a newly installed Xonar U7 w/Windows 8.1 64bit (11.39.4.151 driver version, onboard audio disabled in BIOS) I found vocals are extremely quiet if left/right channels are set to the same level (barely audible and sounds like it was recorded in a cave).

I can work around it slightly by either setting the left or right front channels higher in the Sonic Studio channel mixer menu, or by reducing either the left or right channel in the headphone volume control menu, though the audio quality is still rather poor.

This is with everything set to default w/HTV4 disabled, though I've tried various settings without success.

I was wondering if anyone has seen something like this before? Its my first time using a DAC so am unsure if this is merely user error on my part - prior to this I was using a Astro mixamp which worked fine.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Just.
 
Are you using stereo speakers or headphones?

If you are, you may have the output set to 5.1, which could explain the quiet vocals as they are sent to the centre channel in a 5.1 setup. If you removed the centre speaker in a 5.1 setup, you'd still hear vocals from the left and right speakers, but much quieter, which sounds like what you are getting.
 
Thanks for the reply!

I'm using stereo headphones and it does appear to be detecting them correctly with the audio config listing only stereo - so no 5.1, 7.1, etc.

I'll try reinstalling again to see if it makes any difference.
 
I'm not familiar with the U7 control panel. I wondered if it was similar to the control panel that is used with the majority of the internal Xonar cards, but actually it is very different.

Looking at the manual, there's no channel selector from what I can see, so that can be ruled out.

What about the equalizer settings? Is that turned on?

That will affect the sound if it's been altered or one of the presets selected.
 
It does sound like there's a mismatch in the channel department somewhere but I am also totally unfamiliar with the software, which is why I didn't say anything.
 
Firstly thanks a lot for taking the time to look into this, I really appreciate it having lost a fair bit of hair over the past couple of days!

Marsman said:
What about the equalizer settings? Is that turned on?
Click to expand...

This is with the equalizer turned off, in fact its been the same since install before I fiddled with anything...though admittedly I went a little click crazy trying to test this hence thinking about reinstalling to see if it makes a difference.

Could this behavior be down to broken HW? Initially it seemed more SW/driver related to me but now I'm not so sure.
 
In the software for the STX, there is a button marked HF which bypasses the DSP completely and gives you pure, unprocessed stereo - is there anything like that in the U7 software?
 
Have you got the correct Impedance settings selected for your headphones?

If you right click on the headphones icon you should get some options,in headphone settings you will find the impedance options,also possible you accidentally put on some environmental effects?
 
...is there anything like that in the U7 software?
Click to expand...

Can't see such a thing looking at the manual, but there are '7.1 speaker shifter' and 'environmental effects' tick boxes.

Just noticed in the EQ settings section, it says for XP only. Seems odd to have that for XP only.

There is a section for Xear Sing FX, and a slider for vocal fade. Would expect that to be default though, which probably would be normal. Worth looking at though in case it has been moved.

Could this behavior be down to broken HW? Initially it seemed more SW/driver related to me but now I'm not so sure.
Click to expand...

Unlikely to be a hardware problem. It's a little too specific to be hardware. Quite possibly a driver issue if it isn't any of the settings.

Shame there are no Uni drivers. Got to stick with the Asus ones, and if they don't work properly.... :/

Some issue with Windows 8.1 maybe?

Would be an idea to see if you can get hold of a machine with Windows 7, to try it out if nothing else works.

It's a shame that good hardware can be gimped by driver issues. Certainly a good reason for buying a DAC, rather than a sound card. No driver issues to worry about!
 
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I tried a fresh install and still get the same problem - EQ off, all effects and surround options off, Dolby off, tried all impedance settings and different headphones, etc.

I also gave it a whirl on a system running Win7 and no change, so I'm completely stumped to be honest.
 
Unfortunately I don't have any speakers to test with, though I'll see if I can rustle some up from somewhere.

I get the same behavior with DVDs, CDs, streamed media as well as stuff I've recorded myself.

The description of it sounding like you're missing the center speakers in a surround setup is pretty accurate.
 
I was wondering that if it were just affecting movies, it could be something to do with the quieter speech they use in comparison to other sounds, but if it's happening to everything, then clearly it can't be that.

I am somewhat surprised you got the same problem with another machine using Windows 7. I expected it to be a driver fault or software conflict somewhere, which leads to a hardware fault looking like the only real possibility.

Just seems very odd that such a specific issue is possible if the hardware is faulty. Still, I'm not sure what else can be considered, so probably best just to RMA it.
 
I'll be sending it back for replacement, its a shame but its the only logical thing left for me to try.

Thanks again for everyone's help with this, its really appreciated!
 
In case anyone's interested a replacement U7 arrived this morning and everything is working great, so as odd as it seems it looks like the problem was hardware related.

Thanks again for all the help on this!
 
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