Left Speaker Quieter than Right, Driver Reinstall and System Reinstall Did Nothing

[62fe50]

I recently began to notice that my left speaker was playing quieter than my right, but also seemed to have different treble/bass. I'd had this issue before, but it corrected itself fairly easily (although I forget what I did that time). I looked at other forum posts and the general consensus was to disable all sound effects under the speaker/driver properties. I did that, and the problem persisted. I've tried essentially everything at this point. I tried switching to the windows drivers, switching audio jacks, reinstalling all my drivers (the Realtek website is down, so that helps), and finally, reinstalling Windows 10 altogether. I know it's not hardware because I've tried about five different headphones/speakers and they all get the same result. I'm completely at my wits end here, and if this persists for much longer I think I'll just use Linux full-time. 

 

Does you guys have any idea what's happening here? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

 

I'm using an MSI Z97-G45 motherboard with the onboard realtek audio. 

[anothertom]

Within the Realtek Audio manager there is a pan setting which would do exactly this.

 

Also make sure that it's not the headphones by testing with other devices and making sure they're plugged in correctly. If the headphones have a removable cable then check that is attached properly.

[62fe50]

4 minutes ago, anothertom said:

Within the Realtek Audio manager there is a pan setting which would do exactly this.

 

Also make sure that it's not the headphones by testing with other devices and making sure they're plugged in correctly. If the headphones have a removable cable then check that is attached properly.

I tested with about five other devices and all gave the same result. The pan setting adjusts the relative volume, but not the treble/bass, which is different as well. The left has a lot less richness to the sound and is a lot more 'twangy' than the right. 

[anothertom]

1 minute ago, 62fe50 said:

The pan setting adjusts the relative volume, but not the treble/bass, which is different as well.

The way lots of music is produced means that there is an unnatural frequency panning where low frequencies are more present in left channels and less in right channels, and the reverse for high frequencies. But if you're noticing it is different than normal then something will have changed.

 

have you tried both front and rear connectors? the front socket may have become damaged or the header loose.

[orangecat]

I don't know what speakers your using or how they are connected but sometimes shitty speakers/amplifiers have a channel balance error. This results in one channel being louder than the other but most of the time it's only at low volumes. I have an Audiosource AMP100 connected to a pair of Fluance SX6's and at very low volumes the left speaker is way louder than the right but if I turn it up even a tiny bit they become the same volume really quick. If you do allot of low volume listening you may need a better amplifier/speakers if that's the problem. The other possibility is that either the amplifier or speakers are damaged.

[62fe50]

1 minute ago, anothertom said:

The way lots of music is produced means that there is an unnatural frequency panning where low frequencies are more present in left channels and less in right channels, and the reverse for high frequencies. But if you're noticing it is different than normal then something will have changed.

 

have you tried both front and rear connectors? the front socket may have become damaged or the header loose.

I've tried using about ten different stereo tests and testing in games as well, It's the same at all frequencies for the most part. I have tried both connectors and the HDMI audio out on my monitor, all act the same. 

[anothertom]

If this is also happening when you're sending audio over HDMI then it will be in the software you're using for playback, double check that you've not nudged a setting here or there.

[62fe50]

3 minutes ago, Kilobytez95 said:

I don't know what speakers your using or how they are connected but sometimes shitty speakers/amplifiers have a channel balance error. This results in one channel being louder than the other but most of the time it's only at low volumes. I have an Audiosource AMP100 connected to a pair of Fluance SX6's and at very low volumes the left speaker is way louder than the right but if I turn it up even a tiny bit they become the same volume really quick. If you do allot of low volume listening you may need a better amplifier/speakers if that's the problem. The other possibility is that either the amplifier or speakers are damaged.

I've tested using a decibel meter and the difference between channels is about the same on all volume levels (logarithmically, of course). As for the speakers/ amplfier, I've tested using my realistic STA-225 Receiver and KLH tube speakers, and it's the same difference. 

[62fe50]

3 minutes ago, anothertom said:

If this is also happening when you're sending audio over HDMI then it will be in the software you're using for playback, double check that you've not nudged a setting here or there.

I looked in the sound settings and the Realtek audio manager, and the balance is equal. Is there anywhere else I would check? 

[anothertom]

What program do you use to play music? itunes/vlc/foobar/WMP/... all of which would have similar settings for playback level, pan, EQ...

[62fe50]

2 minutes ago, anothertom said:

What program do you use to play music? itunes/vlc/foobar/WMP/... all of which would have similar settings for playback level, pan, EQ...

I use MusicBee for most music that I have downloaded, but I've used Youtube, games, and the system sounds to test as well, which all have the balance issue.

 

Also, wouldn't the system reset set all playback settings to default?

[62fe50]

Here is an image illustrating the difference:

[Ahoy Hoy]

Tried using different ports, ie the back ones instead of the front case ones or vice versa.