Old Audio Chipset VS New

[Mike Soda]

So after using my new PC for a couple weeks now & periodically temporarily switching back to the old one for various reasons. I've realized that the audio on my MSI B350M Gaming Pro sounds much quieter than my ASUS M4N68T-M-V2's. It's audio chipset is an 8-channel VIA VT1708S while my current motherboard's is Realtek ALC887 7.1. On my older PC I could watch YouTube at max volume while PC's was set at 18 but on my new build it needs to be cranked to 30 to sound the same. Is the reason for this because 8 channels are simply better or did MSI cheap out in another way?

[Guest]

I bet there are driver settings which will throttle volume. My onboard sound was also not that loud. After setting "equalize volume" in the "sound effects" tab in my realtec software, I got a 50% volume boost for no aparent reason. You might want to play with those settings a bit.

[Spuriae]

Chipset doesn't matter; it's all about implementation.

 

Louder or more channels isn't necessarily better, either.

 

1 minute ago, Dutch-stoner said:

I bet there are driver settings which will throttle volume. My onboard sound was also not that loud. After setting "equalize volume" in the "sound effects" tab in my realtec software, I got a 50% volume boost for no aparent reason. You might want to play with those settings a bit.

That's a lossy way to do it which introduces clipping. You may get louder volume but the sound is noticeably lower quality.

[Guest]

@Nimrodor No, I didn't get any clipping. The few times I did notice some clipping, it was a poor quality copy-of-the-origional in combination with crappy codecs. (which could be fixed in the codec settings) And I might not have high quality desktop speakers, but they are good enough that I would have noticed clipping.

[Mike Soda]

1 hour ago, Dutch-stoner said:

I bet there are driver settings which will throttle volume. My onboard sound was also not that loud. After setting "equalize volume" in the "sound effects" tab in my realtec software, I got a 50% volume boost for no aparent reason. You might want to play with those settings a bit.

The only settings I'm able to find I'll include below, would it be the checkbox for Loudness Equalization?

1 hour ago, Nimrodor said:

Chipset doesn't matter; it's all about implementation.

 

Louder or more channels isn't necessarily better, either.

 

That's a lossy way to do it which introduces clipping. You may get louder volume but the sound is noticeably lower quality.

Maybe that's what I was experiencing before because although my current setup is quieter, it does sound a little richer.

[Guest]

My advise would be: play around with them settings, and see what happens to audio quality and volume. I like to play with settings like these, to get the best overall results with the highest stock volume.

 

*PS: 4th image, I like to uncheck all those boxes.

 

*PS2: I noticed on my computers that playing with surround sound settings will also affect volume. It's strange, I don't understand it all, but by playing with settings I usually find something that works for me with high stock pc volume. I use my desk speakers to controll the actual volume.

[Mike Soda]

1 hour ago, Dutch-stoner said:

My advise would be: play around with them settings, and see what happens to audio quality and volume. I like to play with settings like these, to get the best overall results with the highest stock volume.

 

*PS: 4th image, I like to uncheck all those boxes.

 

*PS2: I noticed on my computers that playing with surround sound settings will also affect volume. It's strange, I don't understand it all, but by playing with settings I usually find something that works for me with high stock pc volume. I use my desk speakers to controll the actual volume.

I did notice it got quieter when Loudness Correction was enabled but that's about it. The others neither hindered or enhanced volume level but quality improved a little with Bass Management & Virtual Surround. I guess I'll just leave it as is because so far I've tried everything else in that menu & if it's buried deeper. I'm not sure if I'd want to sacrifice quality for more loudness now anyway. Thanks for all the suggestions though, I had planned to buy an external amp someday so will just look forward to that.