[nicke2323]

I need the advice of my fellow head-fiers. I have been very unhappy with the headphone/line out of my new Asus W2V, which is marketed as a high-end multimedia notebook. I complained to my retailer about a tinny sound with complete lack of both bass and highs, and included links to posts from others with the same problem. This is the reply I received:

Quote:

We sold over 30 pieces of the W2V and till now, no one had a problem with the sound. From the extracts of the forum, it seems that the problem is a bit selfmade from some users. Of course everyone has got a different definition of a good sound. [...] We have talked to Asus, they are not aware of that problem and it seems that it is a matter of taste. At the moment, there is nothing we can do about the sound "problem". We have checked it here and the sound is of good quality. Also our technican, who is a bit audiophile, liked the sound.

I think I can convince you guys who is right by showing you these frequency response curves, posted on notebookreview.com. The first is a Dell D600, the second is the W2V.

http://img21.imagevenue.com/img.php?...00_freqres.JPG
http://img20.imagevenue.com/img.php?...2v_freqres.JPG

Luckily, the W2V has SPDIF out, so all is not lost. I can fix the audio quality with an external DAC. But what can I do to get my notebook fixed, when both Asus and my reseller refuse to acknowledge even that there is a problem?

 

[rsaavedra]

Wow that looks quite a lot like a "Pop" or "Voice enhancement" equalization mode. Is it possible the sound card might have such an equalization setup, and might be a matter of somehow resetting it to flat?

I would show those guys your response graphs as well, the audiophile technician might like what he hears from the laptops they have, but if he sees that your laptop is exhibiting that response graph he'll have to agree something is wrong in the sound from your laptop.

 

[nicke2323]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rsaavedra Wow that looks quite a lot like a "Pop" or "Voice enhancement" equalization mode. Is it possible the sound card might have such an equalization setup, and might be a matter of somehow resetting it to flat?

Actually, this is the response with equalization OFF. Turning it on can help upper lows slightly, but can't restore what's not there. Really this is exactly how bad it sounds, and it can't be improved.

Here is the original post with the measurements:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=32774

 

[rimmer]

I am afraid there is no error with your particular laptop. It's just build that way - the dac and analog circuitry are crappy and you can do nothing about it except getting another laptop model or an external solution.

IMHO ALL laptop integrated solutions are inferior (please correct me if there are exceptions) varying from poor to simply bad. Don't trust any "special multimedia ready" statement, it's blabber. Those are just average consumer solutions at best.

 

[sgrossklass]

There *must* be some EQ involved here. Not even the crappiest CMedia chip produces this kind of freq response, per se. Now good luck finding out where that mysterious EQ hides. Turn the mixer upside down and look out for additional controls that one may be able to display (like in case of some AD chips with the bass boost control). If there should be newer drivers for the sound chip available, try these.