[capram]

So my test file is a FLAC file which plays at 1150kbps on foobar on my windows pc. I have a Gigabyte z97 on board audio, no sound card.
 
I put on the headphones today for the first time and they sounded terrible. I thought, there is no way m50s sound this bad. So I used Poweramp on my android phone, to play the same exact FLAC file, and it sounds amazing. So these cans sound amazing with my phone but on my high end pc they sound terrible...What?
 
I don't have the EQ turned on in foobar at all, but even with it on and some custom settings, still sounds terrible. The best way I can describe, the sound in both ears seems hollow, hard to hear, muffled kind of, and the sound isn't like a big room sound. On my pc, the sound from both sides sounds really "close together" but on my phone the sound is big, open and nice sounding.
 
I am not sure if it is some windows setting I have to mess with, like stereo or 5.1, or my Realtek audio manager? I don't know what to do. Can anyone help?

 

[Beyakusenn]

It might be the EQ settings from windows. The steps you should take disable your windows EQ are:
- Right click on the volume control (left bottom corner)
- Click "Playback devices"
- Select the device you want to change (headphones).
- Click "Properties"
- Go to "Enhancements"
- Check the box "Disable all enhancements"
 
If the box was already checked I don't know what your problem might be.

 

[capram]

Thanks Beyakusenn, the box was unchecked, but then all of the boxes under it were also unchecked...so I don't think any enhancements were on. I have since tried many other flac files and they seem to sound great....so i might have just been using a **** flac file. Thanks for your help
 
One more question, is using the realtek audio manager EQ same or different from using the foobar EQ?

 

[cel4145]

That makes sense. Could be a bad quality recording. There are plenty of those out there

 

[Beyakusenn]

I am not familiar with the Realtek Audio Manager EQ.
 
As far as I know the best equalizer for foobar is the 31-band graphic equalizer.

 

[ahunatu]

I'm assuming your phone has some preloaded audio processing going on. Download the newest Realtek drivers, it defaults to enhancing the sound(surround sound, etc.). Should sound a lot better.