Poor Sound Quality

Hi

I didn't know where to post this so please forgive me if its the wrong place.

I have built a new rig and since then the sound is muffled. I have done a quick google search and found a few people experiencing my problem but with no fix.

The sound card I have on this mobo is the Sound Blaster Recon3Di

I have also tried reverb on/off and doesnt make a difference. I have played with my soundcard settings and nothing.

My old pc had no problems with the sound. (same headphones)

Please advise.

Thank you

An update...

The further objects are, the more muffled it sounds.

Hey Balanced,

There are and handful of things this could be, some of which have solutions and some don't. First off it could be some kind of hardware incompatibility, I'd be surprised if this was the case and it's not something we could look into fixing soon.

Though it could be one of the following:

-Drivers need updating.

-Incorrect bit-rate and bit-depth settings.

-You've set your system to 5.1 or 7.1 where it should be set to stereo. This is most likely what's causing the problems, at least from the way you've described it.

Hope this helps!

Hi Andrew

Thanks for your reply.

I would have expected the problem to be coming from the suggestions you mention.

1) Current drivers as of 01/09/2015 (Australian time format) from gigabyte website
2) It is currently set in 2.1 mode (But seems like its in 5.1 or 7.1 just to add an example to the sound quality im experiencing)
3) My bit rate is the default which is 24 bit / 48000Hz

Is there something I can do to force 2.1 sound to the game?

Thank you

Another update.

It sounds as if i'm playing counter strike. Gun shots are in the distance. The game needs an option to turn off this method of delivering sound. I just want it to sound normal.

Is there a way to manipulate the sound output of the game?

Thanks

I googled "path of exile muffled sound" and found this post right on top. And I have the exact same problem, and the same Sound Blaster Recon3Di on a new Alienware R2.

I've played probably a modest 800 hours since 2013 on my original desktop rig, so I know exactly what it's supposed to sound like. But with this computer, the sound feels modified. I immediately checked out the SB settings, and lo, of course enabled is the "SBX Pro Studio" effects, which by default has the bass turned up.

However, even with disabling SBX all together, the sound just isn't quite right. And, I'm using headphones. The best I can describe is that the sounds that are closest to the character are slightly quieter and more muffled then sounds further away from the center. The 'thwang' of an arrow leaving the bow is imbalanced vs the 'thud' of it hitting a far away target.

The only other theory I have is that I'm also now using an ultrawide LG (2560x1080), and it's possible that there is some in-game calculations for volume vs distance that is getting jacked up with the super wide, narrow view port.

I realize the sound quality of the recordings themselves is highly compressed, and distorts against the ambient sounds and music - but I'm nearly certain this isn't entirely compression distortion (though, the combination is fairly grating, to be sure).

I'd be curious to hear the thoughts of other peeps.

Part of the issue might lie with the outdated microsoft framework used in the engine. I do hope they move on to rework the engine to use today's standards. You can't have technology advancements without going with the pieces improved by the companies over the years. 10 years ago. That's a big too long ago to base an engine on today, and expect it to fun smoothly.