Hi, after using the search function i still couldn't find the solution, so i decided to ask here.. When i listen to music online, my sound is great. My speakers aren't high-end, but good enough.. Then i want to listen to an audio cd or mp3's and suddenly it's like i'm using those plastic cans they dare call speakers *g* I think the main problem is with the bass, turning it off completely on my subwoofer helps, but that sounds awful. I hope i managed to explain my problem? And my question ofcourse is: Does anyone know how to fix this? I've been trying to look at my codecs, every time i wanted the properties shown it crashed (when i tried to look at Lame) So there might be a little problem there? (it can get a bit confusing as i'm using the dutch version of XP) Anyway, all help would be appreciated TIA!
I am not an expert but I will try to be helpful. Try plugging some kind of ear phone into an earphone thing. Does the base sound OK? You could have damaged your speakers. I believe you shouldn't spend much on PC speakers. I think mine were 50 USD. They produce a good likeness. If I want to hear good music I listen to a HiFi or mp3 player. It is cheaper to build an old fashion hifi system with great sound than it is to try to get your computer system to better than passible. Back to the problem at hand... I do not believe audio CDs use a codec so that is not your problem. The internet streams low quality music while CDs and mp3s are high end. I figure you blew something out. Sound card, speakers or most likely the speaker amps. My non expert opinion is it is a hardware problem. Let us know what you find unless an expert can tell you what is really wrong with your system.
Thank you for your reply. My speakers are only a week old, and i always keep my volume quite low The problem is that now i can't try to listen with a headphone because now the whole thing is messed up, even internet sound (see explanation below:">) I downloaded winamp instead of WMP, that was much better when i was playing my audio cd's, but my mp3's still sounded rubbish.. Then i did something really stupid.... I uninstalled some files from my LAME codec (because of the errors i mentioned in my previous post) and now all sound is messed up.. *kicks self* I'm going to try and install lame again, so at least my games have proper sound again, but that still doesn't fix the mp3 problem. It does sound like i blew them up, but then they would always have that terrible sound don't they?
That's what i thought as well, especially now that i messed up my codecs and online music sounds the same.. I installed k-lite yesterday and it seems a bit better, though the really low bass is still not the way it should be, at least most of the... crackling? sound is gone..
I missed your point that 'looking at' the lame properties causes your computer to crash. I am not sure why you would be doing such a thing. Fooling around with things you shouldn't can get you into trouble like this. You can have damaged speakers amp that act up in a particular sound frequency range. It happened to me. Some of your equipment may only be used in certain sound frequencies. If that stuff breaks you only hear it at those frequencies. You only were having problems with hi quality audio. The reason why I wanted you to try the ear phones is they don't use any of that hardware. Audio CDs don't use any codecs only MP3 CDs use codecs. There was no commonality in what didn't work other than mp3s and CDs are high quality audio that would push your sound system harder than internet music might. I guess you can try removing all your audio applications and re installing all of them.
