Windows 10 randomly outputting "good" sound

[aristofane]

This is my first post and i'm sorry if it's not in the right subsection, but i had this itch for a long time and i just discovered this forum so i hope that maybe i can finally solve this.

So basically i bought as a first "audiophile" headphones the TYGR 300R because they were relatively cheap and they had great tuning and amazing soundstage/imaging according to reviewers.

When i started using them i really liked the tuning but the sound was very very narrow and also i didnt noticed any substantial imaging, i was kinda perplexed so i decided to try buying a discounted Fosi Audio Q5 for 50 bucks to see if maybe it was the sound card of my motherboard, but i couldnt listen to any difference between the audio of the motherboard and the DAC so i kinda settle and gave up, i didnt want to spend more money.

The crazy thing is that SOMETIMES (it happened like 2/3 times in 2 years) the defaut windows "beep"
(like the one that plays when you change the volume in this window)

played with an imaging and a soundstage so good and realistic that it felt like it was coming from behind the monitor, and the first time i witnessed this i quickly removed my headphones scared, thinking that i changed the source of the playback or something, even tho my monitor doesnt even have speakers.

And when i normally change the volume and i hear that beep it sounds really narrow and close to my ears.

I never really thought much about this until today when i saw this post of a guy on reddit having a similar issue https://www.reddit.com/r/SoundBlasterOfficial/comments/xsefuk
So the hypothesis are two:

1) what i heard was actually another sound that was mastered super good and that i confused with the default windows beep (if you know what sound it is PLEASE let me know, but i'm 99% sure it's just the normal beep)

2) windows audio processing is messing up the audio output of the pc but sometimes it doesnt work and it actually plays good sound

If you have any other theory please let me know, every kind of help is appreciated.

i've already disabled audio enanchment and tried all the different SFX/EFX etc.. in the EqAPO installer

Sorry for the strange and not so clear thread but I'm not a native english speaker and this particular topic would be hard to explain even in my native language.

 

[DVDdoug]

"Imaging" is (of course) an illusion that depends on many factors, especially the recording and the listener. How do you hear headphone 'soundstage'? With speakers, room acoustics also play a big role.

The DAC or soundcard shouldn't have ANY effect on soundstage/imaging, except your soundcard my have some enhancements/effects that don't get applied with an external DAC. Different headphones may create a different soundstage illusion but it's usually going to be subtle.

The biggest difference with a DAC/soundcard is that one may go louder than another, or one may have audible (or more audible) background noise.

With some "cheap" soundcards/headphone outputs you might have "impedance issues" that cause frequency response variations. Otherwise, frequency response should be better than human hearing. Distortion is also usually better than human hearing unless it's over-driven into clipping.

 

[aristofane]

"Imaging" is (of course) an illusion that depends on many factors, especially the recording and the listener. How do you hear headphone 'soundstage'? With speakers, room acoustics also play a big role.

The DAC or soundcard shouldn't have ANY effect on soundstage/imaging, except your soundcard my have some enhancements/effects that don't get applied with an external DAC. Different headphones may create a different soundstage illusion but it's usually going to be subtle.

The biggest difference with a DAC/soundcard is that one may go louder than another, or one may have audible (or more audible) background noise.

With some "cheap" soundcards/headphone outputs you might have "impedance issues" that cause frequency response variations. Otherwise, frequency response should be better than human hearing. Distortion is also usually better than human hearing unless it's over-driven into clipping.

i bought an external dac just out of curiosity but has I stated it was sounding the same at the motherboard, something that i forgot to mention is that when happened what i'm describing in the post i was connected directly to the pc, without any external dac

i'm aware that soundstage could depends on the mastering/recording of a song etc..., but i'm talking about the specfic "windows beep" that plays when you change the volume, that should be always the same, and also all the other "variables" should've been the same (headphone, pc, the listener)

 

[aristofane]

Update: I've listened to every possible windows system sound to see if one of them was specifically the one that i heard with the crazy good imaging and soundstage and i havent found anything, so i'm still convinced that what i heard was the normal beep sound with windows APO working properly or being correctly bypassed

 

[StephanB]

A few thoughts:

1. If you don't have a room convolution filter in Equaliser APO or your playback chain, I doubt that the Windows "bing" will sound "spatial" on headphones. Heck the sound sample may even be in Mono. You can satisfy your curiosity by opening the soundfile in Audacity, or a metering application of your choice.
2. Another option is that Windows (or the soundcard) offers some kind of "spatial audio" effect. I have seen that with Realtek audio drivers. However, I haven't seen that on external DACs.
3. I think these are open headphones, you could have heard a sound from another device in the room you are listening in. Assuming you are not alone. (Insert favourite movie reference or allusion to the supernatural here)
4. If you listen to Ambient or Electronica, the sound could be mixed in the soundtrack itself. This is easily checked by listening to the same soundtrack.

These are only hypotheses. I am also using an external DAC but I am a Linux user. I have definitely experienced scenario #4.

 

[benanders]

Not certain the link will be specifically informative towards this issue, but there’s a lot of discussion re: Windows audio effects.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...nding-the-windows-audio-quality-debate.19438/

 

[dualazmak]

Just for your reference, I still stick to "ALL-in-ASIO Routing" in my Windows-DSP-based multichannel audio project, as I wrote here.
You would please find here the latest system setup of my multichannel stereo audio system.