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- HP Community
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- Notebook Audio
- Beats Audio EQ Setting/ General Sound Advice
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02-14-2011 03:59 AM - edited 09-07-2014 10:17 PM
This forum has been updated as of Aug 2014.
This is not a troubleshooting Forum. Please refrain from asking any questions that has to do with resolving a technical or software issue with your laptop. If you need help fixing said issue, search for it in the forum home or create your own post. This is the best way to quickly have your question answered and issue resolved. Any questions regarding help for software of hardware issues will be graciously ignored.
Welcome. This is the place to get try and get the best sound from your Beats laptop. Unbelievably, people are still reading this forum, even though it was initially created years ago. Also there are people still asking and posting questions. Because of this, I’ve decided to revive this forum and add the new details for the new Beats EQ HP laptops. I also want to try and change this forum from a simple troubleshoot and Beats EQ forum, to one that discusses getting the best sound from your HP laptop. Because of this I ask everyone not only to post their particular EQ settings, but the headphones and music they use to come up with the numbers. This will help others trying to tune their own laptops with a baseline to follow. This also helps if you have Solos or Soul’s or whatever the kids wear nowadays. Since this forum has been enlarged to an all-around HP laptop music forum, all questions regarding getting the best sound from your machine will be welcome (except for troubleshooting). Now after all that, here are the new, updated EQ settings for the Beats Audio on HP laptops.
*NEW* Eq settings.
Bass- 50
Treble- 10 (raise at your own leisure but keep low)
Center- 45
Space- 50
Focus- 50
65hz- 6 (I like bass, so you can lower if you chose)
125hz- -1
250hz- -4
500hz- -1 to 2 (couldn’t decide where to keep this so choose what suits you)
1khz- -2
3khz- -3
6khz- -3
9khz- -3
12khz- -2
Tuning information:
My laptop- HP Dv7 Envy with Windows 8.1 (purchaed in late 2012). If your laptop is newer and thus has a diffrent version of Beats, then i'm sorry but i'm not rich enough to keep up with new computers.
Headphone- AKG K375 In-ears.
Songs used to tune:
This is Berk- John Powell (How to Train Your Dragon).
Skyfall- Adele.
I Need a Dollar- Aloe Blacc.
Canceling the Apocalypse- Ramin DJawadi (Pacific Rim)
TRON: Legacy End Titles- Daft Punk.
Ilyena- Mars Volta.
Team- Lorde.
Neodammerung- Don Davis (The Matrix Revolutions).
Aural Synapse- Deadmau5.
Trap House III- Gucci Mane.
True Blood- Justin Timberlake.
Thriller- Michael Jackson.
My goal was not to make each of these songs sound their best (That would be near impossible with this EQ). It was to find a natural and neutral balance within the EQ so that no matter what song you’re listening to, you didn’t have to change the EQ back and forth to suit that particular song. I listened to songs that spanned almost the entire spectrum, from pop to hip-hop, soundtrack to rock, and electronica to R&B to find that balance where no song had too much high, too little bass or overwhelming mid. Once again, remember that this is the EQ for my particular songs, headphones and most importantly my taste. I prefer less highs and a more prominent mid and mid bass. If this EQ setting sounds to “middy” for your liking, you now know why. Let me know is these EQ works for you or doesn’t and feel free to post your own EQ settings for others to copy and try.
Older stuff i posted but still applies.
Beat Audio Setting
first off, use the Beats Audio EQ, its there for a reason. to get to it, just search for HP beats audio control panel. you may want to add a shortcut on you desktop for easy access. click on equalization under speakers and headphones. now here is where your personal preference takes note, i tuned my eq to best compliment every type of music i listen to (dance, rock, hip-hop, classical, scores, and vocal) depending on what type of music you listen to, you will adjust the raise or lower the Db according to the Hz's. as a rule, the lower the Hz's, the more bass is played and the higher the Hz's, the more vocals/ highs are played. Subsequently, knowing what Hz's affect the notes in a song also helps. 31-62 Hz's are bass. 125-250 bass/mid. 500-KHz are where most vocals are heard. 12-15khz is where most notes to high to clearly hear are played.
Computer Setting.
your computer has a different setting than that of beats audio, as such you may want to address it too. search for sound, click on speakers and headphones and select properties. tone should be 4 bass and 4 treble. now enhancements. they are all off and include bass boost, virtual surround, room correction, and loudness eq. in my opinion, they should all stay off. bass boost adds bass, but severely sacrifices clarity and vocals. virtual surround and room correction don't do much, and loudness eq raises and lowers volume depending on the song playing. it makes one song louder and clearer, then diminishes the next and muffles it. its very inconstant and as such should stay off. as for any questions regarding Shared and Exclusive Mode (in the advanced section of speaker and headphones property) read message 29 for answers.
Itunes setting
If you are like me, you use itunes to listen to music. Subsequently, it also has an eq. first, click on edit and select preferences, then playback. turn on sound enhancer, it helps slightly, and leave it in the middle. now the itunes eq can stay where it is. it does not enhance the music that much to really worry about it, but you can tweak it if you wish, just leave the markers close to 0db and adjust it by 1db or less. also be aware that itunes has a slight eq delay. Update* after using the itunes eq extensively, i just recommend you don't adjust it at all, using two eq's on your computer can lead to undesired effects and be a general headache as you have to adjust one every time you adjust the other. also itunes eq just happens to suck so don't use it when you have the Beats Audio eq instead. Infact, dont adjust any EQ settings for any media player you use; It just makes things to complicated
Final Thoughts
A good music setting does not necessarily make music louder. it makes it clearer, it brings out the vocals while helping all individual instruments shine, instead of clumping them together. when every instrument is heard, every vocal is prominent, bass is complimentary, and they all work together, you have achieved true music. the Beats Audio chip does enhance music as long as your willing to be patient enough to tweak it, and in my opinion, computers with the Beat Audio chip are an excellent advancement in music listening experience. also every question is sent directly to my email so i can respond in a timely manner, if you have a question, just ask.
03-01-2011 06:37 PM - edited 03-01-2011 07:14 PM
While the Beats Audio chip allows for music to be precisely tuned for maximum clearity and bass reproduction, the HP speakers that come with the notebooks unfortunately are not as refined. many will tell you that listening to music from the notebook speakers is rather terrible, and that's true. for whatever reason, HP did not put as much emphasis on the speaker quality as they did on the Beats audio chip. to truly enjoy music from your laptop you need external speakers. i have a nice home theater setup in my home, and as such, most music is played through external speakers with the help of a receiver. also you want to get a nice set of headphones. the beats audio headphones are very expensive, so you might want to go with an alternate set of headphones (especially after shelling out the money for a new laptop).
the speakers that come with the notebooks are terrible, so you need some good headphones and/or an external speaker setup. however, if you wish to listen to music through the notebook speakers, you will have to completely reset and redo all the equalizer setting. if you want me to publish another message with a notebook speaker EQ setting, then just send me a message
03-03-2011 10:56 PM
Thanks so much! Yes, the built-in speakers are something to be desired, but your suggestion actually did make them sound better. If you have built-in speaker EQ suggestions, I would love to try them out.
Coincidentally, I tried using my Bose QC-15 headphones on my Envy17-3D, and now I have a new issue, for which I hope you may have some insight. I am getting a hissing sound when I listen to iTunes and other audio through the headphones, and turning off the mic and adjusting the sound mixer, etc, does not eliminate it. Have you experienced this? And if so, what have you done to resolve this issue? On another website, one person suggested getting an airplane sound attenuator, but I am not sure if this is the best direction.
Thanks in advance.
03-04-2011 12:57 AM
Notebook Speaker, Beat Audio EQ setting
First of all, after some trial and error, i found this to be an appropriate Eq setting for Beat Audio when listening through notebook speakers.
31hz- 0db
makes no real difference so leave even
65hz 0db
makes no real difference so leave even
125hz 5db
amazingly, this is the exact opposite when headphones & external headphones are used, higher it is, more bass kick the speakers produce, so leave at reasonable height
250Hz -8db
drop it down to reduce excessive mid’s, will miss some notes, but does more good than harm
500hz -3db
1khz -3db
2khz -2db
6khz 5db
produces best vocals when up, so leave it slightly high
10khz -5db to -10db, depending on how much high notes a songs plays, -5 is appropriate for most situations.
frequency is far to high for speakers to play effectively, so keep it low
15khz -5db
Final thoughts
As stated previously, the speakers on notebooks just aren’t that great, however, i discovered, (after about an hour of tuning) that when you drop the highest frequencies, keep the mid-high frequencies, drop the mid, raise the mid-bass, and keep the bass at even, you can get them to sound rather pleasing
03-04-2011 01:04 AM
Now, about the hissing noise; it is well documented on HP's support forum that some laptops produce a strange hissing noise when listening to music. Fortunately (or unfortunately) i have never experienced this hissing noise at all. Without experiencing it first hand, i can’t accurately troubleshoot the problem. My only suggestion is to browse this forum for some answers, or call HP customer support
03-17-2011 06:50 AM
I have a dv7-4060 laptop with beats audio. One thing I have noticed playing the same song, is that the sound comes out better through the hp media smart, than with iTunes. My sound enhancer is on with iTunes and I had made the adjustments that you recommended. My preference is using itunes, because of the setup and I am more familiar with it. Any other thoughts? Thanks in advance.
03-17-2011 07:46 AM
well, if your sure that all music sounds better from hp media smart, then your itunes settings maybe a little off. After some tuning, i found that the itunes eq settings are not that in depth, in fact, i say you don't really need to touch it since the eq is unnaturally sensitive and also a bit off when it comes to Hz's, im sure that the eq, is not something Apple, cares or worries about, so they just made a sorry excuse for one and never bothered to really enhance it in anyway. my only advice is that if media smart plays all your songs distinctively better, then use it, if your willing to give itunes another chance, reset the eq and enhancements on itunes back to original, and use Beats audio as you only eq. also if its just one song that sounds better, it really could just be that one song, maybe its quality, size, frequency range and more
03-20-2011 03:06 PM - edited 03-20-2011 03:07 PM
@eternlrayne wrote:Notebook Speaker, Beat Audio EQ setting
First of all, after some trial and error, i found this to be an appropriate Eq setting for Beat Audio when listening through notebook speakers.
31hz- 0db
makes no real difference so leave even
65hz 0db
makes no real difference so leave even
125hz 5db
amazingly, this is the exact opposite when headphones & external headphones are used, higher it is, more bass kick the speakers produce, so leave at reasonable height
250Hz -8db
drop it down to reduce excessive mid’s, will miss some notes, but does more good than harm
500hz -3db
1khz -3db
2khz -2db
6khz 5db
produces best vocals when up, so leave it slightly high
10khz -5db to -10db, depending on how much high notes a songs plays, -5 is appropriate for most situations.
frequency is far to high for speakers to play effectively, so keep it low
15khz -5db
Final thoughts
As stated previously, the speakers on notebooks just aren’t that great, however, i discovered, (after about an hour of tuning) that when you drop the highest frequencies, keep the mid-high frequencies, drop the mid, raise the mid-bass, and keep the bass at even, you can get them to sound rather pleasing
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I don't realy Get this, can you explain it in what you did like Up?