DTS Audio Control Panel Audio Enhancements dont stay off

[andrewiam_com]

I never got much farther than replacing >1< with >0< and trying to figure out what each setting did, so I wish you the best of luck!

Also, the Bang & Oulfsen editions and other newer x360's use a Conexant DAC instead of Realtek, so they behave differently. For example, they have functioning headphone jack detection.

[Zshani]

Dax, are you or anyone experiencing the buzzing/grinding/traditional HDD head reading writing noise??

It's coming from the left succeed of the keyboard where the processor and the fan are located.

[Zshani]

It's a constant buzzing signaling/Morse code like noise coming all the time.

Do you mean the quietness of bang n olufsen has been resolved??

[andrewiam_com]

That seems like the fan is suck. That used to happen to me. I could fix it by slapping the back of the laptop an inch or two away from the vent.

[Zshani]

Cheers Andrew for mentioning that. However, it seems a very of way to get rid of the problem. How did you permanently got it resolved. Have they changed the fan??

My unit went for repair twice but can't back with more problems and this buzzing/signaling noise wasn't fixed.

I tried to record it using my phone, which was asking 31db as per what sound meter App showed.

[andrewiam_com]

After I slapped it once, the sound never happened again. The other fix might be to loosen the screws on the backplate and tighten them again. Maybe slap the fan area while they're loose.

[TedSteel]

Hey Dax (and all) - 

This might be slightly sideways of the issue at hand and I realize you are the sound engineer and I am not. But I love this topic. My point remains unchanged and is at the bottom. But here goes:

I think what you're arriving to from a sound quality perspective is the fact that any pre-installed hardware, software or algorithm in these machines will be a compromise in sound, especially if you "do sound" for a living (I do not, but really love music). Putting aside the facts that 1) the DTS controls stay on after reboot, sleep, etc., and 2) the speaker crackling sounds, pops. The reason we are disabling the enhancements is because they sound marginal at best.

Having said that, I would argue that on any laptop not engineered for high quality audio (not sure if such a thing exists), the sound will never be "great", no matter what kind of speaker is advertised in them - B&O, JBL, Beats Audio, Harman Kardon, whatever. For the mass market, hi-quality audio isn't a goal but compression, portability and loudness is. I'm sure you're well aware. This topic is as deep as it is wide so I won't try to tackle it detail here and I'm sure you're more educated on the topic than I am anyway. However, CNET does a good job of scratching the surface here.

For everyday use, I absolutely want to use the speakers in this laptop and/or the headphone jack. So I'll live with the sound quality so long as I can disable the DTS stuff. This doesn't mean I'm OK with the always-on DTS and crackling. Just rather, I can live with the sound if I'm doing work with the laptop or watching YouTube, etc.

But for a better experience, I have an external DAC that I listen to lossless hi-res audio on from my NAS. Specifically this DAC:

http://www.peachtreeaudio.com/novapre-preamplifier-with-dac.html

...coupled with a 2-channel amp and speakers. 

Along with that DAC, Peachtree published their own USB Audio Driver that takes over sound responsibilities when the DAC is connected to the x360 via USB. It bypasses the sound card/internal DAC, DTS enhancements, and so on - the entire lot of it. The driver just passes information to the external Peachtree DAC from the laptop and it becomes the DAC's job to handle audio. Which, it does a remarkably good job at regardless of the file format (.mp3, .flac, etc.), amount of compression, etc.  It sounds incredible.

MY POINT. I don't think we'll ever get great sound on these machines in their mass-market configurations. I don't think HP, Dolby or any other company will ever want to achieve this in mainstream.  Please know I'm not disagreeing with you. I just don't think we'll get great sound out of this endeavor - your point about the algorithm being a compromise is spot on. My hope for all of this is that HP will:

1) Allow us to disable the DTS stuff as much as possible. Or better, allow us to uninstall the DTS control panel software altogether.

2) Please keep the DTS stuff off after recycling the machine, sleep, etc.

3) Fix the sound crackling and left-channel pop

Ted

[TedSteel]

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@Zshani wrote:
Dax, are you or anyone experiencing the buzzing/grinding/traditional HDD head reading writing noise??

It's coming from the left succeed of the keyboard where the processor and the fan are located.

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Nope. That sucks. I agree with Andreiam - sounds like your fan is contacting something...

[Zshani]

Hello guys,

I've tried tapping the back but can't out with no result. The fan is not touching the back plate out the base of the laptop. I can confirm that as fan is not spinning.

The noise is like signaling and sorta like dual up modems use to make when they are connected to internet, and is constant.

I appreciate the responses and the concern though, so cheers for that..

Regards

[Zshani]

Hello guys,

I've tried tapping the back but can't out with no result. The fan is not touching the back plate out the base of the laptop. I can confirm that as fan is not spinning.

The noise is like signaling and sorta like dial up modems use to make when they are connected to internet, and is constant.

I appreciate the responses and the concern though, so cheers for that..

Regards