DTS Audio Control Panel Audio Enhancements dont stay off

[andrewiam_com]

Here's one big question: what's the best means of attack if HP won't fix it themselves?  It looks like most of the Intel SST files are critical to the driver, and also power the Enhancements.  I'm not sure about what effect blocking the audio services would do.  A third option, which I previously explored, involves editing the XML file at ProgramData/SRS Labs/slconfig.xml.  This might be able to "disable" the enhancements by making them have no actual change to the audio. 

[andrewiam_com]

That's a problem. Go to your model's driver download site and download the latest driver. Turn on airplane mode and then try to install the driver. After the final reboot, you can disable airplane mode and retry.

[daxliniere]

I stayed up until 5am today trying a thousand different things.

This morning I started playing with IntcADSP.sys but had no luck with that either. I have even tried different versions.

One thing I noticed, though, is my file list. To produce that list, I uninstalled the two devices in Device Manager and selected the "Delete the driver software for this device" option. I then produced a file list for c:\windows (dir /s >file.txt), reinstalled the drivers and produced another file list. Comparing the two, I came up with that list on page 10.

HOWEVER, I have realised this morning that the IntcADSP files are not listed on that difference list. This says to me that the IntcADSP files aren't removed and perhaps that is why installing a bunch of different drivers last week confused the system and resulted in DTS "enhancements" being disabled as I described in my elated "solution" post.

Bascially, I'm thinking we need to convince the driver it's being run on a system that's not DTS licenced. This would force the DTS "enhancements" to be permanently off. Any ideas?

[daxliniere]

Incidentally, SRS Labs algorithms have always sounded like **bleep**. I remember them from back when I was in high school and always thought they made things sound worse. This was well before I became an audio engineer.

It's amazing that these are still being touted as an improvement.

[Zshani]

Hi Dax,

Keep up the good work bro. Unfortunately, I've no idea how to disable the DTS as I'm not to technically qualified as you do. Although I hope HP should get the grip of this matter and resolve it for us.

It's a shame that they advertise the product as a joint venture of Microsoft and HP, why the noise department is flawed I don't get it. How could they miss it and just keep the unit in production. I hope the design engineers would look into it. Why they are putting a blind eye to this existing issue. Even though could of HP guys gave admittedly responded to this issue but they have gone quiet 😔 I wonder why 🤔but it's highly irresponsible and ignorant of such a big company.

[Zshani]

Correction: Couple of HP guys..

[daxliniere]

It's not Microsoft's thing, really.

So, I took a look at the slconfig.XML file and it al makes sense to me. That doesn't mean I'll be able to find a solution, but most of the parameters make sense to me. (I reiterate that I'm an audio engineer and mastering engineer.)

The file is 3300 lines long, so it's going to take a long time to check every line, but by doing a blanket replacement of >1< to >0<, I was able to get some improvement when the "Audio Enhancements" checkbox is enabled. There's a big volume difference (output is quite low) so I can't be 100% sure it's much better. (I feel like there could be a high pass filter (HPF) running, but can't be certain without an equal-loudness comparison.)

I will keep digging. The next thing I'll try is changing the HPF filter values to 0 (0Hz). After that we'll have to work out how to restore the gain.


Progress!!

[Zshani]

Cheers Dax,

Since I can only guess and say how I perceive this situation to be a quality issue but that's just my opinion.

What I know for sure is that the spectre with bang n Olufsen audio profile are quieter than the one which came out without that audio profile. I don't know if it's of any help but that's all I know for now.

Cheers for the efforts Dax

[daxliniere]

I've just done an equal loudness test and even with all 'enhancements' disabled, there is a dramatic loss of headroom. The audio sounds constricted which is a good indication it's still being processed and even though the controls are set to 'neutral', the SRS algorithm is completely messing with the audio.


In some ways, this is good, though. We now have HP, Realtek, Intel and DTS (SRS) to blame for this. Surely ONE of those can come up with a solution.

Dear HP, do not think that this releases you from your obligations to provide a working product to your paying customers.

[daxliniere]

The quietness issue was solved in a previous release from, IIRC, earlier this year. It does nothing to address the other issues, though.