DTS Audio Control Panel Audio Enhancements dont stay off

[andrewiam_com]

Yeah, I was pretty mad. Make no mistake, the Spectre x360 is a very well-designed laptop. It's just flaws like the audio driver and Synaptics stylus digitizer that make me mad that HP still cut corners and doesn't recognize it.

[andrewiam_com]

No reply to my email so far.  Here it is for your enjoyment. 

Spoiler

Sorry for the late response.  After two hours of installing different driver versions with the "engineer", we could not resolve the problem and he promised to notify you of this issue.  I am dissatisfied with the troubleshooting experience I had on Tuesday.  After multiple tests with multiple drivers had the same issues, the engineer messaged over chat, "remember that this is a laptop, and the hardware is not enogh for the performance".  I listened to the same song from the same webpage on my Spectre x360, Nvidia Shield Tablet, Samsung Galaxy Note 2, and desktop computer with Creative Audigy 2 ZS sound card.  Only the Spectre had issues playing the song. I then replied to the engineer, "why do you say the hardware is not enough? My $250 tablet is working better than this $1300 computer!".  The engineer earlier mentioned, "also please consider that this is a laptop that tries to recreate the sound throug software, the issue here is that, as i told you you need to work with settings depending of the kind of song that you are listening".  I do not want to "work with the settings".  I simply want to disable enhancements and have them stay off when I reboot.  The engineer and I found that disabling all Realtek services from starting at boot does not prevent the Enhancements from reenabling themselves. 

Please let me be clear with what I want.  I want my Spectre x360 to play audio completely flat and neutral.  Most other cell phones, tablets, and computers sound this way, and if they do not, they have a setting to change it.  I want my Spectre x360 to also act this way.  But right now, my Spectre x360 reenables the Realtek Audio Enhancements when I reboot no matter what parts of the driver I disable or what version of the driver I have installed.  The best fix would be for HP or Realtek to update the driver so that the driver obeys the "Audio Enhancements" checkbox in the DTS Audio Control Panel even after rebooting.  Another fix that would make me just as satisfied would be to release a barebones driver that has no enhancements in any part of it, so that all audio is "flat" or "neutral" and there are no options to tune the audio.  I want HP can recognize this driver flaw and notify the driver developers so that this issue can be fixed.  I look forward to further developments. 

-Andrew

[andrewiam_com]

Today, I recieved a phone call from another case manager.  He informed me that my previous case manager left and also told me that this is not a bug, but a motherf***ing feature.  He claims HP intentionally designed the driver to reset on each boot.  I forgot to mention how the checkbox is still empty after each "intentional" reset, so I will attempt to contact my new case manager to get a confirmation in writing.  I dearly hope he misunderstood my request, because any engineer that designs a driver to reset its settings on reboot doesn't know how most people use their computers. 

Edit: I sent an email to the general support address.  Hopefully someone else can confirm or deny this statement. 

Spoiler

I want to confirm the information from HP support that I received in a phone call today.  If this email is too long, just read the parts in bold. 

I have a HP Spectre x360 4101dx that uses a Realtek audio chipset.  All versions of the Realtek audio driver for this laptop (in the factory image on the laptop, from HP update, from Realtek, and from Windows Update) bundle “DTS Audio Control Panel”.  This program includes a checkbox to enable or disable “Audio Enhancements” that is checked by default, which makes music sound much worse by blowing out the highs and suppressing vocals.  I did not like that, so I unchecked the box to disable the Enhancements.  When I reboot, the checkbox is still unchecked in the DTS Audio Control Panel, but the audio sounds like the Enhancements have turned themselves back on.  There is no way to fix this problem.  I have tried all the different driver versions, I have tried disabling or deleting the Control Panel, and I have tried moving all the sliders in the DTS Audio Control Panel.  None of these fix the Enhancements reenabling themselves on boot.  This is a problem with all Spectre x360 laptops.  There are multiple threads at the HP forums that confirm this issue, and I have personally used 3 HP Spectre x360 laptops because of repairs.  All three have had this issue, even after restoring the laptops to a factory image. 

I can trace this issue back to the DTS Audio Control Panel.  Even with the DTS Audio Control Panel completely disabled, the driver still enables enhancements and reads the values from “C:\ProgramData\SRS Labs\APO\slconfig.xml" to determine those enhancements.  When I modify the Enhancements settings in the DTS Panel, corresponding values in slconfig.xml are modified, and the driver will obey the settings in slconfig.xml whether or not the DTS Audio Control Panel enabled.   This hints that the DTS Audio Control Panel is not sending a signal to the Realtek audio driver/service to disable the Enhancements when Windows is booting. 

Today, I received a call from a case manager.  The case manager told me that this behavior is intentional and there is no solution to my problem.  I would appreciate an email confirmation of this statement, or alternatively a report filed to the driver developers to that this can be patched soon. 

[daxliniere]

Really?! Absolutely pathetic that they would claim it is a feature. If that is the official response, you and I can join forces to publicise this as wide and far as possible to save others the grief.

I would like to add that the audio 'enhancements' are not only re-enabled automatically when you reboot, they are also re-enabled every time you plug something into the headphones jack.

I've been a software beta tester since 2008 and this whole case is just ridiculous. Just fix it already!

Perhaps I need to record the output and post samples here so HP can no longer refute how much damage to the audio these so called "enhancements" actually cause.

Sincerely,

Dax Liniere.

[andrewiam_com]

Please record the output if you can.  I think the support technicians don't realize how terrible the clipping is.  Even if the song was mastered to keep the audio quieter (like how one technician only used very quiet Enya and Frank Sinatra songs), they still annihilate the highs and punish vocals.  It's terrible, and as I said before, the dirt-cheap DAC in my Nvidia Shield Tablet manages to wheeze out better audio than this Realtek DAC's drivers. 

Edit: Added a word at the end. 

[daxliniere]

I will, but I'm not back in Australia until mid-Nov.

Incidentally, I think it's important that we note it's not the DAC chip that is the problem in the Spectre x360, it's just this ridiculous processing that's been (re-)applied when we specifically disable it.

[andrewiam_com]

Oops, bad phrasing on my part.  As you said, the DAC works fine after you set it to disable Enhancements.  The driver just reenables them far too often.  If I can find an Aux cable I'll record the output with my desktop computer.

[BinaryJay]

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@daxliniere wrote:

I will, but I'm not back in Australia until mid-Nov.

Incidentally, I think it's important that we note it's not the DAC chip that is the problem in the Spectre x360, it's just this ridiculous processing that's been (re-)applied when we specifically disable it.

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It's not the case, I can replicate the same crackling problems whether I have freshly disabled the audio effects processing or not.

[andrewiam_com]

Your Spectre crackes with the enhancements off?  My Spectre doesn't do that, but I only use my earbuds with the volume set below 8/100, and speakers with the volume set around 40/100.  I have a pair of external speakers I can also pull out to test that.  In my nonexistent free time, I'll keep playing with slconfig.xml to see if I can effectively neutralize the Enhacements.  I was previous able to reign in the Enhacements to disable cracking but it also muted the vocals and highs. 

[daxliniere]

Hi BinaryJay,

I haven't seen that, myself, so I'm sorry to hear that. Do you have Spectre x360, too?