Hi diezel,
Are you able to adjust anything in the Beats Audio Control Panel? Here is a link to a thread with some tips and some equalizer settings that could fix the bassless issue.
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-PC-Sound-and-Audio/Beats-Audio-EQ-Setting-General-Sound-Advice...
I have also found another forum post where a certain file was hidden and it caused a problem. I have seen this on both Windows 7 and Vista but the premise is the same for Windows 8.
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Lockups-Freezes-Hangs/Catalyst-control-centre-Host-application-...
The HP Recovery Manager won't work for Windows 8 because that whole purpose of that software is to help restore the computer and programs that were pre-installed and since you upgrade to Windows 8 it will not longer function.
Thank you,