Volume Swings During Songs with Beats Audio Enabled?

[adrynalyne]

I recently picked up an Envy 15-3033CL.  While the audio sounds very nice, I am running into a problem with wild volume swings within my music.  At first I thought it was my over-the-ear headphones, so I tried some earbuds I have.  The problem seem less pronounced, however it came back again.  I even hear this issue through the laptop speakers.  The music will start at one volume, increase, and decrease on its own.  It is incredibly distracting.  I have made sure I have the latest drivers and even reinstalled them with no success.  I am wondering if it is not a software problem at all.  Note:  if I turn off Beats, the problem seems to subside, but that may be because the music isn't as full as before and my ears aren't picking up the differences.  I tried changing different EQ presets and using default.  I even tried some custom settings I found from a settings advice thread here.  Nothing seems to completely alleviate the issue.  I thought it may be an issue with low quality streaming from Pandora, so I tried my mp3s.  The issue was still there.  I tried music I have in flac format.  Less noticeable, but still there.  If I take these same headphones to my desktop, the issue is not there.  The issue seems to disappear at high volumes, however these are not comfortable listening levels.

So far I have tried:

Pandora with laptop speakers

Pandora with over-the-ear skullcandy headphones

Pandora with earbud skullcandy headphones

Windows Media Player with 256kbps MP3s with both headphones and latop speakers

Songbird with flac audio with both """"

Music I have been using is hard rock to heavy metal.

[adrynalyne]

This was all the way back on page 3.  Does anyone have any ideas?  I am seeing it more and more often with the Envy 15, but nobody seems to have a definitive answer.

[ekneam25]

i am having the same problem as OP with my envy 15-3000 and it is very frustrating.

i am sort of an audio enthusiast, which is one reason i purchased this laptop. high quality music played on my desktop will sound flawless with good headphones, but the same song, same program, same audio output settings, etc, will have awful level swings on the envy laptop, much like really bad compression.

i have also tried adjusting EQs, the sound settings and enhancements in the control panel, and even toggling beats on and off, but with the same results as the OP. turning beats off just makes it flat, but doesn't remove the level swings.

i have tried all of the following with a set of higher quality Denon headphones, sony in-ears, apple buds, and the built in speaker array, but they all have the same result:

Pandora with good internet connection

windows media player (320kbps tracks)

itunes (320kbps tracks)

will also send some emails to beats and hp.

Hopefully someone can help us all out.

[adrynalyne]

Update:

I had some trackpad issues with it being raised above the chassis on one corner so I exchanged the laptop.  The new one has the same volume swings.  I have even tried the latest F.06 BIOS.  

[ekneam25]

i found a solution for me at least, give this a try and see if it works

uninstall your idt audio drivers from the device manager, refresh the list, then just let windows install the drivers.

no idea why this worked for me but it did. i tried using hp recovery manager to reinstall them as well as downloading them from my laptops hp support page, but this is the only one that worked. it also worked consistently. i let the recovery manager reinstall them and same problem. let windows do it and problem solved.

each installation has the same version (6.10.6359.0), control panel settings and same settings within the beats manager, but the windows-installed one is free from volume swings and compression-y sounds. beautiful.

hope this helps. Good luck!

[adrynalyne]

Sounds illogical, but I am definitely willing to try it.  I will let you know.

Thanks!

[adrynalyne]

So far, so good.  One thing I needd to do was actually reinstall the drivers after that beause the Beats control panel control was broken.  I will test for a few more hours before marking solved.

[adrynalyne]

It is certainly better, but I cannot say its fixed.  I still get some volume swings although not as severe.  I am using flac audio as a test, so there can be no question as to the quality of the file being the issue.

[ckang777]

---

@ekneam25 wrote:

i found a solution for me at least, give this a try and see if it works

uninstall your idt audio drivers from the device manager, refresh the list, then just let windows install the drivers.

no idea why this worked for me but it did. i tried using hp recovery manager to reinstall them as well as downloading them from my laptops hp support page, but this is the only one that worked. it also worked consistently. i let the recovery manager reinstall them and same problem. let windows do it and problem solved.

each installation has the same version (6.10.6359.0), control panel settings and same settings within the beats manager, but the windows-installed one is free from volume swings and compression-y sounds. beautiful.

hope this helps. Good luck!

---

This worked for me as well. I've spent two days trying to figure this out...but when it's black magic, logic doesn't cut it.

[b-audio]

I recognize the same problem. My description of it would be that probably the audio driver adjusts the volume dynamically on the go. My machine is a Pavilion dm4 3001eo Beats Audio.

I ran into the problem when I tried to adjust volume in Winamp. A quick pull on the volume "knob" only has an effect that lasts a fraction of a second until the volume automatically normalizes to whatever it was at Winamp's max volume. The same goes for any other media player software. The only way to adjust volume is either from the Beats Audio control panel or from the Windows' volume adjustment in the bottom right corner of the screen.

Another instance when the problem becomes evident is if you're listening to a song that either fades in or out. The fading effect is lost as the system normalizes quieter bits to the same level the rest of the song is at.

I tried the fix ekneam25 proposed above. It worked, but only until the next reboot. Right after I'd removed and then installed the driver according to ekneam25's directions and before I had rebooted, the problem was gone, and so was the Beats Audio control panel. With the next reboot came back the problem and the control panel. Could've done without both at this point...

The problem does not seem to be related to the Beats Audio control panel, at least not directly, as disabling the Beats Audio ditty with fn+B (or unticking Beats Audio from the control panel) does not affect the automatic volume adjustment, only makes the audio sound really thin and lose all bass.

Another thing I tried was plugging in an external USB sound card. This quite predictably "fixed" the problem, but I didn't pay that little extra for a laptop that was supposed to be built with audio quality in mind just to be forced to drag with me an external sound card.

Thankfully the store I bought my laptop from has a 30 day return policy. I've got 3 days left. This little dynamic feature makes the laptop useless if you take listening to or making music seriously. Too bad, as the rest of the laptop isn't too bad at all.