So I bought these cheapo extension cables for stereo and found they stopped working after the third time I plugged them in. At first I had to "half-plug" them in and eventually they stopped working altogether. Once I plugged back in my headphones in directly, I had full sound range again. I no longer needed "Loudness Equalization".

However, I had thought the jacks themselves were bad, so I had ordered a Soundblaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro USB and lemme tell you, the volume differences are night and day with my Creative Fatality headset. On my onboard Realtek HD Audio chipset, I had the speaker volume up to near 100% to hear everything (and after the above fix I was able to hear everything fine). With this new $50 piece of hardware I find it's actually TOO loud and I have to keep it at ~48%. This is probably because the X-Fi Suround 5.1 Pro USB has an amplifier/booster in it, where as the onboard chipset does it. And the sound, it's MUCH crisper.

Just so you don't think I'm gushing over my new hardware, here's all the fixes I've tried and found successful:

• Check connectors, try different headphones if using them (or try headphones if using speakers)
  
• Set Speaker configuration to 5.1
  
• Set Default Format to at least 24-bit 48000Hz
  
• For Realtek HD Audio, set Equalizer preset to "Live"
  
• If all else fails, Enable Loudness Equalization

I don't use headphones nor ever will. They're bad for your ears - easier to get tinnitus or worsened tinnitus.

Anyway, setting speaker to 5.1 helps a little, but not all.
Loudness equalization works best for me atm, since it makes the vanilla low wind & water sounds equally high.

This is Bethesda's problem and not ours. They know of this problem. We have to wait for them to fix this.

I really hope the next patch will fix the sound issues as Loudness equalization isn't even an option for me (maybe because of running XP).

Irresponsible use of IEMs maybe, but your typical on-ear or over-the-ear cans are perfectly safe.

Just turn the volume up, problem solved. Not all games output audio the same way.

Just dont raise the volume to much on a headset and there should be any danger of getting tinnitues. Unless u go a lot to discos

@ OP

Iam happy u got a boost with ur creative set. I have the same boost when i went for an G35 headset, it even has surround sound 7.1 ^^

most onboard audio solution have line out style driving..... it's never intended to be amplified and relies on you providing an amplier. This is actually the best for audio reproduction as it provided consistant audio level so your never going to experiencing audio being overdriven resulting in distortions.

Where as with a creative or other branded card that does apply amplification even if it's moderate, can and will do this.

so this is perfectly normal.

Crisper sound... that's most likely placebo effect or just dependant on the system and connections you were using. You'd be surprised how dirty 3.5mm jacks can get causing loss of audio clarity.

not to mention the version of the chip used to output.


Depending on the audio card in use obviously higher quality DACs are going to make a difference in the anolog realm.

but digital.... zero difference.