"Hollow" sound when playing music

[dbhuis]

Hi all,

I have a little problem with my speakers: with some music they sound really hollow, and with other music it sounds really good. What could be the cause of this?

I use VLC media player to play music. I have 2 Saba Professional 1300's speakers connected to a Sony TA-D507 amplifier, which is connected to the built-in soundcard of my pc. Furthermore i have a Magnat Magnastar double action subwoofer connected to a Sony STR-K740p amplifier, which is also connected to the built-in soundcard of my pc.

Before i connected the subwoofer and the Sony STR-K740p to my computer, i had no problem with this.

Does anyone know what could be the cause of this?

dbhuis

 

[spirovious]

Are you playing mp3?Then yes,they are not lossless formats.
Secondly use foobar for good sound quality.vlc is not the best one.

 

[dbhuis]

Yes, i am using mp3. But before i connected the subwoofer i did not have this problem, so that's a little weird. I'll try out if it still occurs when using flac. That is lossless, isn't it? Yes, i've tried foobar2000 soms time ago. Will download it again.

Thank you

 

[cmsajith]

what do you mean by hollow sound?

 

[dbhuis]

Like it's played far away, sounds kinda like it's being played in a cave. Voices are too low, high tones sound weird. It is hard to explain.

In VLC media player when i
mess with the "spatializer" settings i can make it less worse, but not how i want it.

 

[baijuxavior]

Go to control panel, open the audio driver applet (like realtek) and check the audio settings and see if any audio effects are enabled.

 

[dbhuis]

The only effect that is enabled is the "bass management" effect, end i've done that because if it's not enabled my subwoofer doesn't get any input.

 

[baijuxavior]

Disable that effect from control panel. In the player as well as in the windows playback devices set the speaker system as 2.1. Most players will handle the bass management better.

 

[dbhuis]

There is no 2.1 option, neither in windows playback and realtek hd audio. The only option i have is to select the 5.1 option and disable the center speaker and rear speakers in both windows playback and realtek. If i then disable bass management, the subwoofer simply does nothing.

I can also put them both to stereo, but if i do that it doesn't output anything to the subwoofer either.

Have you ever encountered something like this before?

 

[spirovious]

MP3 poorly recorded can sound hollow.You can also feel punch is missing.May be bit rate of mp3 is lower than 128kpbs,then yes its possible.

 

[corElement]

I don't think this is an issue with files.

I'm confused, how are two amplifiers connected to your integrated soundcard?

 

[dbhuis]

@ spirovious:

Yes, but all my mp3's are over 192 kbps. Also, i didn't have this issue before i connected the subwoofer, with the exact same music.

@ corelement:

I don't think so either. My idea is that the "subwoofer lag" (you'll probably know what that is ) causes an echo, which might cause a hollow sound. But it doesn't seem like that
for now, at least there seems to be no subwoofer lag.

How i connected it: I have a built-in soundcard with 6 connectors: 1 mic in, 1 line in, 1 stereo out, 1 center/subwoofer out, 1 left rear speaker out and 1 right rear speaker out.

I connected the stereo out to my Sony TA-D507 amplifier, which is connected to my 2 Saba professional's 1300. Then i have the center/subwoofer out connected to my Sony STR-K740p, which is connected to my Magnat Magnastar double action woofer.

That woofer is meant to have 2 speakers connected to it ( so it would be stereo out-woofer-speakers) but i am using it just as a woofer, because my 2 speakers are connected to another amplifier. So, i am using one amplifier to power my speakers, and one to power my subwoofer.

After that, i installed Realtek HD audio drivers to get output to the sub. I had to do this because the built-in windows drivers wouldn't work.

 

[spirovious]

Is the SW crossover correctly set?Are you missing some frequencies there?

 

[anuragn]

The type of hollow sound that you described is typical of the condition where the L & R channels are out of phase. Just check the wiring and polarity of the speaker wires.
It could even be that the media player has an option to reverse the polarity of output signals and it is enabled. Disable it if true.

 

[alpha1]

1. Can you send two files - one with hollow sound and one without.
That we we can ascertain whether the problem is with files or the audio gear.

2. Second, have you compared the sound output across different audio players. There can be some plugins enabled which make certain recording sound worse.

 

[dbhuis]

@spirovious:

There is no crossover option. I guess that it is fixed somewhere inside the realtek audio hd driver.

@ anuragn:

Good idea, i'll check that

@alpha1:

I can't upload .mp3 here, it is a "invalid file".

 

[dbhuis]

@ anuragn:

It isn't the polarity. No matter how i change it, the sound is the same. The sound quality improves when using foobar2000 though. But still, i can vaguely hear the "hollow" sound.

 

[doors666]

can you post a screenshot of the realtek driver interface.

 

[dbhuis]

Here you have one :

 

[transistor495]

Can you play the same mp3 file(hollow) using other mp3 players connected and check whether the issue is with file/amp/system or software rendering it.