Subwoofer does not work, or does it?

[airwalker]

Hi,

I have a strange problem with my bass: Whenever I play sounds I don't hear any bass at all from my subwoofer, but when I test the speakers using the driver configuration software, the subwoofer works fine.

To be more precise: My PC uses the motherboard ASUS P8Z77-V which has an integrated Realtek surround sound card. This is connected using AC3, i.e. three cables for Front, Rear, Center/Sub, to my admittedly old Receiver Yamaha RX420RDS. This receiver is configured for 6CH Input. The 5.1 Surround Sound system (including the subwoofer) is connected to this receiver. The PC has Windows 7 installed with all the latest updates and drivers for the motherboard and the soundcard. Realtek delivers a configuration tool with the drivers that lets you test each speaker seperately. When I test the subwoofer I clearly hear the bass. When I play sound from any other application I hear all the speakers, but not the subwoofer. When I connect another stereo device to the receiver I hear the subwoofer all the time (so apparently, the subwoofer is not broken). I don't understand this. :/ Any thoughts?

Best Regards
Airwalker

 

[baijuxavior]

What type of sound are you playing? If the sound is originally two channel, then you won't hear subwoofer working. Use true 5.1 files for playback. Also in your media player you can set virtual 5.1 like dolby prologic for two channel sounds to get 5.1 effect and the sub will start working.

 

[airwalker]

I think you are right. I installed a video game, set it up to play 5.1 sound and then the subwoofer worked.

I could not find the Dolby Prologic Option in the Realtek drivers. The configuration tool consists primarily of lots of colourful animated buttons... But in case someone else has this problem too: If you go to Soundeffects / Environment and set this to "Generic" it just works fine.

Thanks for your post.