New
#1
Realtek® ALC887 8-Channel High Definition Audio Very Quiet
Hey. I have the Logitech LS21 speakers. I know they are cheap speakers. When I first set them up, I was actually very impressed with the volume and quality of the sound and bass. It was enough to fill my modest sized room with loud clear sound and rich base when listening to music. I had them connected to the audio jack on my ASUS M5A78L LE using the Realtek audio described in the title.
At some point I chose to reinstall Windows. I installed and updated all the drivers, etc and set the speakers up the same way as before. Only this time the audio was around 20% of the volume it was previously with volume up full. In games it's barely audible at all unless I put my ear to one of the speakers.
I first tried using different Realtek drivers including the ones shipped with the motherboard, the latest on the ASUS web site as well as the latest from Realtek's site. All of these drivers yield the same results. I also tried tweaking many settings in Windows and with Realtek's audio manager. Nothing seems to raise the volume.
So I decided to test the speakers out without the Realtek audio. Plugging the jack directly into my monitor and using an AMD HDMI Driver. Surprisingly, the speakers were now much, much louder. However, without the use of the sound card, the audio became quite distorted when the volume or base was raised. And in general, just wasn't as good quality.
I'd like to get back the loud clear sound and deep base I had originally, but I do not know what else to try.
Any theories, suggestions, help or advise would be greatly appreciated.