Win 7 sound problem I forgot about... Would soundcard tighten sub?

Gideau · 29 Mar 2018

When 6 years ago I switched from XP (Creative X-Fi soundcard) to Win 7 and started using the built-in 5.1 capabilities (Realtek) this time, I lost a lot of definition in my subwoofer. I haven't minded this much until now....

It was also some 5 years ago that I think I've read here that there is some core Win 7 problem that causes this? (some sad decision they made, but has probably been corrected in W8 & W10). It made me wonder again if this was possibly the true cause of the problem, not necessarily the Realtek?

In that case, or if anyone knows what I mean, my question is if trying my old card in this mobo (if I have the right slot) or buying a new soundcard will give me tight bass again? Or is this simply prevented by the way Win 7 is handling it at the core? (IOW, also sending poor bass data to these soundcards so they can hardly improve on it...?)

(I could also experiment with some bass plugins that would work in VLC or MusicBee)

TIA! :)

Barman58 · 29 Mar 2018

The major issue with Creative audio cards was the way that Creative, at the end of the XP, decided that they would not make drivers for Vista and later Operating systems for their existing cards.

They stated that this was because the operation of the new OS would not work with sound cards designed for XP.

Funnily enough this did not seem to be the case with other sound cards

The real reason was that they thought they could force users to buy new hardware, and so make lots of profit, and many users did, but not many bought creative products due to their annoyance with Creative labs.

If you can find suitable hardware from the Windows 7 era, or especially a current model that will work with your motherboard, then you should find that the sound quality is more than acceptable

There are more specialist Sound users on the boards who may be able to give you more specific recommendations for hardware

Gideau · 29 Mar 2018

Thanks, Nigel :)

I'm not sure why I didn't try my card in the new mobo. Either to save energy, or because I figured the built-in one would suffice, or because of what you said: no drivers...

However, I looked up drivers for the X-Fi a few days ago, and funnily enough they seem to have Win 7 *and* Win 10 drivers now...
http://tinyurl.com/y7borlp4

I found the card, so if it fits I will give it a go tomorrow :)

Barman58 · 29 Mar 2018

I think that Creative may have done a U-Turn on drivers at some time - Maybe they just changed their minds, or maybe the huge drop in income had something to do with it

- A lot of Sound cards used basic PCI format back then and still do unlike graphics which seem to need a new slot type every few years, hopefully you will be lucky