Stereo Sounds Awful

[Dubious Leftovers]

So I had been playing Bioshock and I ran into one issue, sound. It sounds incredibly compressed, the range is awful, and all the positioning is off, its sounds like ♥♥♥♥♥♥ laptop speakers. Ive heard wonderful things about the sound design, for pc at least, so I don't understand what the issue is.

Im going from an HT OMEGA Halo card to a Yamaha RS700 to two polk RTiA7s and a polk DSW 660wi subwoofer, this should be earthshattering but its just headache inducing.

Any help would be much appreciated, as this takes alot away from the atmosphere of the game.

Thanks

[Phillip Mamauf Wipharts]

I have a suggestion and it may or may not be it. The sound is horribly compressed and you have equipment that reveals it. I will be up and running with a Benchmark DAC1 and a set of Adam S2-A by the weekend. If I have the same problem then its pretty obvious what the problem is.

There is nothing in your chain that strikes me as obvious, unless you have other playback problems. Music in FLAC or similar sounds awesome doesnt it? If yes, then you probably answered your own problem and I suggest you play around with EQ until me or someone else can try and confirm.

I will say that it sounds ok on a set of DT990 pro's but that the stereo image appears exaggerated (split between channels is extreme), probably for effect.

[Dubious Leftovers]

FLACs sound wonderful, other games sound great for the most part too. I agree that the split is ridiculous, which leads me to believe that the audio is designed for 5.1 or higher, as that split is probably supposed to be filled in with a center channel, the voices also sound weird, possibly because they are supposed to be played in center channel as well.

[Phillip Mamauf Wipharts]

So I got around to do some testing. The sound does come off as heavily compressed with a snappy and hissing high end. Vocal sounds like "S" are damn near intolerable. But since its made for consoles first and foremost, and the majority of people are going to hear it through a TV or cheap ass computer speakers with a bunch of coloration. I think it sounds like it is supposed to. The problem is your gear. It wasnt meant for console gaming.

[Violence]

It's compressed, pretty much all consumer audio is. But I'm not getting any other sound quality issues over a Bowers & Wilkins setup.
Cough, or, cough, Genelec.

[Zognar]

Well I have the Logitech Z-2300 2.1 Speaker System which I got a couple of years ago and since I've been PC gaming with them for a while I noticed something cool. When playing both Tomb Raider and Bioshock Infinite, the sound was soooo clear it was just amazing. I didn't have a problem understanding dialogue and generally where ppl were shooting at me from either, so it's probably on your end. Not likely I got a superior copy or anything.

[Zognar]

Oh I should add that it was the music score (wow) in TR that got me listening more carefully, then I paid attention to sound effects, all of it was nice and clear. Weapons and environmental sounds sound like someone cared what they sounded like. Again, I don't have the best speaker system out there by faaaar and I'm not an audiophile either but I must give credit where it is/might be due.

[EternalCore]

@OP: Then buy something like this: http://www.soundblaster.com/products/Sound-Blaster-Recon3D-Omega-Wireless.aspx ;)

[EternalCore]

Here's what I play games with:
Soundcard: http://www.soundblaster.com/products/Sound-Blaster-Recon3D-Fatal1ty-Professional.aspx
Headset via Optical: http://www.sony.co.uk/product/home-entertainment-headphones/mdr-ds6500

It all sounds SO REAL!

[Violence]

Originally posted by EternalCore:

Here's what I play games with:
Soundcard: http://www.soundblaster.com/products/Sound-Blaster-Recon3D-Fatal1ty-Professional.aspx

Eh?
"This proprietary technology allows you to hear your enemies from further away, giving you a distinct tactical advantage in combat."
Yeah, right, cause it's going to rewrite the game's audio engine.
Facepalm.

[Phillip Mamauf Wipharts]

Originally posted by Violence:

It's compressed, pretty much all consumer audio is. But I'm not getting any other sound quality issues over a Bowers & Wilkins setup.
Cough, or, cough, Genelec.

B&W are meant to sound as pleasing as possible, not as precise as possible. "Precise" in audiophilia means a very different thing from what it means to a studiotech. But you have a point, why would Polks reveal what B&W didnt? (*)

I didnt mean compressed as using a compressor. thats given. I meant compressed down to a lowfi format. That tend to make everything hisss at me from those electrostat tweeters.

(*) On a good hifi setup, a bad mix sounds good. On good studio monitors a bad mix sound absolutely horrifying.

[Violence]

Nope, a bad mix sounds bad, period.

[Mutelight]

Over the weekend I can try the game in stereo to see if it changes the quality.

Having played through the game using HDMI from my Titan to my Pioneer SC-57 feeding my RTi A9s and CSi A6 center, etc. it sounded quite good. I certainly noticed some audio that seemed overly compressed but outside of that and the under utilized center channel, I found the audio decent.

It certainly is no Dead Space, Far Cry 3, or Battlefield 3 in the audio department though.

[Violence]

Yeah, it's fine. It's a computer game, it's at (or above) the quality level expected from such a thing.

[Phillip Mamauf Wipharts]

Originally posted by Violence:

Nope, a bad mix sounds bad, period.

Thats only true to a certain extend. You can make what a studiotech would identify as a very poor mixdown on good monitors and still have it translate fairly well over into caraudio and hifi. Good monitors are revealing, good hifi smooth out the rough.

[Phillip Mamauf Wipharts]

Originally posted by Violence:

Eh?
"This proprietary technology allows you to hear your enemies from further away, giving you a distinct tactical advantage in combat."
Yeah, right, cause it's going to rewrite the game's audio engine.
Facepalm.

I don't know the soundcard, I have never heard it, but I also thought it sounded like audiophile voodoo mumbojumbo. How would that even work?