Audio balance issue on headphone

[Haviland]

The audio balance on my headphone (Hyper-X) has a significant offset to the right channel. It basically feels like I am half-deaf on the left ear. Is this a known issue or is there any workaround for this? I checked the sound setting but there is no balance slider available.

I'm thinking of refunding the game.

(I'm pretty confident it's not an issue of my headset. I have used it for several years on dozens of games and it always worked perfectly. I rechecked on another game and everything works just fine.)

[nobbers]

I assume it's a USB type? While in the game, unplug it and plug it back in..... see if that makes any difference. A while back, a peep had their left/right side sound reversed, and believe it or not this worked.

I'm no USB PhD, but I guess game sound channels can sometimes get a little wonked.... who knows. At least it's an easy 'to try'.

[Haviland]

It's a standard 3.5mm headphone jack connected to the motherboard. I do have an extra sound card installed. But I can not imagine how these two could interfere.

[nobbers]

Originally posted by Haviland:

It's a standard 3.5mm headphone jack connected to the motherboard. I do have an extra sound card installed. But I can not imagine how these two could interfere.

Hmm. Set for surround sound or stereo?

EDIT: Here's two links - not exactly the same as what you've reported (one surround sound issue and weird directional in the game, and the other no sound) BUT it does give some insight in to headphones/audio mode selected/windows OS, that could help determine and/or remedy what you've got happening. Worth a quick read and a shot if you haven't already refunded. It is a pretty good game...

https://steamcommunity.com/app/242760/discussions/0/522729901134753780/ (relevant ~half way down the post)

https://steamcommunity.com/app/242760/discussions/0/1694919808755900295/ (bathroom reading)

[Haviland]

Thank you for efforts.

The second thread you linked pretty much describes the issue I'm having.

I did some more testing:
- using a different sound card (with different drivers) and the same headphones -> issue remains
- different sound card and different headphones -> issue remains
- enabling surround sound for my stereo headsets helps. I guess the audio driver does some mixing which helps to even out the volume difference

My conclusion is, that there are two issues:
1) The audio mixing is wrong (or at least very unnatural). I tested this with the continuous sound of the ocean. I centered the view on the sound source so that the volume is equal on both channels. When I moved the view very slightly to one side, the sound on the other channel faded out too steep. Basically I'm seeing a turn of only a few degrees but I hear the sound like I turned 45-60°
2) Some sounds are slightly off center (shifted to the right). Combined with 1) this becomes very noticable

For me this is reason enough to refund the game. It's just driving me nuts :)

So thanks again for your support and I hope this helps if anyone is having the same issue

[nobbers]

Very welcome, but it's a shame nothing got it back to the way it should be