Sound quality different between OSX and Windows.

[WyzrdX]

I recently did a clean install of 10.9.4 and Windows 8. This was just because I had some errors in Windows and replaced the SSD I was running Mavericks on. Besides that there was no real reason to do so.

Once I was up and running I started setting up the Mac side as I wanted it. While doing so I turned on iTunes and was listening to music. Sound was great as always.

I finished the OSX Setup and rebooted to Windows. I use Win for a few apps and Games that are not Mac Compatible. While setting up the games and such, I installed iTunes for Windows. When I started listening to the Music, my sound was.......

.....Not as full?

Speaker Level was the same (untouched from OSX level), and the system Volume was at Max (as it was in OSX). Yet the sound was night and day different.

Had never noticed this before as mostly in Windows I am using Headphones for games. Just got bored and wanted music while installing etc.

Thinking this was an issue with iTunes, I switched to a music video on YouTube. Sound was OK until I switched over to OSX.

I performed several more comparisons until I just realized that the sound is much better (Full Bodied?) on OSX.

I am using the Realtek ALC898 on the GA-Z77X-UP5-TH But it is the same results for my GA-Z87N-Wifi with Realtek ALC892.

I have a set of Bose Companion Speaker but never changed Volume.

Has anyone else experienced this? Its not a real problem for me as I use a USB Headset in Windows for Gaming and don't normally listen to music in Windows. I was just wondering if anyone else had noticed this.

 

[Shiitaki]

I recently did a clean install of 10.9.4 and Windows 8. This was just because I had some errors in Windows and replaced the SSD I was running Mavericks on. Besides that there was no real reason to do so.

Once I was up and running I started setting up the Mac side as I wanted it. While doing so I turned on iTunes and was listening to music. Sound was great as always.

I finished the OSX Setup and rebooted to Windows. I use Win for a few apps and Games that are not Mac Compatible. While setting up the games and such, I installed iTunes for Windows. When I started listening to the Music, my sound was.......

.....Not as full?

Speaker Level was the same (untouched from OSX level), and the system Volume was at Max (as it was in OSX). Yet the sound was night and day different.

Had never noticed this before as mostly in Windows I am using Headphones for games. Just got bored and wanted music while installing etc.

Thinking this was an issue with iTunes, I switched to a music video on YouTube. Sound was OK until I switched over to OSX.

I performed several more comparisons until I just realized that the sound is much better (Full Bodied?) on OSX.

I am using the Realtek ALC898 on the GA-Z77X-UP5-TH But it is the same results for my GA-Z87N-Wifi with Realtek ALC892.

I have a set of Bose Companion Speaker but never changed Volume.

Has anyone else experienced this? Its not a real problem for me as I use a USB Headset in Windows for Gaming and don't normally listen to music in Windows. I was just wondering if anyone else had noticed this.

Yes I have. Windows needs to combine all of the sounds in to one stream to send to the sound card, and it could be that this is being done at a lower resolution. You can go in the settings to change that.

The PC industry is a very fast paced, with constant product releases and deadlines. You are likely a victim of a cut corner to get a driver out the door. You could check for a driver update and go over the settings in Windows.

The best sound I had on my Hackintosh was using the Voodoo driver, but it had issues with popping and OS X updates. The AppleHDA was limited to 96K, and just sounded dull in comparison. I now use a USB DAC by Meridian and have better everything across the spectrum, though now I can't tell the difference between 96K and 192K, both sound equally excellent. The motherboard audio with the Voodoo sounded nearly as good, but had a little less slam to the bass, and noticeably more noise.

Computer have to combine all of the audio and output a single signal to the DAC, and that involves a lot of software because the different sounds are in different formats. Just as there is a difference in a upscaler on a graphics card or television, there are differences in sound upscalers.

It is quite possible that if you go in the Windows settings, you can turn up the sample rate and bit depth, which should improve things.

 

[WyzrdX]

Thanks for the reply.

I will check and post back if I can make any difference with Windows settings or drivers. I think everything is at default AFAIK and that may be it as well.

I am using the patched AppleHDA.kext from MultiBeast for the RealTek ALC898 on both machines and the sound is great with my 2.1 Bose system.

 

[TijuanaKez]

The windows drivers also normally have a whole heap of EQ/Bassboost/Surroundsound/Reverb blah blah bloatware incorporated into the drivers. Every step degrading the stream even more. The stream to the DAC is a lot more direct in OSX. If you play a song in iTunes with the volume at %100 and eq off, there's not much in-between iTunes and the DAC. Thats good.

In theory, raising the sample-rate above 44.1K should provide no audible increase in sound quality when playing music (can be good for DSP though).
In real world though cheaper DACs can sound better at certain sample rates because of imperfections in design.
So moral is, it's a marketing ploy to suggest that '192khz' will make your music sound better when the music was recorded at 44.1khz and your ears can't hear anything above that anyway.
But, change it and listen. It might just sound better by chance, but don't be fooled into thinking your music is suddenly 2x or 4x resolution.