YES!
I have a really nice set of Logitech Z640 5.1 speakers. They sound great, and only cost $60. (They're about $50 on newegg now, if anyone is interested. 500 votes, 400 reviews, average rating of 5/5 stars.) Well, when I moved from Frederiksen Court out to my own apartment in Wessex, they started occasionally popping. Mostly in certain songs. Since the new factors in this situation were 1) I was in a new apartment and 2) I had the speakers next to two monitors as opposed to one, I assumed it was probably interference. So I started moving the speakers around. Well, the problem went away temporarily, so I thought interference was it... and that I was just going to have to live with it. (It's not like I have enough space to put my speakers anywhere.)
Well, eventually the popping got REALLY bad again. So I tried to see if it was interference again. Nope, that's not it! They pop no matter where they were in the room. Is it the sound card? No, my headphones don't pop... Is it the satellites? Nope, the center channel by itself pops. Arg! The problem must be in the center channel or the subwoofer. So I start unscrewing the subwoofer as a last resort before filing for an RMA. Fortunately, the subwoofer didn't come apart. ;)
The Logitech web site says to try plugging the speakers into a different computer. Oddly enough, when plugged into my Linux box, no pops, even on the same songs! Something is strange here... so I go to the web site and FAQ of my onboard sound's manufacturer: SoundMax. Finally, I stumble across the real problem. Apparently my sound drivers add a ton of extra mixer controls: front channels (vol and pan), rear channels (vol and pan), center (vol), sub (vol), PC Beep, and BassBoost. The BassBoost defaulted to about 25%. Then I realized that the songs that were popping were heavy and/or noisy in bass. So my latest hypothesis is that the bass frequencies were becoming somewhat saturated and that my speakers couldn't handle that (although my headphones could). Anyway, muting BassBoost fixed the problem.
Yes! Everything is good now! (At least that I can see.) I'm a good problem solver, not because of any innate ability, but because I'm methodical, persistent, and stubborn. ;)
Sometimes Windows XP is retarded. For example, it doesn't accurately remember which parts of the start menu I like to use. I just went into the DOOM 3 folder on the start menu, and the documentation and uninstall (!) were shown, but starting DOOM 3 was hidden. Which do you think I do most often?!?!?! Uninstall of course!
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I had almost that exact same problem. Except that due to the fun of ALSA, the bass boost isn't labeled as such. There are four volume controls, labeled DXS Support [0-3]. DXS 0 is bass boost. Having tried the other three, I decided that they did nothing, and left them at 100%.
Recently, the ALSA driver must have changed, because DXS 1 now does have some effect on the sound, although it's not bass. Maybe it's treble boost or something. I suffered with shitty sound for a couple weeks before trying DXS 1-3 again. I set 2 and 3 to the same value just to be safe for the future.
Also, how do 5.1 speakers work with soundcards? I've been curious about that for a while.
Yay! Good work with solving the problem. I think sometimes the manufacturers over do with adding all kinds of BassBoost, SuperSound, UnrealSoundX things to their products that actually don't change much and only confuse your mind.
P.S. ROFL about uninstall! Yeah it is so fun to watch how the percents go higher. I do it every day~ ;]
Huh, interesting. What sound card do you have?
I was curious about that too. Turns out that 5.1 has six channels: front left, front right, rear left, rear right, center, and subwoofer. My card has three 1/8" stereo jacks. Since each one has two channels, that's six total. (So if I wanted, I could have programmatic access to the center and subwoofer directly.) If I only had my sound card configured for quadraphonic speakers, I could simulate the center with the Matrix button. The sub obviously can be simulated too, drawing the bass out of the sound.
Finally, if I want to use a microphone, I just unplug the center/sub jack and tell my sound card to use that one as a microphone jack instead.
I just picked up Doom 3 here in Rota spain.... I´ll be playing it as I come across the Atlantic. ph33r me when I return, Chadwick. :P
0000:00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
I admire your persistence, but sometimes our stubbornness can get the best of us--it'd be frightening to see how many hours I have wasted on perfecting my desktop environment and various other things to make being productive [HTML_REMOVED]comfortable[HTML_REMOVED], only to come across more problems. It's like I compute to complain.
You can play on the boat? Are you challenging me to some deathmatch?
Hm, yes. Funny you bring that up, I was thinking the same thing last night... (I'm now four hours behind on my schedule for today.)