Solved! Audio has been muffled/high bass with multiple PCs now ever since my first time I upgraded to windows 10 over a year ago.

[Ryuseii]

Over a year ago when my PC was upgraded from windows 8.1 to 10 unwillingly By my PC repairman I've had audio trouble involving PCs, the bass being too high and sounding muddied until I mess with the equalizer, it still sounds horrible regardless. My pc died 3 months back and got a new one from best buy (Which also had similar issues) then returned it to try to build one with the help of my repairman (which still has the same issues but now words are sharper and you especially hear it with S's) and I can't figure out what to do.

I tried buying new speakers (Creative Pebbles) which helped with the bass a bit but the issues are still there. I assume it may be related to realtek somehow since my monitor tv doesn't have the bass problem (but does have the sharp word problem I mentioned as well but I have no knowledge with interiors on pcs so I'm afraid to try to fiddle with anything inside) and it runs on the graphics card (NVIDIA) instead of the installed motherboard audio.

This stuff has been depressing me for a while now and anyone I ask for help like my repairman doesn't know or just laughs at me and its draining my money in the process. I asked people close to me on Discord who are knowledgeable about PCs and they believe I'm schizophrenic. I've been gaming for a good chunk of my life on PC though and I know how things are supposed to sound.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2PWJCL My build is here, and I guess its obvious that I barely know anything about the inner workings of a PC. I've been a basic casual user of them for over 12 years but know nothing about how they really function.

I still am currently using windows 10, but this audio thing seemed to carry over to Linux Mint as well when i tested that while I was trying out various OS's over USB. Couldn't get a windows 8.1 though to test that.
Thanks for your time.

 

[hang-the-9]

Sounds like it's your speakers or you are hearing things others don't. Have you tested your speakers on another system or connected to a phone/tablet? Have you had someone else listen to your speakers to make sure it's not something you just don't like about the speakers? Try headphones on the computer, do they sound the same way? The Creative Pebbles, even with the sub are pretty low end speakers so the fact you don't like how they sound is not very surprising.

Same issue on different computers with different operating systems does not sound like a computer issue to me.

 

[Ryuseii]

Sadly I'm like the only person who dabbles with PCs around here besides the repairman and his hearing isn't that good, so couldn't really test the speakers anywhere else. Both of my current ones share the same issues, as well as the cheap pair of headphones I have, which makes me wonder if its the built in soundcard which would be related to realtek, but I remember trying a few times removing the driver and it not changing anything so unsure if thats it either.

 

[hang-the-9]

Sadly I'm like the only person who dabbles with PCs around here besides the repairman and his hearing isn't that good, so couldn't really test the speakers anywhere else. Both of my current ones share the same issues, as well as the cheap pair of headphones I have, which makes me wonder if its the built in soundcard which would be related to realtek, but I remember trying a few times removing the driver and it not changing anything so unsure if thats it either.

You can always get an externa USB sound card, that will remove anything with the system out of the loop. This is good enough for a test and to use https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Lab...nics&sprefix=usb+sound,electronics,158&sr=1-5

If you want something higher end for headphones and speakers, I like the FX Audio DAC 6, it's at a great price now https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TW2JQN...jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

 

[Ryuseii]

I can give it a shot, does the external sound card work for speakers too? And if it does work good could that narrow down what the problem is with my PC?

Some other things I remembered, about a year ago when I talked to the repairman and he tested his version of linux the sound problem didn't exist, Didn't stick with it since I don't fully know how Linux works, seemed alot more complicated than Windows 8.1. Tried getting my own install of Linux which was Linux Mint and it had the same issues as Windows 10.