Discussion Why does disabling 'Enable Center/LFE' 'Bass Management' make the sound come out of the center speaker and subwoofer but not when they are enabled?

jabbadahut

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I was fiddling around with the speaker configuration in Windows 10 & I noticed something interesting. If I disable 'Enable Center/LFE' & 'Bass management' under the Sound Enhancements tab in the speaker properties makes sound come out of the center speaker and subwoofer respectively, but if I enable them, then I hear no sound out of those. My sense of logic tells me that enabling the Center/LFE should make the center speaker work in the first place. Why not? Same question for the subwoofer, too.

Can an audio expert explain this to me as I know next to nothing about surround sound, except that it sounds really awesome! (when the speakers are properly configured, of course! ;) )
 

jabbadahut

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Thank you for your reply. I am using Windows 10 Home 64-bit. I have Logitech Z506 5.1 speakers that are connected to the back on my desktop and subwoofer in the corresponding ports. My motherboard is made by Gigabyte - GA-970A-UD3P (rev. 1.0). I assume that the connections are correct - otherwise I wouldn't be hearing sound in the first place, right?

Also, I notice that in the Via HD Audio Deck software that comes with the sound driver that I got from Gigabyte's website, I cannot use the equalizer, environmental modeling, or room correction. they are disabled, even if I select the enable button on the software. I can only use those components in the Sound Enhancements tab in the speaker properties under the Windows Sound configuration tool. I tried downloading the driver from Via directly, but they don't have a sound driver for Windows 10 - the only driver listed is for on-board graphics chip (obviously not what I need). I looked for sound drivers under Windows 8.1, but they mentioned that they only provide basic functionality and recommended that I get the drivers from the manufacturer of the motherboard as the driver would be designed specifically for that motherboard. I have emailed Gigabyte about this and will update when I hear from them.

If you look at this thread, I am having trouble with detecting my surround sound headphones (Runmus K2 - 7.1. surround sound) as I've noticed they don't show up in the sound configuration (even when selecting to show disabled and disconnected devices) or the Via HD Audio Deck, although the microphone works and I do hear sound in the headphones. It's just that I still hear sound coming out of the Logitech speakers, and I cannot hear human voices in my headphones, but only in the Logitech speakers when I play Far Cry 3 or Far Cry 5 (only games I have) and those games do not have a voice control volume in the audio settings. I have emailed Runmus about my headphones. I will update this topic as soon as I hear from them. Do you think the reason I'm not seeing my headphones in the sound configuration provided by the OS or in my sound driver's software is because the speakers "seem" to be misconfigured. In the device manager under the Audio Inputs section, I see the following devices...

1. Microphone (2 - Via HD Audio(Win 10))
2.. SPDIF (TX0 & TX1) Via HD Audio(Win 10))
3. Speakers (2 - Via HD Audio(Win 10))

But no headphones anywhere in the Device Manager.

Funny thing is - I have had the Logitech speakers for a year (bought them for a steal price from Walmart.com (ONLY $49.99 - DANG!) in December, 2018), and they seem to be working great and all this time they may have been incorrectly plugged in?!? :oops:
 

jabbadahut

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Thank you for replying, hanewolf.

I took a look at the manual for the speakers and all cables are connected correctly according to the diagram in the manual as follows...

Subwoofer connections:

  1. Right Front speaker port connected to D8-9 pin connector
  2. Left Front speaker port connected to Left Front jack (black)
  3. Left Rear speaker port connected to Left Rear jack (blue)
  4. Center speaker port connected to Center jack (green)
5,. Right Rear speaker sport connected to Right Rear speaker (grey)

The red and white jacks on the subwoofer are not connected. I think those are for connecting to an external device such as a video game console or TV right? The speakers didn't come with a separate white or red cable anyway.

Motherboard audio connections:

1.. green right front speaker jack to green line out port on board
  1. black rear speaker jack to black rear speaker port on board,
  2. orange center speaker/subwoofer jack to orange center/subwoofer port on board).

The blue line in port on the motherboard is unplugged. According to the motherboard manual, this is used for an optical drive, walkman, etc., which obviously is not being used. The same goes with the grey side speaker port, which, according to the motherboard manual are for 7.1 surround sound. The speakers are 5.1, and they obviously would not support 7.1 .