Via HD Audio Distorted for Headphones

Hello all!

I've just upgraded to Windows 10, and despite all the cool and fun stuff I got with the upgrade, I am quite disappointed that I cannot use my headphones on the notebook. The speakers function properly, but my headphones are producing an awkward sound. I will try to describe what I hear, based on the audio coming from "Pull me Under" - Dream Theater - - YouTube :
- Audio is distorted
- There is that "low-quality mp3" kind of effect
- I can hear noise instead of high-frequency sounds (like cymbals, for example)
- The singer's voice is distant, quieter than expected, and like it was singing from behind a shower, with a lot of echo
- Seems there is no stereo, or just a very narrow stereo field. I used the windows test beeps from sound devices and Stereo and Bass Test (HD) - YouTube to try that out and both seem to lack a good stereo field. One can barely notice a difference between left and right.

My notebook has Via HD Audio, and I have tried uninstalling and installing the drivers several times! Also, that tip of turning off enhancements doesn't mean a thing to this issue. It will keep regardless of effects.

I am still investigating, but this issue seems to happen in every sound source, be it Chrome, Groove, windows' own sounds and my games too. As already stated, the speakers do not produce this issue. Also, I am curious as why I have a separate output for headphone and speakers. I always need to change between them when I unplug/plug my headphones.

My headphones are a Xiaomi Mi In-ear headphones, a Razer Kraken Pro and Samsung Galaxy S6's original earbuds. They all produce the same result.

What could I do to solve this?

If you uninstall the VIA sound and uninstall the VIA drivers (in the device manager) then reboot the PC, Windows will install the generic, basic function, High Definition Audio drivers. Try that and see if it works better. If it does, the VIA drivers are the issue.

Make sure you also uninstall the VIA drivers.

Try going to Sound -> speaker properties -> disable any enhancements and dolby

See if it helps.

fireberd said:

Make sure you also uninstall the VIA drivers.

Firebird, I've uninstalled the drivers and restarted the computer. When I got back, they were there again. I tried to disable auto update of drivers from windows 10, and rolled back to hd audio device, the windows standard, and the issue keeps here. I don't know what may be the cause.

theveterans said:

Try going to Sound -> speaker properties -> disable any enhancements and dolby

See if it helps.

Thanks for your tip, but as stated in my first post, I've already tried that to no avail. I tried once again, along with all the other hints I could gather, and it still won't work.

After some thinking, I decided I will format my pc again. This Windows 10 install was actually a straight update from Windows 7. I backed up my stuff and will now install from scratch, and check if this solves my problem.

Not solved.

I'm confused, all other PC's, if there are no hardware sound drivers (e.g. VIA, Realtek, etc) installed, Windows will install the High Definition Audio drivers. Yours, from your reports, always installs the VIA drivers.

(I have been to Recife many times).