New
#2551
A new drive is available, Drivers: 6.0.8691.1.
For my hearing this drive also has bass and sounds great i think this is the winner!
[DRIVERS] Realtek HD Audio (UAD))
A new drive is available, Drivers: 6.0.8691.1.
For my hearing this drive also has bass and sounds great i think this is the winner!
[DRIVERS] Realtek HD Audio (UAD))
Uh, I like things loud? No, seriously, that is not meant to be facetious - I truly do like listening to things as loud as possible while maintaining the integrity of the delivery. As you can probably guess from the samples I chose, I listen to a wider variety than normal, including some eclectic genres, each of which has its own type of focus - strings and percussion for rock, basslines for trance, piano for, well, piano (lol), etc - and each type of music also has its own set of adjustment in the EQ for personal enjoyment. However, I've found that I prefer to have a single EQ setting spread across all the music I listen to that works well with more than 98% of my own music collection, which is similar to the Powerful EQ setting in the RealTek HD Audio Manager (which I tweak for my own listening pleasure).
The A40s I have are superb, even after all this time (I've had them for at least 4 years now). I did an in-store live comparison between them and a pair of mid-range turtle beach headphones and a high-end pair (well, lower high-end) Sennheiser - these A40s destroyed the Turtle Beach headphones, and while the Sennheiser were slightly better, at almost 5 times the cost, I couldn't justify them for such a minor difference, so I opted to purchase the cheaper headphones, and I've not been disappointed. As I mentioned in the review, I've had many times that I've played different pieces at full vol across the range - Windows, Playback app and headphones - with 0 distortion of sound. It's a clarity that you simply do not normally get from cheap hardware, and I am truly lucky that all of this is working as well as it does.
Finally, I prefer to be able to control the playback volume directly from my headphones via the inline vol control - and I can't count the number of times I've started to listen to a piece, particularly online pieces, that are normalized utterly too low, at sheer nonsensical values, like maybe 82 or lower, and I have to go finding all of the volume controls and adjust them accordingly. So, I send everything to 100% and use my headphones to control the final volume in my ears - I can crank it up at any time that I want, or I can keep it at sane levels (like 50% with everything else at 1005).
But who wants sane?
Thanks! Glad I had the time to devote to it.
I'm really amazed at this 8688 one. I honestly, before this review, never once believed that the driver could actually affect the line-out output in any manner - I was of the mind that the drive simply provides the digital bits necessary for the applications to interface with the signals, nothing more.
I don't think I'll have time again until Thursday, but I want to perform one more key test - using the same catalog I did in this one, I want to test the actual line-out outputs - see if the music really is more clear / crisp, even using line-out. I suspect that answer is going to be know - but based upon what I am thinking now, it just might very well be a yes.
Of course they did. lol.
Thanks.
@ johngalt Thanks for your review, can help many people in the decision to use a particular version of drive, i appreciate that!
Oh yeah, from the short test I did(I'll check it out more tomorrow) on Hunt The Dinosaur's - Destructo bass drops, and Bishop Briggs - The way I do baas mids and highs, and the bass and ambient sound of SEVDALIZA - HUMAN, it seems this driver has the best of both 48 & 88
Oh and it freakin' sounds great on Insider Edge(really power bass with punch)
Thanks. I looked up this headset because I was curious. From what I can see, you have a fully digital signal delivery path. Seems to give you the choices of USB & optical. With a fully digital path, you could leave windows and all apps at 100% and control the volume on the headset as you do. I think it's more problematic when it has to go through a DAC in the comp first before exiting through the 3.5mm output.
Though, I see there were multiple models of the A40 made over 10 years and some did use 3.5mm. Is your version using 3.5mm?
Next update should be 6.0.8694 WHQL.
Btw, I just noticed (duh!) that while before the versions of Realtek HD Audio were 6.0.1.xxxx, now they are 6.0.xxxx, with the 1 at the end. For example, 6.0.8688.1