Windows updates broke sound

Hi all

New to the forum.

Frustratingly, after allowing Windows 10 to update on 10th August 2022, with KB5015730 and KB5016616 my sound is totally ruined. Very low volume, quality completely gone, its just tin sounding low volume.

Was working perfectly before and had been tweaked to sound as perfect for my main use, gaming. The difference post these two updates is night and day, its dreadful now.

I use a Razer Tiamat 7.1 v2 (with 5 speakers per ear). It did sound incredible pre these two updates.

I cannot find a number of the settings I used previously to tweak the sound. They just dont appear to be available in Windows anymore. I've used Realtek Audio Console, it had reset a number of settings, I've restored those, but the sound levels and volumes are maybe 10-15% of what they used to be, and again, the quality has totally disappeared.

It was definitely these two updates that have lead to the problem, which one is responsible I am not sure yet.

Any advice on how to fix and resolve please?

Cheers
Vin

I will be uninstalling those updates over the weekend and will report back.
System and sound worked perfectly right up to the moment of those updates, broken as soon as restarted from those updates.
I've checked the RealTek settings and they look correct.
I noticed the update included or seemed to, .net changes and I also get a D3D error upon the first reboot. Shoddy MS updates in my view (and past experience). The headset is also using 3.5mm jacks, so not a USB type issue.

Same issue. I did a system restore which cured it, but now KB5015730 and KB5016616 want to install again

cumulative updates KB5015878 and KB5016616 update the Windows audio engine & service files (ex. audioeng.dll, audiosrv.dll), which seems to "break" or reset the audio, which is why my Realtek EQ (equalizer) settings in the Realtek HD Audio Manager app or Realtek Audio Control UWP app were lost after installing either one of those updates

Just to provide an update and the problem is fixed - It was KB5016616 at fault. Uninstalled and my sound recovered to previous quality and volume levels. Microsoft releasing a poor / broken patch update again?
KB5015730 I also installed first and thought this may be the culprit as was .Net upgrades, but it was 6616 uninstall that fixed the problem.

I indivually uninstalled both updates but the problem remained, which was perplexing. I then found that my speaker configuration had switched from 2.1 to 5.1 surround, and that was the fix for me