W520 Sound Enhancement Thread

[PeterTWJ]

Hi, I am curious about the new W520.

I would like to know is the built-in speakers active (with built-in amp) or passive (get power from sound card)?

If it's powered by sound card (passive), maybe 3rd party developer or something can push the sound system better. As i ever dismantle my Compaq laptop with a smaller, but more powerful speaker.

However, I customed some EQ settings to make the sound louder and better. It's EQ is much better compared to W510, but there's still room for improvements. (sound may be soft @ some part, may due to insufficient power driven) (sound may be sharp @ high volume)

Audio Director - Classic

31Hz: +2dB

62Hz:  +2dB
125Hz: -14dB

250Hz: -14dB

500Hz: 0dB

1KHz: 0dB

2KHz: 6dB

4KHz: 6dB

8KHz: 6dB
16KHz: 0dB

Please try it and feedback, I am quite satisfy with this settings.

[KongMD]

Where is there an equalizer in Windows 7? I'm not seeing one in the Sound dialog or the Conexant speaker properties.

[PeterTWJ]

Go to Control Panel > SmartAudio > SmartEQ / 3D Settings.

Update your sound driver to 8.32.23.0

Peter

[ibmford]

When you enable the EQ in Smart Audio, you will hear distortion when music playing at high volume settings.

Good luck getting the sound better on W520. Look at my earlier posts, I've been barking about poor audio quality for some time. compared to my macbook pro, it's very weak. What's so outrageous, they have the same speaker layout and macbook is much slimmer, yet this thinkpad was supposed to do anything that a MBP does, better.

[KongMD]

Excellent settings, Peter! Everything is much crisper now Turning the EQ off now makes everything seem flat and dull

Do you have 3D Immersion or Phantom Speakers turned on? I can't seem to turn both off, though 3D Immersion is actually quite nice.

[PeterTWJ]

Nope.  I listen to pure sound.

However, it depends on ur preference.
Phantom Speakers: make it much more effect, make the vocal more smooth. Background Volume increase, but Vocal Volume decrease.

3D Immersion: Doesn't sounds well. Have more 3D and presence effect, but vocal sound a bit unbalance and soft.

Thank you for your replies and compliment. I am trying to see what else to improve W520. If larger and louder speaker is built-in W520, most likely it would be a near-perfect mobile workstation.

With this tweak, I guess I don;t need an external speaker already. Although lack of bass and midrange, but it's loud enough to fill a room.

 
I am trying to see what can be done to improve the drivers and try to integrate Dolby Home Theater 4 (sound effect, not the speaker) into W520 so that it may be on par or better than Dell or HP Mobile Workstations with SRS Premium Sound.

Peter
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Refunded Set: W510, 4876-A11
Current Set: W520, 4284-A99

[ibmford]

Did you try making SKYPE calls with those setting, AUDIO gets distorted etc...

[KongMD]

There's a Voice setting in the Equalizer, just to the left of the Custom button. Try that.

[ColonelONeill]

I use SRS HD Audio Labs with my T400. Works well.

[ibmford]

KongMD, believe me, I used many EQ settings, there's also an option that automatically switches audio to voice during voip use like skype (FN+F6), but altumately some of the drivers are flakey, and I had mixed results. At the least I expect audio to be equal if not better quality overall (speakers and sound card and placement of micrphones) on a machine advertised to compete directly with macBook Pro. Considering this machine is about 50% bigger than an MBPI find it hard to get over this fact.