Bass content lost in HDMI sound output

[Spennis]

A few days ago, I measured by system with REW for the first time in years, in a new house and with slightly different gear since last time (new AVR, a MiniDSP etc.), and I was chocked to see that the bass that I had a few years ago (with the exact same subs) was gone. After hours of troubleshooting (reinstalling REW, the MiniDSP plugin, drivers, firmware etc.) I found that the issue seems to be HDMI sound output on my Dell XPS 7590 laptop, because when I run the same measurements on an older Dell Latitue E7440 from work, the bass is back (see the green line in the image below, compared to the red line which is the previous measurement on the XPS 7590.).

I've gone through the sound settings in Windows and REW, disabling sound enhancements etc., but I can't find the issue. Does anyone have a clue as to what might cause this issue?I'm running REW 5.20.5 in Windows 11. Dell XPS 7590 laptop with Intel i5-9300h processor, nVidia Geforce GTX 1650 graphics (and Realtek audio drivers for something, but I'm not sure if it is for the HDMI out internal speakers + headphone jack etc.).

 

[John Mulcahy]

On the Advanced tab of the Windows audio properties (System - Sound - Related Settings on right hand side - Sound Control Panel) for the mic and for the HDMI output select "Disable all enhancements" (if that option is available).

 

[Spennis]

On the Advanced tab of the Windows audio properties (System - Sound - Related Settings on right hand side - Sound Control Panel) for the mic and for the HDMI output select "Disable all enhancements" (if that option is available).

Thank you! I had disabled all enhancements on the HDMI connection, as prompted by the "Getting Started with REW - A Step-by-Step Guide". However, I had not done the same for the microphone input, because I did not know there was one! When troubleshooting, I reinstalled the Realtek audio drivers for my Dell laptop. In that process, I realized that the drivers came with a software (Waves MaxxAudio Pro Application), which also had a whole bunch of "audio enhancement" options, so I made sure to disable those as well. The windows setting (and possibly the Waves MaxxAudio Pro Application setting) solved it. I wish that all of these things were mentioned in the aforementioned guide, including an example of what can happen if you fail to set these settings correctly, because I had no idea that these could cause such havoc to your measurements. I see now that you do mention the Windows microphone settings in the REW help files, so I'm going to read those instead from now on.