All of these softwares output this gutless sounding audio YouTube however plays absolutely fine! – On YouTube the bass content is powerfully present and coming through the sub, I mean wtf!! ( ) One more observation that will really screw up this diagnosis: I use VLC player, QuickTime, Windows Media, iTunes, PowerDVD, not to mention my games. I can also confirm that despite this persistent fine tuning issue the machine does still output audio, be it for my movies, my music and my games (thank Christ!) or I wouldn't have been able to put up with this situation for a day, let alone four months! I can confirm that the speaker configuration has been correctly set to reflect the fact that I am running a 5.1 setup (see pic attached) and that Realtek's sanity check utility confirms that the machine knows what each of these speakers are (including the subwoofer).

Audio Codec: ALC898) available for download offered by the Gigabyte website.

I can confirm that the machine is currently running the most up to date Realtek drivers (R3.75 - Audio Driver Version: 6. I even attempted to plug the sub into the front-right channel's jack point which gave me all the bass I could ever want but of course all the higher frequency stuff (which is supposed to go through the front-right speaker) was passed through there as well making for a situation that was just as bad if not worse. I have attempted to correct the issue by adjusting equaliser settings, installing and running some software which claims to be able to manipulate the audio (not that it did in the way I wanted it to!), I’ve tried reallocating jack plug positions (using Realtek's own audio utility) and I have of course tried reinstalling the drivers but still the problem persists. The problem is that whatever it is I'm running, the audio for any application or file is absolutely gutless and lacking in any warmth whatsoever, simply because all the bass content of the sound is not coming from the subwoofer but is in fact sharing the front-right channel. Broadly speaking this new PC is a dream to use, but four months in I find myself becoming more and more needy for a solution to an issue that has been present with the system’s audio since the first time I switched the machine on. The mainboard for this new build is a Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 – Rev 1.1 on which it’s audio components are supplied and run by Realtek. In late December/early January I assembled a new PC of above average spec and despite some very minor niggles I am for all intents and purposes a satisfied customer.

Gigabyte realtek hd audio manager bass