Hey, yeah I managed to fix it. None of the fixes mentioned here worked, but resetting the CMOS on my motherboard by taking out the battery, waiting for 2 minutes, and reinstalling seemed to fix my issue.
Audio quality suddenly awful in Windows 11
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(294.40000000000003, 73%, 38%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ESV%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Samuel Valdez
10
Reputation points
My audio quality was perfectly fine yesterday, but I booted up my computer today and the audio was extremely poor quality, sounding compressed and quiet like it was coming from far away. I have tried reinstalling drivers, updating drivers, uninstalling devices, disabling audio enhancements, checking headphone cables, running troubleshooters, but nothing is fixing the problem.
Windows for home | Windows 11 | Devices and drivers
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(28.799999999999997, 61%, 12%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EM%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
mehdi 0 Reputation points2026-05-11T15:18:03.1733333+00:00 I was really disappointed today to figure out that Windows is ruining my sound quality, not my DAC. I spent time tweaking every setting and disabling audio enhancements. I tried WASAPI, expecting bit-perfect audio, but it sounded awful.
I honestly thought my hearing was getting worse or there was a problem with my headphone or DAC. I finally switched to ASIO and the music sounds great again. Why is there such a massive degradation of sound with Windows audio? It makes no sense.
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Answer recommended by moderator
Samuel Valdez
10
Reputation points
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(73.60000000000001, 66%, 17%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EDR%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Delta Rhulain 0 Reputation points2026-04-10T18:00:40.6+00:00 Was this an issue only with other devices plugged in? I'm having a problem on my laptop with the audio cutting out in the speakers
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(12.8, 57.00000000000001%, 11%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ESC%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Solamillo Charity 20,375 Reputation points Independent Advisor2026-03-03T13:44:18.9933333+00:00 May I ask if your headphones are plugged in the rear, or in the front? Is your headphone's jack TRRS or TRS? Have you tried plugging the cable in the rear instead? It should be plugged in the green port.
Also, let's check your bitrate. Please go back to mmsys.cpl → Speakers → Properties → Advanced
Set to:
24 bit, 48000 Hz
Apply - Restart.