Windows 11 - Bass redirection to a Subwoofer

Hi Gents,

This problem is driving me Crazy, so any help would be appreciated. My Denon AVR-S900W receiver is dying a slow death, and it seems my Misses is reluctant to me spending a $1,000 or so on a new Receiver. So I've disconnected most of the functionality audio wise for it, and shifted that to a small Amp I've had for ages in the storage area, along with a spare 12 inch Klipsch Sub (Have I said I'm a bit of a Nut on Stereos, and Home Theater Systems?)

The Computer (Box) is relatively decent as I built it a couple years back with Windows 11 Pro. It's got a Asus TUF GAMING Z690-PLUS WIFI D4 Motherboard, 64 Gigs of RAM, Intel i7 12700K, etc. The 7.1 capable on board audio chip is Realtek, although I still feed video with audio via HDMI on the nVidia GTX-1080 Graphics Card to the Denon when I want to use it with a 55 inch Samsung TV.

I like to listen to Tunes (almost all FLAC these days) while I read the news electronically, surf the web, do email, etc. I used to use Zone 2 from the Denon AVR-S900W receiver to drive some cheap JBL small towers I got for a song years ago. Well the Denon AVR-S900W has decided it's not going to send decent sound to Zone 2 anymore, so it distorts it, making me cringe. The Main Zone is still passable (It's set up as a 5.1 with the same cheap JBL speaker line and a better Klipsch Sub. So the plan is to leave that be for now. (I have been looking for a new AVR of course.)

I've spent hours tinkering to try to get Bass to the Sub via the PC's analogue output. For most of the time I thought it was a hardware problem, but I did get the Sub to make noise using the Realtek Audio Control; and later on using the Windows Settings. I'd like to change the redirect of the low Bass as a "Global" setting in Windows if possible, so I don't have to muck about with it.

I set the Realtek Audio Control to 5.1 (strangely there is no 2.1) but I don't enable the Center & Surrounds. I also don't enable the Front Left & Right as Full-range Speakers => hoping that would send some bass to the Sub; like AVRs do - but no joy.

I've been using Media Player Classic (MPC) to play my tunes, but couldn't find any Bass Management / Speaker tweaks in it to move Bass to the Sub. I did see a post when searching in AI "to use the Codec Tweak Tool 6.7.6 to set the speaker configuration to "Same as input"! Of course my version of MPC didn't have that tool so I downloaded the latest version which come with the tool. (I also downloaded and installed the latest Sound Drivers from Asus (the Motherboard OEM). Of course the Tool doesn't quite follow the AI instructions but even if I run it as an Admin, the settings don't change.

So do you have any idea as to how I can do this? I'm not married to MPC, and I'm willing to go to another Player if I can get the Bass to the Sub. I'm only talking about from 25 to 80 Hz to help out the JBLs a bit.

By the way, I know the hardware works 100% because I can play a Blu-ray Concert in Power DVD (Roy Orbison Black & White Nights, and David Gilmore - Live at Pompei were my first test disks.) The Sub rocks just fine, so it's in software somehow. Just now I popped in the 27th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Blu-ray and Power DVD has great Sub output in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and in LPCM 48KHz/24Bits 6 Channel.

As good as Power DVD does with the Blu-rays on the Bass, I can seem to tweak it to do any Bass redirection with FLAC Tunes. It plays them just fine, but just misses the mark with the Sub.

I hope I've provided enough detail. I'm shocked I can't find anything on line about what I think must be a common problem.

Help Please!

 

Thanks for the tip.

Does it do Bass Management for Tunes?

 

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I couldn't find anything on Bass Management. Are you certain it does that?

Putting RGB on a Soundcard just seems silly to me. It should be about the sound capability.

 

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I've got an inquiry to the second level of Tech Support at Asus. They acknowledged it's not something I can fix, and it may be in the Realtek software.

 

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Just a heads up on this issue. My email to Asus seems to have fallen on deaf ears so far.

So while I wait, and hope they just send me a decent sound card instead of having to dismantle the Box to RMA the Asus Motherboard. I thought I'd check the warranty status of the Motherboard, and to my surprise it expired in August 2025!

So I'm guessing, even though I have the motherboard registered in my Asus Account, their tech support folks haven't bothered to check if it's covered either. So I'm thinking the offer of an RMA repair / replacement will die on the vine once I initiate the RMA process which will run the serial number of the Motherboard. Even though I'm overdue to re-image the Box (which I do every couple of years) I don't want it down for a couple months.

I do have an old Gamer Box that I built for my son that I could use if I had to (I built him a new one) as a plan B; but I'm thinking all the effort to go through the proper channels with Asus was in vain. I will await their next email for confirmation before moving on to Plan C.

I've started investigating the Soundcard market (new and used), and it seems it's not very large. I checked my used parts Bin and I have no PCIe soundcards; and I really should be recycling what I have. My present setup does work but the configuration is just silly. I feed the 2 channel output from the motherboard into a wireless transmitter which feeds two wireless receiver / amplifiers. One powers the JBLs nicely, and the other connects to the High Level inputs on the Klipsch Sub. It's the latter that's goofy. If the Sub out of the motherboard worked then it would feed directly to the Klipsch Line connection eliminating the need for the second wireless receiver / amplifier.

There is a Sound BlasterX AE-5 Pro gaming sound card on Facebook Marketplace that has decent specs, but the poster hasn't responded. I'm also considering a Creative Audigy FX V2 on Amazon or maybe even an Asus Xonar SE.

Just waiting on the email from Asus...

 

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