Windows 10: Audio: I barely hear voices, mostly ambient sound!

Hello!So yesterday I suddenly started to no longer hear voices in videos/music on Windows 10. They are very quiet and sound distroted/metallic. Ambient sound seems to be fine. I tried front and rear headphone jacks and used two different pairs of headphones, it's always the same issue. I will add some images of my sound setup, maybe you can help. I'm using Realtek drivers already reinstalled them and tried to set everything to stereo sound.I think it's very weird that for the last image it shows me sliders for the different colored audio inputs, might Windows taking my stereo headphones as 5

:)

 

Cortana not hearing voice commands

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query on the Microsoft Communities.

1. Are you able to hear other sounds from your computer?

2. Does the microphone work with other apps such as Skype?

3. Have you tried using "Learn my voice" settings?

Kindly, follow these steps and check if that helps:

Method 1:

I suggest you to try to turn Cortana off and then try turning it on back and check if she talks. Refer to the steps below to turn Off and On Cortana:

• Open Cortana.
• Click the hamburger button in the top left of the window.
• Go to Settings and click on off.
• Follow the same steps to turn it on.
• Check if issue persists.

Method 2:

I suggest you to run the Recording Audio
troubleshooter and check if it helps.

• Type troubleshooting in the search bar.
• Select Troubleshooting.
• Select View all on the top left corner.
• Click on Recording Audio.
• Follow the on-screen instructions to run the troubleshooter.
• Check if issue persists.

Please post back with the results and the information asked, we will be glad to assist you further.

 

Cortana not hearing voice commands

Hi

I have the same problem and the proposed solutions have not helped.

Will appreciate any other solution to this problem.

 

Can't hear other programs' sound when using Bluetooth headsets with voice chat applications on Windows 10

This happens on both my Windows 10 systems, a late 2012 iMac and a custom-built PC using an ASRock Z170 motherboard and an Insignia Bluetooth dongle.

When using either Discord or Mumble and either Apple AirPods or a Bose QuietComfort 35 headset, I cannot hear sound from any other application unless I set the output device to the "Hands-Free Device" instead of the "Stereo Headphones" device.

The problem with that is the "Hands-Free Device" has only one sound quality option, 8 KHz, which is nowhere near the 44.1 KHz default of the "Stereo Headphones" output device. When I select the "Stereo Headphones" device the sound is great, until I open either of the mentioned voice chat applications, whereupon I can't hear anything until I close that program. Also, my mic does not work unless I re-set the communications device or default device to the hands-free option. If I set the hands-free device as the communications device, everything in the voice chat app works, but no other program has any sound.

I believe this is because the "Hands-Free" and "Stereo Headphones" devices are two separate Bluetooth services, and the Hands-Free device is activated whenever the voice chat is engaged, and remains that way until the "call" is over. I realize the "Communications" tab in the sound control panel is supposed to fix this sort of thing, but it changes nothing in this scenario.

Any ideas?

EDIT: I've read the suggestions in this post, which I just discovered, and none of that works:

• Removing the Hands-Free Telephony service removes the mic.
  
• Changing the "Exclusive Mode" setting on any playback or recording device does not resolve the problem. Sometimes it does temporarily, then it reverts back to the problem described above within 5 minutes or so.
  
• Disabling audio enhancements does nothing.