Windows 10: Why does MP3 player sound better than computer?

What model Dell do you have? I have a Dell Inspiron 15, 5577 model. My Dell has Realtek audio and I have the Realtek HD Audio Manager, where I can set Audio Enhancements, EQ, etc. I've only played wav files with it so I don't know how an MP3 would work or what MP3 decoder is installed. Which brings up a point about the MP3 decoder. You may want to consider installing the K-Lite Codec Pack which may give you a better MP3 decoder (and better MP3 audio).
Download K-Lite Codec Pack

 

If you play your music without enhancements on your MP3 player, you should probably do the same on the laptop or the sound will be different, especially tonality and you won't really have a good comparison.

If you're intrigued to try a different way of outputting sound, you can try the jriver player I linked, but that is not free. There's a freeware audio player that allows those advanced options so that you can test and see if they actually make a difference in sound. To me personally, they are more placebo like than an actual improvement, but maybe your ears are more sensitive than mine.

Try Foobar2000 and install the WASAPI component to enable WASAPI output (use Event mode for best results)
foobar2000: Components Repository - WASAPI output support
foobar2000

 

Interesting... I notice even at 60+ I can distinguish up to 320kbs from 192kbs with some recordings/some music - maybe vocals, or some classical. (Playing through a decent hifi and speakers). But I really doubt I could tell 320kbs CBR from VBR.

 

The 192Kbps is a trade off. It keeps the file size small but is better fidelity than 128Kbps.
I don't use much MP3 audio. Most of what I use it for is sample music files for my recording studio clients that I can e-mail for evaluations. A 3 minute wav file is approx. 30Mb, a 3 minute 192Kbps MP3 is approx. 4Mb.

 

I just did this last night and it appears to have been a success! It's strange that ticking the "Disable all sound effects" box made a difference since none of the sound effects were ticked. Well anyway, my songs sound just as good from my laptop as they do from my MP3 player.

I tried to do as instructed, but it required me to be in Media Center, which I don't seem to have on my computer. I thought for sure I had it at one time, but now it doesn't come up even when I type it into the search box. However, as I noted above, I managed to make everything sound better now, so all is well.

 

Just a note, Windows Media Center went away, I think after Win8/8.1, but Windows Media Player is still in the Start menu, W section.

 

That's good. All that matters is that your laptop is not providing inferior sound quality. That's why I wrote on my first post that outputting other than the default way (directsound aka Windows Mixer) can be called just an "audiophile snake oil" for me as I notice no difference in sound between the three sound output modes: ASIO, WASAPI and default. Listening with no audio enhancements provides the honest way of playing your music.

 

My previous computer had Win7. That might have been where I remember having Media Center. I have Win10 now, and I do have Windows Media Player. ​I use that as my default player for music.

 

^ Switched to streaming services for me so I use Spotify and Groove Music Pass as my default.

 

I think that is my current problem. I now have the Fall Creators update version 1709 and now it looks different from what you and dalchina showed me. Now my sound output is back to the problematic level it was before I fixed it. That's just one of many problems I've had since this last upgrade. Could you possibly show me where to go to disable immediate mode and sound effects? It solved the problem before and now I'm hoping it will again, assuming that's the problem this time.