Should "audio enhancements" in Windows be enabled?

[nzgfs]

When I use the Apple USB-C to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter in Windows, there is an "enable audio enhancements" button in the audio settings, with the text "allows extra signal processing by the audio device". What does this "signal processing" mean? Does it just add some unnecessary sound effects or something? What will happen after enabling audio enhancements? Will it make the sound better or worse?

Update: What about the new "Enhance audio" switch in Windows 11 sound settings? The description below says "Automatically improve sound quality (turn off if you experience sound issues)". Is it the same function as I mentioned above? Or does it really do some extra processing on the sound? I didn't find any documentation about this on Microsoft website.

 

[fieldcar]

Welcome to the site!

The audio enhancements are up to the driver for the sound device. Sometimes it's something like EQ, Loudness, or other mostly useless features. If none of the enhancements are checked, it's really the same as checking "disable all enhancements". It's not going to reduce fidelity by using these features, but the flaw is with the windows audio stack (aka WDM audio) if you listen to music at a different sample rate than your DAC's ouput.


It's best to bypass the WDM audio entirely and use ASIO or WASAPI, though you'll need a plugin for that if you're using foobar2000.
Qobuz supports WASAPI natively, and I think Tidal has it too. The main benefit is changing your DAC's sampling rate to match the content on the fly. Windows' built in resampling is not that great, but you may have to deal with it since the apple dongle DAC doesn't have many sample rate options. In the end, it's probably not audible, so don't worry too much about it, especially if you are just using Spotify or other lossy music services.

 

[nzgfs]

Welcome to the site!

The audio enhancements are up to the driver for the sound device. Sometimes it's something like EQ, Loudness, or other mostly useless features. If none of the enhancements are checked, it's really the same as checking "disable all enhancements". It's not going to reduce fidelity by using these features, but the flaw is with the windows audio stack (aka WDM audio) if you listen to music at a different sample rate than your DAC's ouput.
View attachment 159309

It's best to bypass the WDM audio entirely and use ASIO or WASAPI, though you'll need a plugin for that if you're using foobar2000.
Qobuz supports WASAPI natively, and I think Tidal has it too. The main benefit is changing your DAC's sampling rate to match the content on the fly. Windows' built in resampling is not that great, but you may have to deal with it since the apple dongle DAC doesn't have many sample rate options. In the end, it's probably not audible, so don't worry too much about it, especially if you are just using Spotify or other lossy music services.
View attachment 159310

Thank you! There is just an "audio enhancements" button in my settings but no enhancement options like in the picture, so it seems like it doesn't do any enhancements? I can only feel that the volume is reduced.

 

[Leiker535]

Thank you! There is just an "audio enhancements" button in my settings but no enhancement options like in the picture, so it seems like it doesn't do any enhancements? I can only feel that the volume is reduced.

In practical terms you'll only hear a difference when using EQ. If you use Equalizer APO you'll need to have it enabled, otherwise the EQ won't work. I don't think windows does any enhancement by itself.

 

[nzgfs]

In practical terms you'll only hear a difference when using EQ. If you use Equalizer APO you'll need to have it enabled, otherwise the EQ won't work. I don't think windows does any enhancement by itself.

Got it. Thanks! And what about the new "enhance audio" button in Windows 11 sound settings? Is it the same as this one?

 

[voodooless]

Funny how they have strange options to “enhance audio”, which do some unspecified thing, and then again fail to ignore the blatantly bad sample rate conversion, which has been terrible for decades