Re: Acer Aspire 3 A315-21 laptop has mono sound only?
On Thu, 19 Mar 2020 17:44:23 +0700
Ken Heard <ken@heard.name> wrote:
> I think that this particular laptop has mono sound. I have been
> using it temporarily to stream content by HDMI to a LG HD monitor and
> then by fibre optical cable to a NED D3020 V2 hybrid amplifier and
> finally to a pair of bass reflect speakers. Unfortunately sound
> comes out of only one speaker.
>
> After extensive tests I have determined to my satisfaction that the
> problem is in the laptop. I can test the two speakers built in the
> laptop separately, but I have no way of knowing whether the sound so
> produced is mono or stereo. I could find no specs for this laptop
> with details about the sound card.
>
> Lack of such specs indicates to me that Acer does not want people to
> know that this laptop is mono only. Is mono sound the norm for low
> market laptops such as this one and notebooks?
>
No. I have the cheapest laptop (HP), a previous cheapest laptop
(Acer), the cheapest netbook (Acer) and a previous cheapest netbook
(Acer) I could find when buying, and all do stereo sound just fine, in
fact these days the cheapest of sound chips will do more channels than
Fantasia... you can buy a USB dongle with pretty decent sound out
for a couple of Pounds/Dollars.
Buy/borrow the cheapest earphones you can find, if you don't already
have such. Plug into the laptop and select the headphone jack as output.
Locate a modern pop music track. Play in VLC. Under Audio->Stereo Mode,
switch between mono and stereo. If you can't hear any difference, if
the sound is located in the centre of your head in both modes, you only
have mono. Or if the Stereo option is greyed out....
There are quite a few tracks with deliberate stereo effects, most stuff
by Pink Floyd, Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love etc., and they make stereo
very obvious, even on laptop speakers. But pretty much any music will
have stereo differences which are obvious on headphones, but maybe not
on the poor excuses for loudspeakers in laptops.
If you're getting convincing stereo, then the problem is elsewhere in
the path. I always suspect HDMI of anything that involves it. Yes, it
can do many channels, and something with 'HDMI' stamped on it should do
at least stereo, but that may be the weak link in the chain. You should
have a headphone jack on any modern screen which handles audio, try
your cheap earphones in that, with sound via HDMI. Again, VLC provides a
quick mono/stereo switch, but many sound hardware drivers can also do
that.
--
Joe
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