New PC Speakers Sound Issue
Today I had to replace my old THX surround sound speakers for a pair of cheap Best Buy brand PC stereo speakers. I have never adjusted audio configurations in the game but now the audio sounds like I'm in an underwater cave where all the sound is an distant echo, muffled, and voices are hard to hear. This only happens in game. Other games, apps, etc all sound fine but the moment I boot up FFXIV the audio even for the main menu sounds like it's trying to play in surround sound on my stereo speakers making it hard to hear even if I set the volume on my PC to 100%, and turn the volume all the way up on speakers. I just can't seem to find any answer to this problem online or in the forums. :confused:
Solution: The solution I found for this issue came from looking at the properties of my speakers under setting in windows. By disabling the ability for allowing applications to take exclusive control that is found under Advanced in the speaker properties which seems to be checked by default. I was able to get my sound back to normal were I could hear it, and it stopped sounding muffled, distant, and voices were normal again. It also allowed me to use my speaker enhancements under the same properties to improve my audio in game to what was best for me without the game over riding it. I was still able to tweak the in game audio in the system configurations as well. Hopefully this will help any other player who runs into this same head scratching issue where the in game audio sounds muffled, distant, and voices are so hard to hear it takes away from enjoying the game. I really hope this helps someone avoid the frustration I was dealing with.