I realize that you are a novice. My question to you is, are you using any kind of professional audio interface or just the on board sound in your computer? Output levels can vary with different pieces of equipment. Many people perceive the difference in output levels to be a difference in quality. It's not. But your question is a little bit like " sometimes I hurt". That's pretty general without any specifics. Very hard to help you that way. And no, I don't recommend a preamp of any kind on the output of your soundcard before it hits your stereo system. That is if you are monitoring through a stereo system? And what do you mean by a self compiled CD? How have you compiled that CD? In your computer? And then burned a disc? And have you burned your own production to a disk and played back on your CD player? It's called Apples and oranges. My Chevy Van and my motorcycle both use gasoline. Regular I might add. But the 2 Seem to drive and function much differently? Any idea why? I mean after all, my Chevy Van has a 350 in.³ V-8 engine and my motorcycle only has a V-2 engine but my motorcycle accelerates faster than my Chevy Van?

Enhancing playback sound is not something you want to do. Having a decent playback system that has some consistency to it is important. That's why a lot of us utilize our hardware console/mixers that have built-in monitoring facilities so that we can listen to numerous input sources and match levels. Frequently differences in levels are perceived by people to be better than one or the other. That can be misleading. And because each piece of equipment has differences in their output circuitry there is frequently differences in the character of the sound between different pieces of equipment. Sort of like Ford versus Chevy.

So your descriptions need to be a little more consistent for further useful advice. I know it's hard to describe things when you are a novice but a full description of the different pieces of equipment, how they are connected to the " same system" would be helpful. And are you comparing your homegrown recordings to platinum selling albums? There's a big difference there. There is a reason why people pay for quality engineering & mastering. So there should be differences.

Differences are what separate us from others
Mx. Remy Ann David

Hi Sir,

Thanks for your reply, When I am back home from my visit in china, I will get more detail and be more specific.

Regards

Martin

Hey! You don't have to go to China to purchase your equipment. You can go to Guitar Center or, Radio Shaft instead. It's just like going to China but no eggroll.

Szechuan is what I wan
Mx. Remy Ann David

Boeta

if i read your post right it sounds like you might be using the integrated sound on your motherboard. sometimes the electrical interference can cause some irritating sounds. if you are using the integrated sound off your motherboard then you can get a actual sound card that will more than likely fix your problem, if you do not know if you are using integrated or not, look on the back of your computer. if your audio cables are hooked up whats called the i/o port that looks like a long rectangle, normaly at the bottom then you are using integrated sound off your motherboard. under the i/o panel are generally 7 slots (depending on your computer case) where add on cards can go. if you are using a sound card then you might try to dust out your computer and re-seat the sound card. if you are not comfortable with this any local computer store should help.

I totally agree with diastole87. This sounds like a typical sound card problem.
If you're using the integrated soundcard of your motherboard, this is most of the times responsible for
low quality sound. I think you have to consider using a higher quality sound card for your PC. There are plenty
of them in the market. Go for an audio interface if you're planning to plug some microphones or other instruments in the
future.

Interestingly enough, I have found most desktop & laptop computers to have pretty lousy audio quality to them. Whereas with some major brands that feature " AlTec Lansing", " Harman Kardon, JBL, et al., I have been amazed at their higher-quality input & output quality levels. So not all are 100% awful. I know that my HP laptop is 96 kHz capable. But here again, I have occasionally heard some clocking noise during silent non-playback situations. Microphone inputs are only appropriate for cheap interactive headset communications microphones. Line level inputs are at the mercy of the input buffer amplifier & the analog to digital converter. Sometimes you'll find a Crystal or Burr Brown, sometimes Analog Devices. So some can be utilized with modest success and especially if you don't push them hard. Some internal units can even handle 24-bit. But outboard units be it USB 1.1 or 2.0 or FireWire generally don't suffer from any clocking noise and always have better input & output sections.

There are huge amount of " have" & " have-nots" here. If you can only afford a single pair of quality earphones for your only source of reference, go for the best ones you can afford. But if you can, try to take a reference CD you know well and try to find a dealer to let you listen and compare. This is even more personal than what kind of underwear people wear. But now wait. How do you compare these to your speakers or speaker systems in general?

So here is the question: Do you match your headphones to your (or somebody else's) speaker systems? Or? Do you match speaker systems to your (or somebody else's) headphones? Do you want headphones to translate to speakers or speakers to translate to headphones? Should they also must same but different? Or should they all be different while playing the same thing?

Can you say Acclamation?
Mx. Remy Ann David

It could also be a case of mp3 versus cd. The OP didn't specify what they were listening to.