Windows 8.1 KB300850 Kills Sound Quality

That was installed on my PC in Dec 2014. I do not have any audio problems, either with PC audio or with my recording studio audio (I use the PC for both regular PC work and for my Sonar recording studio.

I have RealTek PC audio, not the Audigy RX SoundBlaster.

For testing, disable the SoundBlaster and enable the on-board audio and see how that works. My recording studio backup PC has an ASUS motherboard with RealTek and the KB300850 installed and there is no audio problems with it either.

the onboard audio the rampage iv BE has is inherently crap... its the same with all of them... ive used several of them and they all are really nothing to write home about. they by nature have sub par audio processors... so it wouldnt give me any substantial reference. and yes i have tried removing/uninstalling/replacing/swapping with different cards. all sound like complete garbage unless the update is removed. i should have mentioned my tried methods. and with respect... its really bloody annoying for someone to say " well ive never had that problem with my so and so" when clearly our hardware is NOT the same nor do we share the same circumstances. and i am whole heartedly thrilled for you that you dont have this problem because its very depressing to think this updates been out for this long and so many RIVE owners complain and nothing gets adressed. anyway ive come to the conclusion that it must be a fluke with this set of boards... my question is do i have to have this installed to get access to future updates? or is this something i can ignore.... i dont care if i have it installed or not.

I mentioned I do not have the problem, to note that its not "everyone" with that KB installed that have the problem. Since you took special issue with that. I'll back out and let someone else try to assist you.

I don't know if this is related to your problem or not, but within the last week or so an update completely changed my audio settings on my Windows 8.1 system. I run a USB DAC on my system, like this;
Marantz US | HD-DAC1

and always run it at 24 bit 96 kHz WASAPI method, like this;

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd371455(v=vs.85).aspx

I noticed a few days ago that an update eliminated my WASAPI set up and I really don't know how to get it back.

Huh... no thats not relatted to me but im sorry thats happened to you... sounds equally as frustrating because you have some nice audio devices there. thanks for the response... im still poking around but as the user above you said you can simply bypass the update so im going to go with that i suppose.