Poor sound quality from laptop's built-in speakers only on Ubuntu

The same thing happened to me when I was using Ubuntu for the first time. The reason for me was that Ubuntu had the volume of speakers set to a too high value. Solving this problem is very easy:

• Using the sound indicator, open Sound Settings and set the sound volume slider at "unamplified", as shown in the image:

I hope this solves the problem.

I have noticed the same audio discrepancy that you have.

I can't remember the name of it at the moment (haven't used Windows in a long time) but I do think there is an audio processor that enhances the audio on Windows. I remember seeing something in the control panel about it. Then again, maybe I'm crazy. :-P

If you don't see anything that stands out in the control panel, run alsamixer on Ubuntu, and check your levels that way.

Good luck!