The specs of the Xonar STX is very good and it has Dolby Headphone for immersive surround sound but it's worth taking a closer look at the specs and some alternatives.   The AKG 702 65th Anniversary Edition Very nice headphone. has a frequency response of between 8Hz-39.8kHz which is...

Quote:   I finally ran an analog comparison test on the multichannel analog input receiver and a higher quality stereo receiver. It turns out that the receiver is just fine when used for a multichannel analog source. If it's set to the 2 channel aux source the noise increased...

Quote:   Thanks. They all sound ok in slightly different ways, even the standard stereo. Quote: After comparing my headphone out and the analog multichannel out and effectively muting specific channels to see what sound is present from each position, I can say it is the individual...

After discussing all the various options for virtual headphone surround I think I missed the obvious. To recap, all the options such as DH, CMSS-3D, THX, SBX etc take the available native audio (usually 5.1) and try to recreate the multichannel sound convincingly over stereo headphones through...

Quote: So SBX/THX simulate virtual surround from a standard stereo source and CMSS-3D decodes an enhanced stereo source? Thanks     Quote: As OpenAL and DS3D are still comparatively rare in games compared to 5.1 but still may be used in specific games a person likes it's a shame...

Quote:     Quote:   In light of this I don't see why it would be worth worrying too much about 3D audio in games unless the specific games we like has a 3D headphone audio option. Thanks.

I'm doing a similar setup and have done a lot of reading to try to get it right.   Reading Amazon reviews,The Kinovo seems a bit buggy and their website does not state if the optical output will take multichannel audio from HDMI and convert that to multichannel over optical. I think it's...

I can see opinions here are divided between all the available option and each persons experience along with the explanation of how things work should allow a more informed decision. But I'm left wondering one thing: how common are the different audio encoding options in games? Are most games now...

Quote: Actually, I do have another question on this. I'm assuming games that are encoded to use 3D surround on a headphone also include 5.1/7.1 for use with home cinema systems?

Quote:   Again, a nice summary of how each one may sound. Thanks.

Quote:   Quote:   That was very useful. I had seen a lot of that before such as the YouTube vids and some quotes you referenced, but the explanation of how 3D surround works was not so clearly provided elsewhere. Thanks.

Quote: Ok thanks. So rather than simulate a 5.1/7.1 suround speaker setup CMSS-3D simulates a virtual 3d space using audio perceived co-ordinates. That's very different to Dolby Headphone that tries to simulate the native 5.1/7.1   Card is on my mb, either multichannel analog out or...

Quote: That does sound very neat. But given speaker systems are 5.1/7.1 doesn't that mean such x,y,z co-ordinates are only in-game audio that are generated in real time and then being output as discrete 5.1/7.1 and it's the 5.1/7.1 that is used in a virtual headphone implementation? Or is...

Quote: Thanks, that's exactly what I wanted to hear.

Quote:   That's great. I'll take a read of that soon.   Going by a post date on the Creative forum, CMSS-3D seems like the oldest standard compared to Dolby Headphone, THX TruStudio Pro and SBX. Usually with tech the newest is best but I guess as they all try to do the same thing it's...

Quote:     Quote:   I thought the idea of each method was to best simulate a full room surround setup on the headphone. But I think I understand what you're both saying. Thanks   No, I don't think the U7 can be used on a console at all. It's strictly a pc / mac soundcard. The...

Quote: Thanks. I took a look at some of the posts on that link. I think I understand that CMSS-3D uses the native 5.1 game audio (is that correct as some of the posts for CMSS-3D are dated almost 10 years old which would be before games used native 5.1) Nameless broke it down as binaural...

Quote: Thanks. I'm also interested in technical implementations between them. I was told CMSS-3D somehow does more with the game audio than other options, but I'm not sure how this is achieved as all modern games are essentially realtime 5.1 / 7.1 so headphone positional audio should be...

Quote:   Thanks. I've tried some vids and will likely try some more. Nothing like hearing it for yourself.   Quote:   I've tried Dolby Headphone on movies and I like it but not on games so am considering my options for positional audio.   So you're saying Dolby Headphone is...

Nameless was good enough to give me some info regarding game surround sound processing for headphones. I have used Dolby Headphone but was also told about CMSS-3D as an alternative that uses binaural rather than virtual.   As I need a soundcard I expect one of these standards or something...

Quote: Thanks.

Thanks. My source material were bluray so I was surprised to encounter any noise over digital. I expected some noise over analog I suspected due to RFI/EMI but as the consensus seems to be that HDMI and Analog are largely the same, the higher noise level over Analog must be due to the poorer...

As for different methods of virtual headphone audio, aren't all games essentially generating real time discrete 6 or 8 channel audio? If all in-game audio have either native 5.1/7.1 positional sound which are then made into virtual 5.1/7.1 surround over 2 speakers for headphones, how then do...

Quote:   Thanks Purple. Reminds me of how asio works and provides a more efficient way of communication. Should allow hardware accelerated audio which would be nice.

Quote: Thanks. Could you / someone explain this a bit more. Aren't all games essentially generating real time discrete 6 channel audio? (Or are they mostly using discrete 8 channel audio now?) Doesn't that mean all in-game generated audio have either 5.1/7.1 positional sound that are then...