On an unrelated note, here's a bunch of stuff I've got on my desk right now:
 

 
AKG Q701 (bass port mod, braided cable), Audio-GD NFB-15.32, Yulong D100, SB Omni, SB Recond3D, Fiio E11, HRT Microstreamer.  The M-Stage is off to the right unplugged at the moment.  You can also see one of my ancient Cambridge Soundworks 2.1 powered speakers.  These things sound amazing still after all these years.
 
The HRT, for its size, sounds really surprisingly good.  It doesn't have the oomph of the other two but you know, what do you expect from something so small.  It's my new work rig (wanted something small and out of the way) and I think I'm going to keep it.
 
The Fiio is going on Mixamp duty.  The Recon is waiting for my PS4.  I was using both the Recon and E11 at work, but the HRT came in today so they're home now. 
 
The Omni has an optical port on the back feeding the 15.32.  When I'm listening to music, I use WASPI to bypass the SBX surround processing.  When I'm gaming, good ol surround!
 
Still trying to decide between the AGD and the Yulong for my main DAC/Amp.  I've been testing for a week and still can't decide.  I'm going to test the DAC sections of both this weekend (using the M-stage amp) to see whether the DAC or Amp is coloring the sound on these (since they definitely have different sounds).
 
Happy Friday night!!!   

totoori said:

  Thanks a ton I will look a little deeper.
 
Maybe I am a little confused- but you mention the SBZ as an alternative to the ModMic... are you talking about SBZ and one of the $5 mics?

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No, the SBZ comes with a mic.

stillhart said:

 
No, the SBZ comes with a mic.

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Oh, thanks! The amazon.ca one didn't say it aside from deep in the description!

totoori said:

  I have a Vali/Modi with HD650s, onboard sound aside from that.

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 Heres the mod mic 4.0!

How do the dna pro compare to the beat pros and monster inspiration?

fidelity king said:

How do the dna pro compare to the beat pros and monster inspiration?

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Don't mention beats on this forum! They'll crucify you

Haven't kept up with Beats and Monster's other lines, but I'm pretty sure Beats now has some really good build quality, which the DNA Pro utterly lacks. If Beats can manage to find some similar flavor of tonal balance as the Pros, they'd have some real potential. Even saying so, I have zero desire to buy or really try fashion accessory type headphones like Beats, V-moda, SOUL, SMS (50 cent), etc.

When ur talking about monster headphones you kinda have to mention beats and compare them to the monster headphones but anywase my last question is how the dna pro compare to the audio technica m50

So, I just pulled the trigger, somewhat impulsively, on the Fidelio X1 headphones and Fiio E12 portable amp to go with my mix amp 5.8... Does anyone have any experience/feedback on this combination? Please post some feedback. Thanks!

mad lust envy said:

Haven't kept up with Beats and Monster's other lines, but I'm pretty sure Beats now has some really good build quality, which the DNA Pro utterly lacks. If Beats can manage to find some similar flavor of tonal balance as the Pros, they'd have some real potential. Even saying so, I have zero desire to buy or really try fashion accessory type headphones like Beats, V-moda, SOUL, SMS (50 cent), etc.

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I'm not sure it's fair to group V-MODA in with those other guys. V-MODA products are really good headphones that happen to be fashionable - not the other way around.

I originally posted this here: PC True 5.1 Headsets on Consoles

Someone said I should post it here, so here it is!

I recently decided to give some of the random true 5.1/Optical devices that are available with some PC true 5.1 headsets after I saw the Sewell SoundBox
that had an optical input and output. I figured it might work on the PS4/XBone, but unfortunately it did not.

It worked great with my PC using both ROCCAT 5.1 headset and the CM Storm Serious S 5.1 headset. From what I can tell, the Sewell SoundBox uses the USB on the PC as an external sound card, so on consoles, just using the optical cable won't get sound. I thought maybe I could use it hooked up to my PC and mix the optical input from the consoles, but that was a big fail.

So I returned the SoundBox and ordered Panlong 5.1 Audio Gear Digital Sound Decoder
It arrived and I hooked it up to both the PS4 and XBone and both worked, but only worked with the CM Storm Serious S 5.1 headset. The ROCCAT will only work with a PC, as it needed to install drivers for it to work with my PC, so I took that headset out of the running for testing and just stuck with the CM Storm.

I started up a game and watched the title screen, and right away noticed objects coming from the left, the sound was coming from the right! I thought maybe I had the headset on backwards, but no, I didn't, then I thought I had the 3.5mm plugs in the wrong ports, so I moved them around, but still anything visually coming from left or right, the sound would come from the opposite direction.

So I sent that back, and ordered a different one, but from a different vendor, RioRand,

It basically is the same exact thing, came in the same style box and all of the same accessories. Only difference was that it did not have "RioRand" printed on it, where the Panlong version had it's logo on the device. Plugged everything in and %$! same issue as the other, sound not coming from the right speakers, everything reversed.

This was looking to be an experiment that wasn't going to work, using true 5.1 PC headsets on consoles, other than ones specifically made for consoles.

I sent that back and googled around for other options, when I found this one on ebay:


It looked different, but has the same overall idea.
Only took 1 week to arrive from China, and once I got it, I hooked it up, and wasn't expecting anything other than the same results as the other two 5.1 converters, but this one actually worked! Objects from the right came their sound came from the right, things behind me came from behind! I was surprised this one worked, and am happy with the sound queues I've heard so far.

I've not been able to test this with the mic yet, but I don't think I'll have any issues as it will plug directly into the headset adapter for the XBone. Not sure what to do yet on the PS4 for the mic, but think I'll figure something out. I need to test in more games, I was just using Titanfall last night to test the latest one out.

I know there is plenty of debate on true 5.1 vs virtual 5.1 for many reasons, but I like to try things out and see how it all sounds.

I'll update as I test this out with the CM Storm and the 5.1 converter.

My main headset is the Audio-Technica ADG1 with the MixAmp 5.8 and love how they sound together. I wanted to try out some true 5.1 headsets for comparison, so I'll keep the CM Storm headset and see how it works with other games.

frankefrum said:

So, I just pulled the trigger, somewhat impulsively, on the Fidelio X1 headphones and Fiio E12 portable amp to go with my mix amp 5.8... Does anyone have any experience/feedback on this combination? Please post some feedback. Thanks!

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Sweet combo, you'll love it!  Don't forget a V-moda Boompro for chatting...

Oh it's ON! 
 
http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/9/5791360/turtle-beach-ps4-headsets-coming-this-fall
 
http://corp.turtlebeach.com/media-resources/releases/releases-detail/153/turtle-beach-brings-new-line-of-feature-reach-playstation4-headsets-to-e3
 
Turtle Beach is putting out a bunch of headphones DTS Headphone X and a controller unit, which doesn't specifically state whether or not it does DTS.  But man, that $300 unit is insane on paper.  It must have **** sound to pack in all those cool features (DTS, magnetic charging, Bluetooth for phones, active noise cancelling, wireless, etc).
 
From the Forbes page:  "Turtle Beach also has a slick answer to Astro’s MixAmp in the form of the Elite Tournament Audio Controller (TAC). Compatible with PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, PC, and Macs, it has a ridiculous list of features tailored to professional gamers and gameplay broadcasters. Stuff like Dolby AC3 decoding, DTS Headphone:X 7.1 surround, sliders for mixing game and chat audio, background noise limiters, audio presets, and auxiliary inputs for plugging in a mobile device or mixing in music from an external source. Interestingly, Turtle Beach says they plan to integrate the audio controller’s features into future tournament-level headsets. So the TAC is designed primarily for gamers with existing headsets who want the extended functionality."
 
Notice it's compatible with Consoles AND PC/Mac, which is rare.  Very cool!

stillhart said:

 
Notice it's compatible with Consoles AND PC/Mac, which is rare.  Very cool!

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OK, I'm interested. Going to request a review model from Turtle Beach. Time to bust out those press credentials!