Questions regarding AD700's G35's

Hi guys,

I have some questions regarding Logitech G35's, I use to own a pair before I sold it and replaced it with a pair of AD700's.

I used Realtek ALC883? on board sound.

Now I only used the G35's for playing COD4 promod. 

I never installed any of the drivers, I just plugged the G35 in and used windows audio controls. I set the windows configuration to Stereo Headphones, and had the surround sound switch on the G35's turned off, even though without the drivers I don't think it made any difference.

I also had the sound options in COD4 set to Stereo.

Now, the sound from these G35's weren't the best, but the positional accuracy I achieved in game was amazing, I could pinpoint people through walls very easily. I thought upgrading to a pair of AD700's would improve on this but with the same settings I was sadly disappointed.

So now some questions, as I understand it the G35 uses USB and almost has a sound card built in with some Dolby technologies. 

Since I did not install any drivers and had the Surround sound option switched to off, would the Dolby technologies inside the G35's be processing any sound coming from COD4 or not?

If you believe the answer to be no it wouldn't be processing anything because the drivers haven't been installed and the switch is set to off, WHY oh why did my in game sound so perfect accuracy/positional wise with them!?

Also if the technologies aren't being utilized why did my G35's sound better than these AD700's with exactly the same configuration?

Not sure if this helps but COD4 uses DIRECTSOUND, so certain technologies like EAX have no or limited effect.

I am still researching for the best sound card to couple with these AD700's to play COD4 with, I only care about positional accuracy (ie hearing almost exactly where your enemies are either from footsteps, guns firing) What are your recommendations?

If I have missed anything please ask and I will try my best to answer, oh and I am on Windows xp pro.

Cheers.

PS: I am ONLY looking to achieve good accurate sound in game with this setup. Everything else comes after.

I read the thread you linked me too. Not sure why you posted it though as it doesn't answer any of my questions and I already said the sound quality is horrible.

Hey Nameless,

From what I have read COD4 does not use DirectSound3D it only uses DirectSound. 

The whole reason why I created this thread was because I too was baffled why without drivers installed, and surround sound off the G35's were much much more accurate in game and I could pinpoint enemies much more effectively than with these AD700's and the same settings.

How can I find out if COD4 multiplayer uses FMOD? 

It is very weird that I stumbled upon a pure stereo setup which gave me the biggest sound stage/accuracy in pinpointing enemies. What's even more weird is with the G35's switched with my AD700's the AD700's do a worse job.

If I were to get a sound card purely for COD4, do you think I would see much of a difference between say the Asus Xonar DG, DS and DX?

Quote:

Originally Posted by I3eyond 

I respect your opinion, although from that thread I posted it would seem me and the others in that thread would disagree. 

 

But hey, if you think the AD700's sound quality is "horrible" ... so be it, that's your opinion, and we all hear differently!

 

Happy listening!

Maybe if you read my original post you would understand I wasn't calling the AD700's sound horrible but the G35's. My only issue with the AD700's is they don't perform as well as the G35's with the same setup/settings. 

I understand your point, but I have been using the AD700's for over a month now. Yes, it did improve slightly, but it is still not nearly comparable to the G35's.

Personally, I think when I get a sound card things will change. I just want to know if the G35's on board sound still processes even if I haven't installed the drivers?

Does it install anything automatically when you plug in the G35's?