The Nameless Guide To PC Gaming Audio (with binaural headphone surround sound) - Page 86

Okay well better question, can I use the surround sound capabilities of my turtle beach dss, while watching movies on my mac?

Does you Mac even support Dolby Digital?

(I'm not really knowledgeable about Macs).

 

The Mac would need to have an optical output and DDL (Dolby Digital Live) to output Dolby Digital Surround Sound.

My Macbook Pro does - optical out the headphone jack. (need the correct adapter)

Which Mac do you have? All my MacBook Pro's, for example, have a 3.5mm/optical out combo jack. If you look at your Mac's specs, it should tell you if you have optical out.

I was going to experiment, but the arrival of my Recon3D and death of the laptop's battery basically made it a moot point. I assume you would plug the DSS into the optical-out (note, it's not a Toslink port like on an Xbox), go to system settings, audio panel, select the optical out as the output, and then select the Dolby 5.1 audio track in your DVD movie. That should[/] be all you have to do, but as I haven't tried it you may want to search "optical out" in OS X's Help program to see for sure.

Ok my system info says I have S/PDIF Optical Digital Audio Output. Does that mean I can get digital output from the headphone jack if I use a 3.5 to toslink adaptor?

 

I think you're correct - I always booted into Windows on the Macbook for gaming and doing that allows DDL to work fine.

Just a heads up, looks like a sale on the TiHD (109.99 + 5.94), most non-Amazon sellers don't ship to Australia but this is probably handy for US folks.

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0041OUA38/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=

 

Edit: Hadn't finished reading the whole thread when I saw this price on Amazon and didn't realise it was already on here.

Edited by theeternal - 1/31/13 at 4:21am

Theeternal,
I posted it a while back, but that sale ended. So with this new one, I am once again sorely tempted to get a great price on a great card before it gets EOL'ed for the ZxR. C'mon Starbucks, call me back

Good to know I'm not making a mess out of a quality thread.

 

So if you order direct from J&R and join their mailing list you can save the shipping. I've also discovered that Amazon has a history of price matching other suppliers and they do ship internationally for anyone outside the US after one.

 

http://camelcamelcamel.com/Creative-Blaster-Titanium-Internal-SB1270/product/B0041OUA38
 

Hey guys, under Envy's advice, I'm here in search of a sound card for my Beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro 250 Ohms. Main uses are for gaming and electronic music, with an occasional movie here or there. Heard these things are hard to drive. Looking for a sound card that can power this headphone to really make it shine and has a line out for virtual surround sound (Dolby Headphones are the recommended way to go I think?). 

 

That or I will just grab a $50 Asus Xonar sound card and a cheap yet good amp capable of powering it. Whichever way is cheaper, please let me know! Thanks so much!

Edited by apav - 2/2/13 at 3:42pm

Creative Labs Sound blaster Z or Zx

Dolby Headphone is Mad's favorite surround processing, but it may not be yours. Aside from taste, DH has limitations compared to the full capabilities of a PC sound system, most notably everything sounds like it's on the same floor as you. All of creative's cards have surround processing (that can be customized much more) that can allow sounds to "come from" the sky above you or downstairs, and other additional effects.

The Creative Soundblaster Z-series have more powerful amps than an Asus Zonar DG, perhaps on or near the power of the FiiO E9 and Asus Xonar Essence STX soundcard. If I were you, I'd compare the mW output of all three of those before making the purchase.

Thanks! I'll look into that. So for driving the headphones, the two routes I am debating going are:

 

1.) A good sound card capable of amplifying these headphones, like the STX or Soundblaster Z.

2.) An entry level sound card (like the Xonar DG) and portable amp (like the FiiO E9, E10, E11). Correct me if those amps aren't powerful enough. 

 

So out of these two methods, which one will end up being cheaper and which one will produce better sound quality? I'm leaning more towards option 1 because I fear there might not be a notable difference in sound quality (besides surround) between a cheap entry level sound card and my P8Z68-V's onboard audio.

 

Sorry for the noobish questions, just stepped into the audio world very recently :) 

 

Edit: It's official. Snatched a DT 990 Pro off ebay with a CAD HA4 amp for $180!!

Edited by apav - 2/2/13 at 7:28pm

I am currently running the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD with the Audio Technica ATH-AD700 cans and AntLion ModMic. The combination has been great, but it turns out I'm a greedy bastard who's completely drunk on power and wants more. Would like to put an amp between them and was thinking the FiiO E09K is the way to go. My thought is I want to pick something that is going to be somewhat future proof in case I decide to step up to something like the AKG K701 can. Would like to hear some feedback from everyone. Is the E09K the right way to go? Is there something else you'd recommend?

 

Also, kind of a separate question, what's the point of the adding the E07K or E17 to the E09K?

 

Thanks!

Edited by roguegeek - 2/4/13 at 5:26pm