[Japesg]

Hello! I play competitive games such as LoL, CSGO, and PUBG.

I have the ad900x and they're great but I wanted to step up my audio game. I purchased the Schiit Fulla 2 for $70 yesterday. What are your thoughts on what I have so far? Should I get a sound blaster z because right now I have the on board card on my asus z97 pro4?

Remember I am strictly gaming so I am looking for accurate directional ques and light bass.

Thank you and glad to be a part of this community!

 

[cossix]

Why buy a sound card if you're going to bypass it and use the Fulla? I think your setup is just fine!

 

[Japesg]

oh ok sorry i had no idea. My thought process was that the DAC/AMP would improve all my sound while the sound blaster z would improve gaming sounds lol

 

[squee116]

With headphones that image well, you won't see much of an improvement from the sound blaster card. For games, imaging is primary.

 

[Japesg]

With headphones that image well, you won't see much of an improvement from the sound blaster card. For games, imaging is primary.

I read that my ad900x image well. Would the fulla 2 even make an improvement on them?

 

[squee116]

If your cans can't be driven by standard motherboard-based DAC/AMP, maybe. Some will claim to hear an obvious difference from PC DAC to Schiit DAC, but I doubt there'd be much audible difference in games. The only Audio Technica's I have, r70x, image decently, but I think my HE400i's and Sennheisers do better.

 

[Tacanacy]

Audio-Technica ATH-AD700x has a very big soundstage and very good imaging, separation and detail retrieval. From what I've read, there's no difference between AD700x and AD900x in games. AD900x is more musical sounding.
AKG Q701 has a huge soundstage and great imaging, separation and detail retrieval. It has recessed bass.
Sennheiser HD700 has a huge soundstage and excellent imaging, separation and detail retrieval. It has a flat bass frequency response. I don't feel less aware of sound cues than when I am with Q701. The sound of footsteps in R6S is, or was several months ago, crazy loud, and you're not dealing with tanks, jets, helicopters and collapsing buildings that can dramatically overpower other sounds. The only online shooter I play now is BF:BC2, have been for six years, and a little of BF4.
I use Schiit Magni 2 Uber and Modi 2 Uber as my amp and DAC.

 

[His Lorship]

Well you are going to get a bunch of random responses with few if any consistencies so here's my two bits:

Your primary concern should be a good set of headphones. Open back is the best way to go for the biggest sound stage. I really like the Sennheiser PC363D and PC37x for gaming (yea they are headsets, not headphones)... I'm more of a gamer than an audio guy, so take it for what it's worth. The PC37x can be had for $120 on Massdrop, and it does everything right for games. Low bass and good directional accuracy. What else do you need? I play CS:GO also. If you can hear the footsteps now, there is no "better" setup that hundreds of people on the internet will agree on. I've used dozens of cheaper headsets over the years and the first time I put the Sennheiser 363D on I was grinning ear to ear even with the crappy USB DAC/Amp it comes with. The headset that mutes itself when you push it up is a really nice bonus for me.

Now as for an amp, I bought my first "real" amp recently and I am loving the heck out of it. Does it make all my headphones and headsets sound better? Absolutely! Does it help me perform better in games? Probably not much.

I've been playing CS:GO for probably 10 years now. I'm not great, the highest I got when I was playing alot was LEM before the nerf. You will notice watching pro players that quite a few pros use the Sennheiser GAME One or GAME Zero. They are probably comparable to the PC37x. The key to being a good player is knowing the maps, angles, timings, where to throw nades, where to spam shots when you hear people, being able to flickshot sniper rifles, etc... Chances are spending thousands of dollars on audio gear won't make a enormous difference. Do you have a really good monitor? Like a 120HZ monitor, maybe with GSync? Alot of pros have gone to 120HZ monitors for good reason. Having a good mouse, monitor, and comfortable chair/desk setup is crucial...

Anyway I bought the ifi iDSD black label and I am enjoying the heck out of it so far. Makes these headsets sound great. It is noticeably better than my onboard sound. I've heard people say that it has a good soundstage, and I tend to agree. I will even go as far to say that having the ifi has given me a small improvement to directional accuracy, probably due to the sound separation. But I won't try to convince you to go spend $400 on one because chances are, it won't make you a better gamer.

All things considered the ATH 900X you have may be fine for gaming... I'm really not familiar with it. I do have a ATH900Z on order though and I'll let you know what I think about that if you are interested. If you are unhappy with it give the Sennheiser PC37x a try. I will recommend that over the $380 I spend for the amp I got. They are low impedence so even if you are using a half decent motherboard they should work find for gaming.

I'll stop writing now, but to summarize - make sure you have a decent open-back headphone, and if you are going to spend a bunch of money on a DAC/AMP and headphones do it because you want better sound, not because you want to be a better gamer. I don't know how good you are at games, but I'm willing to bet if you got a decent $100-$200 headset and spent time watching pro videos, set your mouse accuracy right, and practiced alot, you would get better gains than $1000 in audio gear...

 

[squee116]

Well you are going to get a bunch of random responses with few if any consistencies so here's my two bits:

Your primary concern should be a good set of headphones. Open back is the best way to go for the biggest sound stage. I really like the Sennheiser PC363D and PC37x for gaming (yea they are headsets, not headphones)... I'm more of a gamer than an audio guy, so take it for what it's worth. The PC37x can be had for $120 on Massdrop, and it does everything right for games. Low bass and good directional accuracy. What else do you need? I play CS:GO also. If you can hear the footsteps now, there is no "better" setup that hundreds of people on the internet will agree on. I've used dozens of cheaper headsets over the years and the first time I put the Sennheiser 363D on I was grinning ear to ear even with the crappy USB DAC/Amp it comes with. The headset that mutes itself when you push it up is a really nice bonus for me.

Now as for an amp, I bought my first "real" amp recently and I am loving the heck out of it. Does it make all my headphones and headsets sound better? Absolutely! Does it help me perform better in games? Probably not much.

I've been playing CS:GO for probably 10 years now. I'm not great, the highest I got when I was playing alot was LEM before the nerf. You will notice watching pro players that quite a few pros use the Sennheiser GAME One or GAME Zero. They are probably comparable to the PC37x. The key to being a good player is knowing the maps, angles, timings, where to throw nades, where to spam shots when you hear people, being able to flickshot sniper rifles, etc... Chances are spending thousands of dollars on audio gear won't make a enormous difference. Do you have a really good monitor? Like a 120HZ monitor, maybe with GSync? Alot of pros have gone to 120HZ monitors for good reason. Having a good mouse, monitor, and comfortable chair/desk setup is crucial...

Anyway I bought the ifi iDSD black label and I am enjoying the heck out of it so far. Makes these headsets sound great. It is noticeably better than my onboard sound. I've heard people say that it has a good soundstage, and I tend to agree. I will even go as far to say that having the ifi has given me a small improvement to directional accuracy, probably due to the sound separation. But I won't try to convince you to go spend $400 on one because chances are, it won't make you a better gamer.

All things considered the ATH 900X you have may be fine for gaming... I'm really not familiar with it. I do have a ATH900Z on order though and I'll let you know what I think about that if you are interested. If you are unhappy with it give the Sennheiser PC37x a try. I will recommend that over the $380 I spend for the amp I got. They are low impedence so even if you are using a half decent motherboard they should work find for gaming.

I'll stop writing now, but to summarize - make sure you have a decent open-back headphone, and if you are going to spend a bunch of money on a DAC/AMP and headphones do it because you want better sound, not because you want to be a better gamer. I don't know how good you are at games, but I'm willing to bet if you got a decent $100-$200 headset and spent time watching pro videos, set your mouse accuracy right, and practiced alot, you would get better gains than $1000 in audio gear...

Given that most gaming headsets are designed to be run straight out of PC or MixAmp Pro, I doubt an amp would improve sound quality much with one. I do agree in general that open back is the way to go, but open back does not guarantee accurate or even well-designed soundstages.
Sometimes, like with AKG 7xx/712, you're simply distant from the soundstage, which creates a false impression of depth and size. It's hard to actually determine distance from a sound because all sounds are sufficiently far away. On the other hand, my Ether's sound much closer to a soundstage, but depth is easily determinable. You actually need to go through every headphone for a case-by-case basis, rather than simply providing a blanket statement about soundstage and open-closed dynamics.

I HIGHLY disagree about using what "pros" use as a standard. Most are sponsored, so their equipment generally reflects their sponsors more than their actual preference in products, and you'll see a lot of Kingston's, Razer's, and Senn's as a result. Because audio engineering is mostly garbage for games, you don't really get much benefit from imaging out of headphones that cost more than, say $200. There's a very low threshold for maxing headphone performance for imaging, sound quality aside, and headphones that are actually a decent-to-good value in the $200 range will hit that pretty easily. That's why a lot of people can use the Senn HD558/HD598, and few people see the need to move up to HD700/HD800 level gear.

As long as OP stays away from inefficient headphones, his Fulla should serve him well.

 

[His Lorship]

Given that most gaming headsets are designed to be run straight out of PC or MixAmp Pro, I doubt an amp would improve sound quality much with one. I do agree in general that open back is the way to go, but open back does not guarantee accurate or even well-designed soundstages.
Sometimes, like with AKG 7xx/712, you're simply distant from the soundstage, which creates a false impression of depth and size. It's hard to actually determine distance from a sound because all sounds are sufficiently far away. On the other hand, my Ether's sound much closer to a soundstage, but depth is easily determinable. You actually need to go through every headphone for a case-by-case basis, rather than simply providing a blanket statement about soundstage and open-closed dynamics.

I HIGHLY disagree about using what "pros" use as a standard. Most are sponsored, so their equipment generally reflects their sponsors more than their actual preference in products, and you'll see a lot of Kingston's, Razer's, and Senn's as a result. Because audio engineering is mostly garbage for games, you don't really get much benefit from imaging out of headphones that cost more than, say $200. There's a very low threshold for maxing headphone performance for imaging, sound quality aside, and headphones that are actually a decent-to-good value in the $200 range will hit that pretty easily. That's why a lot of people can use the Senn HD558/HD598, and few people see the need to move up to HD700/HD800 level gear.

As long as OP stays away from inefficient headphones, his Fulla should serve him well.

I think we agree on most points... Main point being is that there will not be any significant improvement over a decent headphones/headset with decent soundstage in the 200$ range. Pros don't need thousands of dollars in headphones and amp gear because quite frankly it won't improve their gameplay. Most of the time they are wearing the Senns I suggested or another sponser's equivalent, as you said... I'm certainly not trying to sell the OP one or the other as I think was pretty clear in my post, but if anyone is asking I would definitely recommend the Senns from personal experience...