[Daedraen]

Hello everyone.
 
What is the best audio settings for competitive gaming? I use ATH-AD700 headphones and ASUS Xonar DG sound card. What should I change in Windows settings and Xonar drivers? I want to play FFA mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops.
 
All the best!

 

[NamelessPFG]

Having no hands-on experience with the Xonar sound cards (or other C-Media chipset cards), I can't go into specifics with the driver control panel and whatnot, but here's the gist of it:
 
-The card should be set to Dolby Headphone mode, while Windows' speaker setting for the card should be set to 5.1 or 7.1 speakers, whatever is the highest that Windows will show.
 
Enabling DH means you set the Xonar to give you headphone surround, but the Windows speaker setting is what games look at to decide how to mix their audio; if it's set to stereo, you get DH attempting to process a two-channel stereo signal, and that just doesn't work.
 
-Older games that utilize DirectSound3D may need GX mode enabled to have their calls wrapped into OpenAL and hardware-accelerated audio to be available in-game. This is important if you want any sort of surround sound in those games. (I don't know the details of how DS3DGX actually functions without hands-on experience, though.)
 
Hope that helps!

 

[Daedraen]

Thanks for your reply!
 
I don't know why, but Dolby Headphone sounds like monophony with echo for me. Speaker setting in Windows is set to 7.1 and doesn't work too.

 

[squallkiercosa]

Real gamers use headsets.

 

[Daedraen]

So I'm fake gamer.

 

[squallkiercosa]

Quote:

So I'm fake gamer.

I am not implying anything, I found out that is not only economically unnecessary but sound quality wasted using Headphones for what they were not intended to use.
 
COD are only sfx. I suggest you to ask directly the question to the Mad lust envy guide.
http://www.head-fi.org/t/534479/mad-lust-envys-headphone-gaming-guide-updated-1-11-13-astro-mixamp-2013-added

 

[NamelessPFG]

Maybe if you spend $200+ on a headphone and use it ONLY for gaming, no music at all, it might be overkill.
 
But keep in mind that this is Head-Fi, and a lot of us who are gamers want something versatile, that handles all kinds of sources well. We want something that does sound noticeably better for music, but that is also no slouch while gaming.
 
Also, he's using an AD700, a sub-$90 headphone. Stick a ModMic on it and he's got all the gaming headset he needs for competitive play.