[Sean_MR]

Hello,

After wanting to venture into the world of better sound for gaming and doing a little bit of research, I decided to ditch my crappy Turtle Beaches and get myself an AKG K553 to use for my gaming.

However, I honestly don't know too much regarding audio and hardware, so I'd love some advice! I plugged my new headphones' 3.5mm into my PS4 controller, and I do hear sound. But what should I choose for my PS4 "Audio Output Settings?"

For my headphones, is there a difference between HDMI Out and Digital Out (Optical) for the "Primary Output Port?" And are there differences between Linear PCM, Bitstream (Dolby), and Bitstream (DTS) for the "Audio Format (Priority)" setting?

Any help to get me going would be greatly appreciated!

(I know this would be more relevant for the gaming sub, but I'm not allowed to post there...)

 

[MindsMirror]

None of those setting apply to the audio from the controller. They only affect the audio when headphones are not connected. HDMI, and PCM are the correct settings if all you have connected is HDMI and you're using your TV's speakers. If you have a receiver, sound bar, or DAC hooked up then you might need to change them.

 

[Sean_MR]

None of those setting apply to the audio from the controller. They only affect the audio when headphones are not connected. HDMI, and PCM are the correct settings if all you have connected is HDMI and you're using your TV's speakers. If you have a receiver, sound bar, or DAC hooked up then you might need to change them.

So are you saying that Linear PCM and the Bitstream modes should all be the same then if I'm plugged into the controller? I spent some time in private matches alternating between the settings, and the Linear PCM and Bitstream modes DID sound quite different through my headphones. Should that not be happening?

 

[MindsMirror]

Dolby and DTS are encoding formats used to encode 5.1 or 7.1 channel audio and transmit to a receiver over SPDIF or HDMI. Those settings are used to tell the PS4 that your receiver can decode those formats, so if you're playing a movie with Dolby or DTS, it will use them. For games it might send surround audio in those formats also.

The PS4 would not send surround audio to the controller, I expect it sends a stereo mix and that the Dolby or DTS settings would have no affect. However if one setting does sound better to you then go ahead and use it. There may be a chance that the game changes the way it generates audio effects when you tell it to use a surround format, which causes the stereo mix sent to the controller to be different. I'd also give a fair likelihood that any differences you hear are imagined and not due to the setting you changed. It's easy for the mind to trick itself.