[kashim]

I'm not really familiar with the control panel setting on the Creative Labs SB-Z (Sound Blaster Z) sound card.
I bought a used SB-Z a few year ago, just to test the sound quality and how well it drives headphones, but only used it for a short time and I'm not into FPS gaming (prefer C&C).
Because the SB-Z's 22-Ohm headphone jack output impedance, it's might cause a slightly bloated bass, with the 32-Ohm AD700X.
I would suggest replacing the SB-Z with a Creative Labs AE-5.

sbz have 600ohm output for headphone,if i buy a dedicated amp/dac can improve my sound quality?

 

[kashim]

In general, 5.1 in windows and sbx surround will be the best setting. People often use 33% sbx surround. You can confirm this easily by doing tests in game and seeing how well you can determine front vs back with eyes closed and no movement. In most games, it will only be able to be done accurately with 5.1 and sbx surround.

ty i ll try

 

[PurpleAngel]

sbz have 600-Ohm output for headphone,if i buy a dedicated amp/dac can improve my sound quality?

SB-Z has a 22-Ohm output impedance, Creative Labs claims the SB-Z can drive headphones up to 600-Ohms.
I would say headphones in the 100-Ohm to 250-Ohm range is best, with the SB-Z's headphone jack.
Lower impedance (<100-Ohm) headphones should work better with an add-on external headphone amplifier, then the SB-Z's headphone jack.
Something like the Xduoo XD-05 or Topping DX3 Pro DAC/amp or Schiit Modi/Magni would be good bang for the buck DAC/amp, to connect to the SB-Z's optical output port. Should improve the detail in the audio, for the 38-Ohm AD700X.

 

[Drog]

In my experience, the Creative SXFI amp and the Sound Blaster X3 external sound card both sound much better than the Xduoo XD-05 (which I tried and returned because I of it). My X3 sounds better than the SXFI amp without SXFI, and it's a great match for my HiFiMan Sundara. I havn't tried the Topping DX3 or the Schiit Modi/Magni so I can't comment on those, but for $120, the X3 is a steal.

 

[kashim]

SB-Z has a 22-Ohm output impedance, Creative Labs claims the SB-Z can drive headphones up to 600-Ohms.
I would say headphones in the 100-Ohm to 250-Ohm range is best, with the SB-Z's headphone jack.
Lower impedance (<100-Ohm) headphones should work better with an add-on external headphone amplifier, then the SB-Z's headphone jack.
Something like the Xduoo XD-05 or Topping DX3 Pro DAC/amp or Schiit Modi/Magni would be good bang for the buck DAC/amp, to connect to the SB-Z's optical output port. Should improve the detail in the audio, for the 38-Ohm AD700X.

i leave in italy,can u reccomend me the best amp for gaming?Fiio E10K is a dac+amp?

 

[PurpleAngel]

I leave in italy, can u recommend me the best amp for gaming?Fiio E10K is a dac+amp?

Italy, guess we both eat a lot of pasta and hard Salami (I'm 1/4 Italian).
FiiO E10K offers zero headphone surround sound features, you might try an find a good deal on a used Creative Labs AE-5 sound card.

 

[Drog]

i leave in italy,can u reccomend me the best amp for gaming?Fiio E10K is a dac+amp?

I'll try out the X3 with gaming this weekend. It may be exactly what you are looking for. It has so many surround options and was designed with headphones in mind so I do think it's a solid choice. The X3 even has a profile for the ad700 (which I believe is basically the same as the 700x in sound quality), and profiles affect sound characteristics outside of SXFI on the X3. Having said that, is your firmware and drivers for your current card up to date?

 

[kashim]

Italy, guess we both eat a lot of pasta and hard Salami (I'm 1/4 Italian).
FiiO E10K offers zero headphone surround sound features, you might try an find a good deal on a used Creative Labs AE-5 sound card.

then is need to replace my soundblaster z with an external dac amp like ae-5 or x3?i can t pair my sbz with a dac only for amplify?which is better solution?

I'll try out the X3 with gaming this weekend. It may be exactly what you are looking for. It has so many surround options and was designed with headphones in mind so I do think it's a solid choice. The X3 even has a profile for the ad700 (which I believe is basically the same as the 700x in sound quality), and profiles affect sound characteristics outside of SXFI on the X3. Having said that, is your firmware and drivers for your current card up to date?

ok i ll wait your impression about that,if possible

 

[halcyon]

Use windows sonic surround virtualization
Modulates the two stereo channels to sound good in your headphones. IF your game already has headphone optimized stereo sound, turn off System spatial sound, unless the game has multi-channel surround sound and you can use the Windows Sonic software to convert that to two channel headphone optimized sound. Every game will be different.

I recommend Mayflower Arc V2 or Schitt Hel/Fulla for your amplification and mic in

Honestly you should be fine off your motherboard though for the AD700x. Don't need much to drive them.

Just apply Windows Sonic or one of the other sound virtualization things you can buy.

No, no, no, no.

This is bad for competitive gaming.

For competitive gaming you need:

1. A game that produces readily HRTF 3D virtualized stereo sound output to your stereo headphones (and No Pseudo-virtualization like Windows Sonic, Dolby Atmos or anything else in between, they will only distort/mask the positional accuracy). Example: Overwatch with Dolby Atmos built-in

OR

2. A game that gives out multichannel (5.1/7.1/more in the future) discrete sound streams to the Windows Systems Audio Device (that can be a real multi-channel sound card OR a virtual multi-channel device, in either case, it takes in the discrete multi-channel information, which enables...)

3. A proper virtualization algorithm that takes in the multi-channel sound input and virtualizes it using any of the known methods into generic OR personalized stereo 3D HRTF -enabled virtualized soundspace. Examples of these are: Creative CMSS-3D (old), Creative SBX (latest non-personalized in Creative soundcards and motherboard drivers), Creative SXFI (latest personalizable, available in SXFI amp and X3 USB sound card), Dolby Atmos (virtual driver in Windows), Windows Sonic (from Microsoft, virtual driver in Windows), Wavex NX (for example Audeze uses this in Mobius) or the multitude of other better/worse algorithms in zillion of other brands. Or you can forego all that and download HeSuVi as a system audio device and try different reverse-engineered generic algorithms through it, without changing your physical sound card device and/or virtual audio drivers. BTW, HeSuVi is free, but takes a bit time to first learn.

4. Ability to TUNE THAT algorithm (usually at least amount of echo/reverb, in case of Creative SXFI, tune it roughly to the shape of your ear pinnae) to your heaphones, your ears and your tastes.

5. Low latency. Many people just don't get this. Sound is often the pre-cue for visual seeking. That is, you first hear a sound coming from direction X and then you orient yourself visually to that direction. The faster you hear this cue (less latency), the faster you can turn around and visually see where the sound is coming from. The difference between best and worst audio latency in virtualized 3D audio gaming devices is 100+ milliseconds. That is insane! People are bickering about total display delay of monitors of <10ms and they completely ignore audio delay that can be 10 times as large as that. This should be something that anybody who competitively games, must take into account, if you want to have the best time to react and be at the top of your game.

6. Lots of practice, practice, practice with that particular setup outlined above, in your system, with your headphones, so that you learn the benefits/failings of the algorithm you use to virtualize the sound to headphones, and learn to properly recognize the direction (and distance) of the sounds you hear through it.

What is the best?

There is much debate about this and NOBODY has tested ALL of them, and nobody can say that what works for their ears/hearing/headpones the best, is the best FOR YOU.

With that said, here is my personal short-list to try:

BASELINE: PCI-E based Soundcard from say Creative, using SBX Pro. You can tune the amount of SBX effect to your liking and play with the front/back speak placement (i.e. strength of multichannel signal) volumes. This is fairly low latency and fairly good positional accuracy and you can tune it a bit.

LOW LATENCY: A fast USB-based (not 3.5mm audio plug based) Headphone with a built-in 7.1 headphone virtualization. Example: ROG Strix Fusion 500 (don't buy the wireless 700 version, you just get extra audio delay). Benefits: what you lose in customizability, and what you lose in accuracy of pinpointing the direction of 3D sounds, you gain in extra -18ms of latency reduced from your sound stream. The sounds in game reach your ears roughly a frame faster than with other players (60Hz update speed). This offers the lowest latency, not the best positional 3D algo, and very little tuning.

PERSONALIZED: Creative SoundBlaster X3 : a personalizable HRTF 3D audio algo tuned to the images of your ears. Many say the best in terms of audio positioning. Can be headphone specific (i..e. your personal HRTF 3D algo might work well with headphone model X, but not so good with headphone model Y). What you lose is speed. You get an additional +55ms of latency (that's 3.5 frames at 60hz) on top of the PCI-E based card, even more for the fast USB-based headphones. This is the best for 3D sound directional accuracy, the worst for latency and tuning options are very limited.

TINKER/LOW LATENCY/MANY OPTIONS): HeSuVi free software the emulates (even if it cannot fully replicated) the 3D virtualization algorithms of Dolby Atmos, CMSS-3D, Dolby Headphone, Sennheiser GSX, Razer Surround, Waves NX, etc, etc etc. It is the ALGO part of your headphone stack and it is very low latency (extra delay perhaps + 1-2 ms). What you need on top of this is a fast "straight wire" stereo-sound card, with low-latency, no virtualization, no 3D algorithms, no gimmicks, just fast output and enough to drive your headphones.
Use a good USB DAC/headphone amp for this in your own own budget range OR alternatively just use your motherboards built-in audio (if it's enough to drive your headphones loud/distortion-free enough) with NO additional fancy drivers in-between there. HeSuVi with Equalizer APO takes a bit of tinkering to get started, but there are youtube tutorials for that. The best feature? 100% free. Also, you get to try almost ALL of the major 3D virtualization algorithms (for free) and find out which one works the best FOR YOU (you know, it does change from person to person). The only thing you don't get to do is, to try out your own personalized HRTF algorithm (unless you have an artificial 3D recording head, anechoic chamber, ear canal microphones and a 7.1 surround speaker setup, with which of course you could also tune your own 3D HRTF personalize algorithm into HeSuVi).

With that said, start with HeSuVi, if you have time and patience. If you just want something fast, get proper 7.1 USB-headphones. If you want the best in personalized 3D audio accuracy try out the Creative X3 (and understand you will get extra latency in the audio).

 

[AeroStriker]

No, no, no, no.

This is bad for competitive gaming.

For competitive gaming you need:

1. A game that produces readily HRTF 3D virtualized stereo sound output to your stereo headphones (and No Pseudo-virtualization like Windows Sonic, Dolby Atmos or anything else in between, they will only distort/mask the positional accuracy). Example: Overwatch with Dolby Atmos built-in

OR

2. A game that gives out multichannel (5.1/7.1/more in the future) discrete sound streams to the Windows Systems Audio Device (that can be a real multi-channel sound card OR a virtual multi-channel device, in either case, it takes in the discrete multi-channel information, which enables...)

3. A proper virtualization algorithm that takes in the multi-channel sound input and virtualizes it using any of the known methods into generic OR personalized stereo 3D HRTF -enabled virtualized soundspace. Examples of these are: Creative CMSS-3D (old), Creative SBX (latest non-personalized in Creative soundcards and motherboard drivers), Creative SXFI (latest personalizable, available in SXFI amp and X3 USB sound card), Dolby Atmos (virtual driver in Windows), Windows Sonic (from Microsoft, virtual driver in Windows), Wavex NX (for example Audeze uses this in Mobius) or the multitude of other better/worse algorithms in zillion of other brands. Or you can forego all that and download HeSuVi as a system audio device and try different reverse-engineered generic algorithms through it, without changing your physical sound card device and/or virtual audio drivers. BTW, HeSuVi is free, but takes a bit time to first learn.

4. Ability to TUNE THAT algorithm (usually at least amount of echo/reverb, in case of Creative SXFI, tune it roughly to the shape of your ear pinnae) to your heaphones, your ears and your tastes.

5. Low latency. Many people just don't get this. Sound is often the pre-cue for visual seeking. That is, you first hear a sound coming from direction X and then you orient yourself visually to that direction. The faster you hear this cue (less latency), the faster you can turn around and visually see where the sound is coming from. The difference between best and worst audio latency in virtualized 3D audio gaming devices is 100+ milliseconds. That is insane! People are bickering about total display delay of monitors of <10ms and they completely ignore audio delay that can be 10 times as large as that. This should be something that anybody who competitively games, must take into account, if you want to have the best time to react and be at the top of your game.

6. Lots of practice, practice, practice with that particular setup outlined above, in your system, with your headphones, so that you learn the benefits/failings of the algorithm you use to virtualize the sound to headphones, and learn to properly recognize the direction (and distance) of the sounds you hear through it.

What is the best?

There is much debate about this and NOBODY has tested ALL of them, and nobody can say that what works for their ears/hearing/headpones the best, is the best FOR YOU.

With that said, here is my personal short-list to try:

BASELINE: PCI-E based Soundcard from say Creative, using SBX Pro. You can tune the amount of SBX effect to your liking and play with the front/back speak placement (i.e. strength of multichannel signal) volumes. This is fairly low latency and fairly good positional accuracy and you can tune it a bit.

LOW LATENCY: A fast USB-based (not 3.5mm audio plug based) Headphone with a built-in 7.1 headphone virtualization. Example: ROG Strix Fusion 500 (don't buy the wireless 700 version, you just get extra audio delay). Benefits: what you lose in customizability, and what you lose in accuracy of pinpointing the direction of 3D sounds, you gain in extra -18ms of latency reduced from your sound stream. The sounds in game reach your ears roughly a frame faster than with other players (60Hz update speed). This offers the lowest latency, not the best positional 3D algo, and very little tuning.

PERSONALIZED: Creative SoundBlaster X3 : a personalizable HRTF 3D audio algo tuned to the images of your ears. Many say the best in terms of audio positioning. Can be headphone specific (i..e. your personal HRTF 3D algo might work well with headphone model X, but not so good with headphone model Y). What you lose is speed. You get an additional +55ms of latency (that's 3.5 frames at 60hz) on top of the PCI-E based card, even more for the fast USB-based headphones. This is the best for 3D sound directional accuracy, the worst for latency and tuning options are very limited.

TINKER/LOW LATENCY/MANY OPTIONS): HeSuVi free software the emulates (even if it cannot fully replicated) the 3D virtualization algorithms of Dolby Atmos, CMSS-3D, Dolby Headphone, Sennheiser GSX, Razer Surround, Waves NX, etc, etc etc. It is the ALGO part of your headphone stack and it is very low latency (extra delay perhaps + 1-2 ms). What you need on top of this is a fast "straight wire" stereo-sound card, with low-latency, no virtualization, no 3D algorithms, no gimmicks, just fast output and enough to drive your headphones.
Use a good USB DAC/headphone amp for this in your own own budget range OR alternatively just use your motherboards built-in audio (if it's enough to drive your headphones loud/distortion-free enough) with NO additional fancy drivers in-between there. HeSuVi with Equalizer APO takes a bit of tinkering to get started, but there are youtube tutorials for that. The best feature? 100% free. Also, you get to try almost ALL of the major 3D virtualization algorithms (for free) and find out which one works the best FOR YOU (you know, it does change from person to person). The only thing you don't get to do is, to try out your own personalized HRTF algorithm (unless you have an artificial 3D recording head, anechoic chamber, ear canal microphones and a 7.1 surround speaker setup, with which of course you could also tune your own 3D HRTF personalize algorithm into HeSuVi).

With that said, start with HeSuVi, if you have time and patience. If you just want something fast, get proper 7.1 USB-headphones. If you want the best in personalized 3D audio accuracy try out the Creative X3 (and understand you will get extra latency in the audio).

Hello Halcyon,

Thank you for your time explaining all this.

I recently bought a Creative Soundblaster X7 with the Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro.
Im not really sure what to set my settings to. There is so much mixed information out there on forums and such. Iam new to the whole audio scene but i would love to know more about it.
Esspecially compared to gaming. I play Escape from Tarkov and Siege alot where sound is crucial to get the drop on your enemies.

Within the Windows sound settings i can put the Soundblaster X7 speaker (where my DT990 Pro is plugged in) to Stereo or 5.1.
Some people say use 5.1 and other say use Stereo. There is also mixed information out there on about using Creative SBX or not using it.

I tried both options but iam not really sure what sounds better. What i do notice is that when i watch streams on Twitch for example in Stereo mode the sound of the game the streamer is played is a bit more muffled compared to when i put it in 5.1 settings within Windows.

I hope you can help me out. Any help or tips are much appreciated.

Thank you in advance

 

[halcyon]

Hello Halcyon,

Thank you for your time explaining all this.

Within the Windows sound settings i can put the Soundblaster X7 speaker (where my DT990 Pro is plugged in) to Stereo or 5.1.
Some people say use 5.1 and other say use Stereo. There is also mixed information out there on about using Creative SBX or not using it.

I tried both options but iam not really sure what sounds better. What i do notice is that when i watch streams on Twitch for example in Stereo mode the sound of the game the streamer is played is a bit more muffled compared to when i put it in 5.1 settings within Windows.

1. In Windows you NEED To put the Sound Control panel settings Speaker Setup for Creative Sound Blaster X7 to 5.1 Surround:

(my image states 7.1 as it is a different sound card, never mind that, your settings should show 5.1)

This enables the Windows Audio sub-system to send discrete 5.1 sounds to the sound card (X7), which is a pre-requisite for the Sound card to be able to to downmix those multichannel audio signals (5.1) down to Stereo Virtualized 3D signal for your headphones.

IF you do NOT do this, you will only get plain old stereo signal (no 3D Virtualization) with your X7, regardless of what you do after this.

2. Your Creatieve Sound Blaster X7 Control panel setting for Speakers/Headphones should be set to Headphones:

(sorry I couldn't find a better image off internet, but here in the right part where the speakers/listener are show, you should see 5.1 speakers depicted, if your Windows Sound Control panel in step 1. is set correctly)

3. In the Sound Blaster X7 Control Panel SBX Pro Studio settings, your "Surround" setting should be turned ON:

(You can adjust the slider for Surround to less/more, depending on how you feel the SBX Pro 3D virtualization feels to your ears. Just leave it at default for now, and play with it later. Most people like it quite well at default settings. If you feel like there is too much echo/reverb, try turning the slider down a bit and listening again. Never mind with Crystalizer and Bass for now, you can try them later. Leave them OFF for now).

4. In Any application / Game, you need to set up the Game's Audio settings Output as "home theater" or "5.1 speakers" or whatever else EXCEPT "headphones" or "stereo". If you Set the Game's output to Stereo or Headphones, then the audio gets mixed down to a stereo signal by the game, and the Windows audio sub-system and the Creative X7 never receive the multichannel 5.1 sound signal, in order to properly create a Virtualized 3D stereo signal. Here's an example shot from COD:MW Audio settings:

5. Further, to make sure you are not using Windows Spatial Sound services to down-mix the multichannel 5.1 signal, you need to turn OFF all Windows Spatial Sound mixer in the Windows Sound Control Panel, settings for X7 / Properties / Spatial Sound:

So, to summarize:
- Windows Sound Control Panel for X7 sound card: 5.1 speaker setup
- Creative X7 Control panel Speaker Setup : headphones & SBX Pro : Surround ON
- Game specific Audio settings: 5.1 home theater speakers (or similar, NOT headphones).
- Any Windows Specific Spatial Sound mixer (like Dolby Atmos, Windows Sonic or DTS) = OFF

Some games have their own, built-in multichannel to Stereo 3D virtualization algos (i.e. the game Overwatch has Dolby Atmos built-in). If you turn this ON inside the game (just to compare to SBX Pro in X7), you then need to turn OFF (for the time of comparison) the SBX Pro Surround Setting in the Creative X7 Control Panel. When you use these settings (Overwatch audio settings=Dolby Atmos, X7 SBX Pro=OFF) you are then listening to a 3D virtualization from within the game, and bypasssing that of X7. You can then compare, which you like better (for that specific games). All algorithms (SBX Pro, Dolby Atmos, Windows Sonic, DTS Headphone X, Sennheiser GSX, etc) have their pros/cons.

Hope that helps.

 

[kashim]

No, no, no, no.

This is bad for competitive gaming.

For competitive gaming you need:

1. A game that produces readily HRTF 3D virtualized stereo sound output to your stereo headphones (and No Pseudo-virtualization like Windows Sonic, Dolby Atmos or anything else in between, they will only distort/mask the positional accuracy). Example: Overwatch with Dolby Atmos built-in

OR

2. A game that gives out multichannel (5.1/7.1/more in the future) discrete sound streams to the Windows Systems Audio Device (that can be a real multi-channel sound card OR a virtual multi-channel device, in either case, it takes in the discrete multi-channel information, which enables...)

3. A proper virtualization algorithm that takes in the multi-channel sound input and virtualizes it using any of the known methods into generic OR personalized stereo 3D HRTF -enabled virtualized soundspace. Examples of these are: Creative CMSS-3D (old), Creative SBX (latest non-personalized in Creative soundcards and motherboard drivers), Creative SXFI (latest personalizable, available in SXFI amp and X3 USB sound card), Dolby Atmos (virtual driver in Windows), Windows Sonic (from Microsoft, virtual driver in Windows), Wavex NX (for example Audeze uses this in Mobius) or the multitude of other better/worse algorithms in zillion of other brands. Or you can forego all that and download HeSuVi as a system audio device and try different reverse-engineered generic algorithms through it, without changing your physical sound card device and/or virtual audio drivers. BTW, HeSuVi is free, but takes a bit time to first learn.

4. Ability to TUNE THAT algorithm (usually at least amount of echo/reverb, in case of Creative SXFI, tune it roughly to the shape of your ear pinnae) to your heaphones, your ears and your tastes.

5. Low latency. Many people just don't get this. Sound is often the pre-cue for visual seeking. That is, you first hear a sound coming from direction X and then you orient yourself visually to that direction. The faster you hear this cue (less latency), the faster you can turn around and visually see where the sound is coming from. The difference between best and worst audio latency in virtualized 3D audio gaming devices is 100+ milliseconds. That is insane! People are bickering about total display delay of monitors of <10ms and they completely ignore audio delay that can be 10 times as large as that. This should be something that anybody who competitively games, must take into account, if you want to have the best time to react and be at the top of your game.

6. Lots of practice, practice, practice with that particular setup outlined above, in your system, with your headphones, so that you learn the benefits/failings of the algorithm you use to virtualize the sound to headphones, and learn to properly recognize the direction (and distance) of the sounds you hear through it.

What is the best?

There is much debate about this and NOBODY has tested ALL of them, and nobody can say that what works for their ears/hearing/headpones the best, is the best FOR YOU.

With that said, here is my personal short-list to try:

BASELINE: PCI-E based Soundcard from say Creative, using SBX Pro. You can tune the amount of SBX effect to your liking and play with the front/back speak placement (i.e. strength of multichannel signal) volumes. This is fairly low latency and fairly good positional accuracy and you can tune it a bit.

LOW LATENCY: A fast USB-based (not 3.5mm audio plug based) Headphone with a built-in 7.1 headphone virtualization. Example: ROG Strix Fusion 500 (don't buy the wireless 700 version, you just get extra audio delay). Benefits: what you lose in customizability, and what you lose in accuracy of pinpointing the direction of 3D sounds, you gain in extra -18ms of latency reduced from your sound stream. The sounds in game reach your ears roughly a frame faster than with other players (60Hz update speed). This offers the lowest latency, not the best positional 3D algo, and very little tuning.

PERSONALIZED: Creative SoundBlaster X3 : a personalizable HRTF 3D audio algo tuned to the images of your ears. Many say the best in terms of audio positioning. Can be headphone specific (i..e. your personal HRTF 3D algo might work well with headphone model X, but not so good with headphone model Y). What you lose is speed. You get an additional +55ms of latency (that's 3.5 frames at 60hz) on top of the PCI-E based card, even more for the fast USB-based headphones. This is the best for 3D sound directional accuracy, the worst for latency and tuning options are very limited.

TINKER/LOW LATENCY/MANY OPTIONS): HeSuVi free software the emulates (even if it cannot fully replicated) the 3D virtualization algorithms of Dolby Atmos, CMSS-3D, Dolby Headphone, Sennheiser GSX, Razer Surround, Waves NX, etc, etc etc. It is the ALGO part of your headphone stack and it is very low latency (extra delay perhaps + 1-2 ms). What you need on top of this is a fast "straight wire" stereo-sound card, with low-latency, no virtualization, no 3D algorithms, no gimmicks, just fast output and enough to drive your headphones.
Use a good USB DAC/headphone amp for this in your own own budget range OR alternatively just use your motherboards built-in audio (if it's enough to drive your headphones loud/distortion-free enough) with NO additional fancy drivers in-between there. HeSuVi with Equalizer APO takes a bit of tinkering to get started, but there are youtube tutorials for that. The best feature? 100% free. Also, you get to try almost ALL of the major 3D virtualization algorithms (for free) and find out which one works the best FOR YOU (you know, it does change from person to person). The only thing you don't get to do is, to try out your own personalized HRTF algorithm (unless you have an artificial 3D recording head, anechoic chamber, ear canal microphones and a 7.1 surround speaker setup, with which of course you could also tune your own 3D HRTF personalize algorithm into HeSuVi).

With that said, start with HeSuVi, if you have time and patience. If you just want something fast, get proper 7.1 USB-headphones. If you want the best in personalized 3D audio accuracy try out the Creative X3 (and understand you will get extra latency in the audio).

ty for the reply and sorry if i answer only now,then for you the best bet is hesuvi + usb dac/amp?i m actually plaing with
ad700x + sbz (as amp) + vb cable mod(hesuvi mod) for 7.1,is it good?
which is the better hrir for positional accuracy for you?

 

[Avean]

I wish Dolby and Microsoft were a bit more open what the technologies does. Supposedly if supported the games should give you height cues as well like Overwatch. But i feel like Cyberpunk 2077 which is also supported only gives stereo. Sounds to the left is stricly played in my left ear cup but it says Dolby Atmos for Headphones is in use. Really cant trust that technology i feel.

 

[kashim]

I wish Dolby and Microsoft were a bit more open what the technologies does. Supposedly if supported the games should give you height cues as well like Overwatch. But i feel like Cyberpunk 2077 which is also supported only gives stereo. Sounds to the left is stricly played in my left ear cup but it says Dolby Atmos for Headphones is in use. Really cant trust that technology i feel.

REALLY BAD :/

 

[jmans1981]

HRTF is CS:GO images verticality. It works with the Ananda quite well, but for most FPS games, your ideal sound DSP is simulated 5.1, not 7.1 as the side channels mess up the positioning and hurt sound field cues more than they help. They're great at filling gaps for movie watching, but hurt binaural headphone simulation for games. The best possible DSP is Sennheiser GSX surround sound, but the amp is weak.