firefly89
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2007
- Posts
- 67
- Likes
- 11
Ok, so it's been a long time since posting on here (5 years?) and I still have the akg k81dj and the shure e2c's that I had when I last posted here
I still love my k81's, but they're in awful tatty condition now, they're not comfortable, and I think I can do better now..
I'm pretty happy with my current set up for audio, I have decent surround sound for films that's also nice for music, but my primary concern now is headphones- especially headphones for gaming (competitive first person shooters mainly but I also like other games). Main issue with my current headphones is that I'm having trouble identifying directionality of sounds, and I think a headphone with a bigger sound stage would help here. I will listen to music too, but it's not number 1 focus.
I play on ps3, and I dual boot windows on my MacBook pro. (only really use windows for gaming, but also have some games on mac).
question 1)
is the tactical advantage of being able to precisely locate an enemy based on the headphones, the surround sound processing, or a combination of the 2. I've just bought a soundcard that does dolby headphone so i'll try it out.
question 2)
Ideally i'd want something that worked across all 3 platforms (ps3, windows, mac), and costs under £300, i'm thinking that good stereo headphones and an external soundcard is the way to go rather than a 'gaming headset', but what do you think?
Wireless headphones would be fantastic, but it seems prohibitively expensive, so i'd be fine with just well managed cable solutions- my only real need is that there is minimal stuff connected to the laptop, so I don't have to unplug 10 things when I want to go off with my laptop (everything connects through a usb hub under the desk)
PS3 and mac are connected to AV receiver via hdmi, giving me true 6 channel audio in games and films (annoyingly my amp doesn't do pro logic on the HDMI input, so no pseudo-surround for Netflix etc, so I have to connect an optical cable to the mac too and switch outputs in system preferences, I like to listen to music in pro logic too so i'm forever changing between hdmi and optical, and then plugging in headphones when I need to- bit of a pain to be honest, still looking for a solution for this). Maybe a new amp that has a headphone output and can do pro logic processing on the hdmi input?
So what i'm looking for, is great surround sound with headphones, and ideally simultaneously solving my output switching problem.
Ideally it would be USB based, as I like to have minimal connections going to the laptop, but also have a 3.5mm jack so I can use them as normal headphones too
Ideally i'd be hiding the soundcard under the desk attached to a usb hub, then I could have my headphones plugged in and my optical cable, although if it was really high end looking maybe it could sit on the desk- especially If it had a volume control.
I've just bought an asus xonar u3, which works fine on windows but won't work on mac as it won't engage the SPDIF output (still works with analogue/headphones, but I can't get dolby headphone to work either- if it's not possible then i'll forget gaming on the mac entirely.) I'm thinking of trying the xonar u7 as that has a separate spdif and analogue output so probably will work on mac (I think the problem is the driver can't switch the output on mac). Both xonar cards are software solutions though, so obviously don't work with ps3.
When looking for headsets for ps3, and a hardware based surround sound processer I've stumbled across something called the turtle beach DSS, which takes an optical input and applies dolby headphone processing, this being a hardware solution rather than software should mean that it works on mac, pc and ps3- ideal. but it would mean i'd have to switch the optical cable between the av receiver and the dss unit (not ideal). So I thought if I could get SPDIF to work in mac on the xonar u3, then use 2 of them and have one outputting SPDIF to the DSS and headphones, with the other outputting SPDIF to the amp. if I really like the set up i'll probably get another DSS to leave plugged into the ps3 at all times.
In terms of headphone i'm looking at the audio technical ad7000, akg k701, and sennheiser 598- all have been recommended as good gaming headphones
would really love your input- i'm at my wit's end here and i'm not sure where to go next- and I don't want to waste more time and money on this, I just want things to work simply and easily
I still love my k81's, but they're in awful tatty condition now, they're not comfortable, and I think I can do better now..
I'm pretty happy with my current set up for audio, I have decent surround sound for films that's also nice for music, but my primary concern now is headphones- especially headphones for gaming (competitive first person shooters mainly but I also like other games). Main issue with my current headphones is that I'm having trouble identifying directionality of sounds, and I think a headphone with a bigger sound stage would help here. I will listen to music too, but it's not number 1 focus.
I play on ps3, and I dual boot windows on my MacBook pro. (only really use windows for gaming, but also have some games on mac).
question 1)
is the tactical advantage of being able to precisely locate an enemy based on the headphones, the surround sound processing, or a combination of the 2. I've just bought a soundcard that does dolby headphone so i'll try it out.
question 2)
Ideally i'd want something that worked across all 3 platforms (ps3, windows, mac), and costs under £300, i'm thinking that good stereo headphones and an external soundcard is the way to go rather than a 'gaming headset', but what do you think?
Wireless headphones would be fantastic, but it seems prohibitively expensive, so i'd be fine with just well managed cable solutions- my only real need is that there is minimal stuff connected to the laptop, so I don't have to unplug 10 things when I want to go off with my laptop (everything connects through a usb hub under the desk)
PS3 and mac are connected to AV receiver via hdmi, giving me true 6 channel audio in games and films (annoyingly my amp doesn't do pro logic on the HDMI input, so no pseudo-surround for Netflix etc, so I have to connect an optical cable to the mac too and switch outputs in system preferences, I like to listen to music in pro logic too so i'm forever changing between hdmi and optical, and then plugging in headphones when I need to- bit of a pain to be honest, still looking for a solution for this). Maybe a new amp that has a headphone output and can do pro logic processing on the hdmi input?
So what i'm looking for, is great surround sound with headphones, and ideally simultaneously solving my output switching problem.
Ideally it would be USB based, as I like to have minimal connections going to the laptop, but also have a 3.5mm jack so I can use them as normal headphones too
Ideally i'd be hiding the soundcard under the desk attached to a usb hub, then I could have my headphones plugged in and my optical cable, although if it was really high end looking maybe it could sit on the desk- especially If it had a volume control.
I've just bought an asus xonar u3, which works fine on windows but won't work on mac as it won't engage the SPDIF output (still works with analogue/headphones, but I can't get dolby headphone to work either- if it's not possible then i'll forget gaming on the mac entirely.) I'm thinking of trying the xonar u7 as that has a separate spdif and analogue output so probably will work on mac (I think the problem is the driver can't switch the output on mac). Both xonar cards are software solutions though, so obviously don't work with ps3.
When looking for headsets for ps3, and a hardware based surround sound processer I've stumbled across something called the turtle beach DSS, which takes an optical input and applies dolby headphone processing, this being a hardware solution rather than software should mean that it works on mac, pc and ps3- ideal. but it would mean i'd have to switch the optical cable between the av receiver and the dss unit (not ideal). So I thought if I could get SPDIF to work in mac on the xonar u3, then use 2 of them and have one outputting SPDIF to the DSS and headphones, with the other outputting SPDIF to the amp. if I really like the set up i'll probably get another DSS to leave plugged into the ps3 at all times.
In terms of headphone i'm looking at the audio technical ad7000, akg k701, and sennheiser 598- all have been recommended as good gaming headphones
would really love your input- i'm at my wit's end here and i'm not sure where to go next- and I don't want to waste more time and money on this, I just want things to work simply and easily
