[Evshrug]

Change's K612, my Q701 and K712, and now, my first discrete DAC. It has the über upgrade. Only problem (besides popcorn smell) is that I don't have an RCA to RCA cable, or any music on my computer currently.

 

[thecalculator]

Hey guys. So I've had my Titanium HD and k712 Pros for about a week now. I love it very much. (Coming from a onboard mobo soundcard, Turtle Beach's x11's, and DSS). But it feels like something is missing. An amp maybe? If so. which one should I purchase? Should I use my DSS for the meantime?
 
Also I'm confused with the game mode. What's everyones settings like? I'm having a hard time with setting the X-FI software to either 5.1 surround, 2.1 speakers, or just headphones. I've tried to look online but all the threads are like 2-4 years old. They said something about configuring windows to 5.1 surround, and having X-FI to headphones. Don't know if thats true or not. Should I enable X-FI CMSS-3D with these headphones? Or enable the other extra settings?
 
Please help. Thanks.

 

[GoldenboyXD]

This should be the right settings:
 
Windows to 5.1 /7.1 surround and X-Fi to headphones and enable CMSS-3D for the surround effect.
 
From Creative website: http://support.creative.com/kb/ShowArticle.aspx?sid=96663
 
 
I'm also thinking what good headphone AMP should pair up with TiHD? I own a X-Fi Titanium and O2 and thinking of buying an external DAC (optical) or TiHD?

  (I think this question should be posted on The Nameless Guide to PC Gaming Audio)

 

[Sam21]

you don't have to set the windows to multi channel, CMSS-3D/THX Surround work differently compared with the Dolby Headphone. Just turn on the CMSS-3D in the driver software ... 

 

[thecalculator]

  This should be the right settings:
 
Windows to 5.1 /7.1 surround and X-Fi to headphones and enable CMSS-3D for the surround effect.
 
I'm also thinking what good headphone AMP should pair up with TiHD? I own a X-Fi Titanium and O2 and thinking of buying an external DAC (optical) or TiHD?

  (I think this question should be posted on The Nameless Guide to PC Gaming Audio)

Thanks man. I'll post on that thread.

  you don't have to set the windows to multi channel, CMSS-3D/THX Surround work differently compared with the Dolby Headphone. Just turn on the CMSS-3D in the driver software ... 

Thanks for the reply. Awesome!

 

[Stillhart]

Welp, my Modi stopped working so I'm returning it.  (Hope they don't charge me shipping to return their broken product, but I'm not expecting much based on my communications with them so far.)
 
Looking forward to @Evshrug's impressions of the Bifrost since that's next on my list of DAC's to try.

 

[Sam21]

I am going to buy the Bifrost as well...

 

[jaysins]

Anyone here play titanfall on the one? I have the mixamp, k712 pro and an O2 DAC/amp combo and have a very hard time picking up footsteps. Anyone have any experience with this game as I just got the equipment and was wondering if it was more the game.

 

[grumpy1471]

Anyone here play titanfall on the one? I have the mixamp, k712 pro and an O2 DAC/amp combo and have a very hard time picking up footsteps. Anyone have any experience with this game as I just got the equipment and was wondering if it was more the game.

If anything, it's the game. When playing Titanfall on PC, there is so much going on around you that you hardly ever have a chance to listen for footsteps. You can kind of hear footsteps if you are lucky enough to be somewhere in which there aren't explosions nor gunshots but otherwise, they aren't too audible for me. You can hear jetpacks and jumping quite a bit better though. I'd say, enjoy the sound and depend more on the minimap for detecting enemies

 

[Stillhart]

Anyone here play titanfall on the one? I have the mixamp, k712 pro and an O2 DAC/amp combo and have a very hard time picking up footsteps. Anyone have any experience with this game as I just got the equipment and was wondering if it was more the game.

I play it on the Xbone, and the only time I can really hear footsteps is when I'm up an a relatively quiet rooftop.  I've definitely turned and killed folks who were trying to snap my neck... I can just imagine the looks on their faces!  lol
 
And as grumpy said, jet packs are really loud.  There's a "stealth pack" to fix that at higher levels, but I don't know if I've ever seen it used.
 
Oh and the Q701 is GREAT for hearing where gunshots are coming from, which is what I use it for more than footsteps.

 

[jaysins]

Awesome. Thanks for the info guys, much appreciated.

 

[Evshrug]

Welp, my Modi stopped working so I'm returning it.  (Hope they don't charge me shipping to return their broken product, but I'm not expecting much based on my communications with them so far.)

Looking forward to @Evshrug
's impressions of the Bifrost since that's next on my list of DAC's to try.

I really need some tech support... but I THINK it's just settings with my Omni and Windows.

I spent too long putzing about and missed the CoD Ghosts free PC weekend, so no easy comparison to what I've been doing on PS4. I tried adjusting settings in the Omni control panel and playing test tones, but I couldn't hear anything. Windows test tones were good, from 16-bit 44k Hz to 24-bit 96k Hz tones all passed through to the Bifrost (and my E12, since I only had an RCA to 3.5mm monster cable, lol). I had heard though that setup should be plug & play, so uninstalled and re-installed the SBX software from Creative's website, and I tried Tomb Raider. Sound worked, but almost immediately I noticed a fwUIIIIIZZZzz static that rises up and lasts 4-5 seconds, and happens once a minute.

I tried touching the cables to see if it was a grounding issue (no), I switched off SBX effects and it seemed to happen less, but it still happened and basically just as frequent and loud (maybe less harsh?). I loaded up Starcraft II to see if it was just one particular game install, but the same thing happened. When I used the Recon3D USB in the past on Mac or PC, I was able to select stereo or 5.1 or "surround" from the SC settings, but interestingly now it was set for stereo and greyed out, the tooltip said "this setting is locked by windows Control Panel settings."

Now, inbetween this digital static, there was a definite quality increase in "distinctness," but honestly it was hard to stay focused and home into the improvement when I came to expect this noise hassle. Another interesting datapoint: just to try different audio, I opened up a web instance of Pandora radio, some classical music, and it played through the three songs I listened to flawlessly. I mean, they were clearly compressed music files, but it was good. That's why I think it's a settings problem, but since I reinstalled the SBX drivers/suite I'm at a loss for what to do.

 

[Stillhart]

Have you tried the dumb stuff like swapping USB ports, reseating all the cables (including power), etc?  Pandora on the browser works... how about Winamp/foobar/etc?  I can go over some more stuff with you on Steam later.

 

[kman1211]

I really need some tech support... but I THINK it's just settings with my Omni and Windows.

I spent too long putzing about and missed the CoD Ghosts free PC weekend, so no easy comparison to what I've been doing on PS4. I tried adjusting settings in the Omni control panel and playing test tones, but I couldn't hear anything. Windows test tones were good, from 16-bit 44k Hz to 24-bit 96k Hz tones all passed through to the Bifrost (and my E12, since I only had an RCA to 3.5mm monster cable, lol). I had heard though that setup should be plug & play, so uninstalled and re-installed the SBX software from Creative's website, and I tried Tomb Raider. Sound worked, but almost immediately I noticed a fwUIIIIIZZZzz static that rises up and lasts 4-5 seconds, and happens once a minute.

I tried touching the cables to see if it was a grounding issue (no), I switched off SBX effects and it seemed to happen less, but it still happened and basically just as frequent and loud (maybe less harsh?). I loaded up Starcraft II to see if it was just one particular game install, but the same thing happened. When I used the Recon3D USB in the past on Mac or PC, I was able to select stereo or 5.1 or "surround" from the SC settings, but interestingly now it was set for stereo and greyed out, the tooltip said "this setting is locked by windows Control Panel settings."

Now, inbetween this digital static, there was a definite quality increase in "distinctness," but honestly it was hard to stay focused and home into the improvement when I came to expect this noise hassle. Another interesting datapoint: just to try different audio, I opened up a web instance of Pandora radio, some classical music, and it played through the three songs I listened to flawlessly. I mean, they were clearly compressed music files, but it was good. That's why I think it's a settings problem, but since I reinstalled the SBX drivers/suite I'm at a loss for what to do.

I wonder what the problem is. That's a rather odd issue. Is it an Omni only issue so far? I'm not sure if this works on the Omni or not but have you tried uninstalling the drivers and using the drivers that Windows installs automatically instead of the official drivers? What are your impressions of the K612 so far?

 

[Evshrug]

I wonder what the problem is. That's a rather odd issue. Is it an Omni only issue so far? I'm not sure if this works on the Omni or not but have you tried uninstalling the drivers and using the drivers that Windows installs automatically instead of the official drivers? What are your impressions of the K612 so far?

The odd part is Pandora working without changing anything at all (settings, USB cable, USB port, Bifrost power outlet). Using default windows drivers would be pointless, because the whole reason I have the Omni is for surround processing.

I haven't gotten to try out the K612 yet, this DAC issue is bugging me and both my LIVE and PSN subscriptions ran out yesterday. I'm gonna see how the PS4 likes having an iPod (loaded with high bitrate or "lossless" files) plugged in and try playing stereo out to the Bifrost. Then, I'll try the K612 after orienting to the DAC change with my Q701 reference.

One nice thing to say: even though there are static futzzes, even though I can't stay focused on the DAC audio quality, I could still tell that there was a positive difference to audio quality. Not a game-changer like my first upgrade from average ~$50 headphones to my first fully circumaural headphone, nor like having surround sound, so not the greatest value like those were, but there is an improvement and it's obviously not my imagination, so that's good