[GVictim]

Hi all, was about to fork out for the A40TR with MixAmp ProTR as my standard xbox headset broke and I was looking for a replacement to give me a competitive edge whilst gaming. Note that I am an Xbox One gamer & that the only 'competitive' games I currently play are Battlefront & BO3(purely zombies) but will definitely be playing Gears of War 4 in the future, perhaps BF1 too. Luckily I came across this thread which I have been studying this for a number of days now, looking for the ideal headset to suit my needs, the AD700/AD700X, PC360, HD598 and KG701 all sounded perfect for my me, although I was quite put off by the supposed inability to hear teammates without an external amp on the KG701, so after some thought I decided the AD700 was probably my best choice regarding budget (around $325- $400). I did some further research on what to pair them up with in order to utilise its virtual surround sound capabilities and found a thread on reddit where a guy swears by a DSS + XBONE Stereo headset adapter+ y splitter cable + attachable boom mic, would this be a good combination for my needs? Would i also be able to sufficiently hear friends/teammates over the game audio? Any feedback would be much appreciated.

I've also read surprisingly good things about the superlux evo 681 and was wondering if any of you could comment on that?

 

[Clean6eR]

Hi all, was about to fork out for the A40TR with MixAmp ProTR as my standard xbox headset broke and I was looking for a replacement to give me a competitive edge whilst gaming. Note that I am an Xbox One gamer & that the only 'competitive' games I currently play are Battlefront & BO3(purely zombies) but will definitely be playing Gears of War 4 in the future, perhaps BF1 too. Luckily I came across this thread which I have been studying this for a number of days now, looking for the ideal headset to suit my needs, the AD700/AD700X, PC360, HD598 and KG701 all sounded perfect for my me, although I was quite put off by the supposed inability to hear teammates without an external amp on the KG701, so after some thought I decided the AD700 was probably my best choice regarding budget (around $325- $400). I did some further research on what to pair them up with in order to utilise its virtual surround sound capabilities and found a thread on reddit where a guy swears by a DSS + XBONE Stereo headset adapter+ y splitter cable + attachable boom mic, would this be a good combination for my needs? Would i also be able to sufficiently hear friends/teammates over the game audio? Any feedback would be much appreciated.

I've also read surprisingly good things about the superlux evo 681 and was wondering if any of you could comment on that?

the ad700 (i have ath-adg1) have insane levels of detail and sound very open, detail is very present and airy. they are GREAT for competitive gaming. when it comes to watch tv programs with them their VERY present treble can come off as sibilant but in games that allows factors like rain drops to really shine.
 
other wide sounding headsets are the hd800 (stupid price) t70,dt770,COP(all impressive detail and stage for closed headsets) d7100(maybe too fun in the bass but surprisingly wide for closed cans) k701( i would say as wide as ad700 but something kinda more eerie about these, more holographic sounding, i fell in love with them, gaming wise though the ad700 could be said to pinpoint locations better but the k701 seems slightly bigger, maybe not, its VERY tough to call between these two but i would say they sound quite different in how they paint the sound stage but both are painting on the same size canvas!)
 
you mention the superlux, i only have the 668. the drivers i think were used in the qpad qh 85/95(have them too) and the kingston hyperx clouds (have these too!) for the money the superlux or others i listed sound fantastic, they are also damn detailed, they have much more of a smack on the bass, they don't sound natural, they sound fun! they are sadly not as wide or open sounding as the ad700,k701 or even the beyers i mentioned. but man they are good.
 
kingston brought out a new headset called the revolvers, they sound just like the clouds with all that fun factor and ridiculous detail for the money but they angled the drivers, this has helped them get a little more width to the sound, they are an improvement and the mic is also better. i don't think they are the same drivers as the others but very similar. The down point to them is the headband and brittle plastic combine to make a twangy headphone, I dont mean they sound twangy when using them but if you touch them when on your ears they then twang! (the headband wobbles like crazy!)
 
 
from the superlux or ad700:
 
for competitive gaming id go ad700 first
 
if i only had that one headset id find they grate too much on tv shows so id go cloud revolvers next

 

[Clean6eR]

 
I owned the Tritton Katana and sent it back, the sound cuts outs for a split second frequently,not sure if it was due to interference, the sound quality is not to bad and a good idea but the soundstage is narrow, you could get them from amazon and test them out and send back if not to your taste  

i have them too, i find they sound AWFUL, they make a lot of noise and the mic is too far from my mouth and it fails to pick my voice up well, the non compressed idea is a joke, it only accepts 48K. its just that it takes lpcm and not dolby, that is an improvement but i was hoping for like the full fat 192. I can’t be bothered to hook them up again but i think they also only accepted 5.1 not 7.1 (really unsure of this) regardless the very poor drivers and noisy rf of these headphones TOTALLY negate the benefit of lpcm from hdmi as i can't hear any improvement or any details due to the issues mentioned.
 
i was VERY disappointed with these, the feature list is killer but the product is just VERY low quality, if only they made a wired model that we could put other cans on. (the tritton 720+ amp is actually really quite good driver, the cmedia chip for chat I found very clean and clear)

 

[Yethal]

Hi all, was about to fork out for the A40TR with MixAmp ProTR as my standard xbox headset broke and I was looking for a replacement to give me a competitive edge whilst gaming. Note that I am an Xbox One gamer & that the only 'competitive' games I currently play are Battlefront & BO3(purely zombies) but will definitely be playing Gears of War 4 in the future, perhaps BF1 too. Luckily I came across this thread which I have been studying this for a number of days now, looking for the ideal headset to suit my needs, the AD700/AD700X, PC360, HD598 and KG701 all sounded perfect for my me, although I was quite put off by the supposed inability to hear teammates without an external amp on the KG701, so after some thought I decided the AD700 was probably my best choice regarding budget (around $325- $400). I did some further research on what to pair them up with in order to utilise its virtual surround sound capabilities and found a thread on reddit where a guy swears by a DSS + XBONE Stereo headset adapter+ y splitter cable + attachable boom mic, would this be a good combination for my needs? Would i also be able to sufficiently hear friends/teammates over the game audio? Any feedback would be much appreciated.

I've also read surprisingly good things about the superlux evo 681 and was wondering if any of you could comment on that?

One thing You really need to ask yourself before purchasing a virtual surround device is: "How much do I value convenience?". Xbox One is pretty terrible as far as chat connections goes. The only device that offers convenient chat connectivity is the Mixamp TR which uses USB for chat audio and not the 3.5mm jack on the controller. All other devices need to be connected to the 3.5mm jack which creates a bit of a cable mess. Therefore, if You value convenience go for the TR. Otherwise, go for the DSS
 
As for the headphones, all the models You've mentioned will be fine. Keep in mind though:
 

1. AD700 has a hardwired cable and will require modification if You want to use a microphone such as the BoomPro or Custom Headset Gear
2. PC360 comes with a microphone permanently attached which is mildly annoying when the microphone is not in use
3. HD598 and K701 require an adapter to connect to a BoomPro or CHG bu it's doable

 
Again, the question here is how much You value convenience. Because trust me, having one cable going from Your body to the Mixamp is much better than having 3 (headphones, microphone and chat).

 

[sharpz44]

Hi all, was about to fork out for the A40TR with MixAmp ProTR as my standard xbox headset broke and I was looking for a replacement to give me a competitive edge whilst gaming. Note that I am an Xbox One gamer & that the only 'competitive' games I currently play are Battlefront & BO3(purely zombies) but will definitely be playing Gears of War 4 in the future, perhaps BF1 too. Luckily I came across this thread which I have been studying this for a number of days now, looking for the ideal headset to suit my needs, the AD700/AD700X, PC360, HD598 and KG701 all sounded perfect for my me, although I was quite put off by the supposed inability to hear teammates without an external amp on the KG701, so after some thought I decided the AD700 was probably my best choice regarding budget (around $325- $400). I did some further research on what to pair them up with in order to utilise its virtual surround sound capabilities and found a thread on reddit where a guy swears by a DSS + XBONE Stereo headset adapter+ y splitter cable + attachable boom mic, would this be a good combination for my needs? Would i also be able to sufficiently hear friends/teammates over the game audio? Any feedback would be much appreciated.

I've also read surprisingly good things about the superlux evo 681 and was wondering if any of you could comment on that?

I  currently use the AD700 when playing comp and have paired it with a Astro 2015 Mix amp, I found that the sound was better than using a DSS or the DSS2, I also use the Game zero for non comp playing and they sound great but not as much detail as the AD700, I owned the Astro A40TR but the sound was terrible (ps4) think the xbox one version may be different, so you could consider just the mix amp with the AD700 with a mic which is easy to attach to them. good luck

 

[Yethal]

  i have them too, i find they sound AWFUL, they make a lot of noise and the mic is too far from my mouth and it fails to pick my voice up well, the non compressed idea is a joke, it only accepts 48K. its just that it takes lpcm and not dolby, that is an improvement but i was hoping for like the full fat 192. I can’t be bothered to hook them up again but i think they also only accepted 5.1 not 7.1 (really unsure of this) regardless the very poor drivers and noisy rf of these headphones TOTALLY negate the benefit of lpcm from hdmi as i can't hear any improvement or any details due to the issues mentioned.
 
i was VERY disappointed with these, the feature list is killer but the product is just VERY low quality, if only they made a wired model that we could put other cans on. (the tritton 720+ amp is actually really quite good driver, the cmedia chip for chat I found very clean and clear)

Why would You expect a gaming headset to support 192k? It was made to play low-quality video game samples and not the Best of HDTracks collection.

 

[Clean6eR]

  Why would You expect a gaming headset to support 192k? It was made to play low-quality video game samples and not the Best of HDTracks collection.

yea i know, i just hoped ps4 output 7.1 lpcm 192 from hdmi and that we might get to access or process that feed. but im not even sure if ps4 games output 192 during gaming. (but also how about for films, they use higher sample rates, might be nice to use for that purpose?)
 
I'm always hoping and open to improvements! plus the x7 supports it (albeit not during surround gaming and at like 4 times the price) but with time i thought it might be trickling into more mainstream products?
 
seems almost all games only do 48
 
what you say is spot on, to be honest i struggle to tell the difference between 192 and 48 when downsampling a sacd on my hd800/hdvd800 setup.
 
what with the dolby and dts encoders taking 48k i thought or hoped that a higher bitrate stream might give those techs more to play with and the final output might improve in a noticeable way.
 
i got overwatch and its atmos setting sounds good, wonder if that's also stuck at 48. i send it to the x7 spdif out so a dac can decode and it just reports the sample rate i set it to in windows mixer (96) but that tells me next to nothing about the source.
 
its true i went into the katana expecting too much but when i take a step back and think about their price and performance I'm still left underwhelmed by them, the noise floor and step back in mic performance are big hits. the feature set and convince however is what raised my hopes.
 

 

[Yethal]

  yea i know, i just hoped ps4 output 7.1 lpcm 192 from hdmi and that we might get to access or process that feed. but im not even sure if ps4 games output 192 during gaming. (but also how about for films, they use higher sample rates, might be nice to use for that purpose?)
 
I'm always hoping and open to improvements! plus the x7 supports it (albeit not during surround gaming and at like 4 times the price) but with time i thought it might be trickling into more mainstream products?
 
seems almost all games only do 48
 
what you say is spot on, to be honest i struggle to tell the difference between 192 and 48 when downsampling a sacd on my hd800/hdvd800 setup.
 
what with the dolby and dts encoders taking 48k i thought or hoped that a higher bitrate stream might give those techs more to play with and the final output might improve in a noticeable way.
 
i got overwatch and its atmos setting sounds good, wonder if that's also stuck at 48. i send it to the x7 spdif out so a dac can decode and it just reports the sample rate i set it to in windows mixer (96) but that tells me next to nothing about the source.
 
its true i went into the katana expecting too much but when i take a step back and think about their price and performance I'm still left underwhelmed by them, the noise floor and step back in mic performance are big hits. the feature set and convince however is what raised my hopes.
 

Even stereo 192k support is redundant in most gear due to low demand and low market share of the 192k content. Even HDTracks has like 6 albums in 192k or so. 7.1 192k is just silly. Even Blu-Ray movies use 48k sampling rate.
Most audio samples in video games are 48k. There's really no point in going higher, your average razer/steelseries sporting gamer won't tell the difference.
 
I played Overwatch during the free weekend and I fell in love in this game so I bought it. Probably the last FPS I will ever buy.

 

[Clean6eR]

 
Even stereo 192k support is redundant in most gear due to low demand and low market share of the 192k content. Even HDTracks has like 6 albums in 192k or so. 7.1 192k is just silly. Even Blu-Ray movies use 48k sampling rate.
Most audio samples in video games are 48k. There's really no point in going higher, your average razer/steelseries sporting gamer won't tell the difference.
 
I played Overwatch during the free weekend and I fell in love in this game so I bought it. Probably the last FPS I will ever buy.

where did i put my NOS dac...
 
just in case anyone is in the uk i got overwatch for 27 pounds from game.
 
i also installed that heroes of the storm, that's kinda good too! blizzard make a good game.
 
i have an issue with my x7 that if i play a 44.1 flac to the x7 on loud sections i noticed a slight break up when not in direct mode, i then plugged in my external dac and found the x7 was spitting out 48 not 44.1, to fix this i got my foobar spitting direct to the spdif which my dac then sees as 44.1, happy me. so my new setup is x7 hooked to pc and ps4 including the bluetooth thingy for ps4, then i run optical to an ad1955 dac then on to a MF V90 BHA. this lets me listen to my music well but also all my gaming is setup with no unplugging anything needed.
 
so i want to upgrade my dac and amp, im thinking a ha5000 for the amp but the dac is what im after recomendations for.
 
i need an optical one but has anyone tried a multibit one? i have a couple of NOS dacs but they are old and i feel my ad1955 dac is cleaner clearer and more open sounding, is the schiit modi 2 m worth picking up to try the multibit topology?
 
i know that not any two dac chips sound the same when implemented differently (so simply saying NOS dacs are warm with good mids but no detail and R2R are sterile and cold is totally stupid and wrong), so any recommendations for good dacs with optical that are very open and wide sounding in nature, under say 500 pounds (given current exchange rate that's close enough to be 500 us dollars too )

 

[Yethal]

i have an issue with my x7 that if i play a 44.1 flac to the x7 on loud sections i noticed a slight break up when not in direct mode, i then plugged in my external dac and found the x7 was spitting out 48 not 44.1, to fix this i got my foobar spitting direct to the spdif which my dac then sees as 44.1, happy me. so my new setup is x7 hooked to pc and ps4 including the bluetooth thingy for ps4, then i run optical to an ad1955 dac then on to a MF V90 BHA. this lets me listen to my music well but also all my gaming is setup with no unplugging anything needed.  
so i want to upgrade my dac and amp, im thinking a ha5000 for the amp but the dac is what im after recomendations for.
 
i need an optical one but has anyone tried a multibit one? i have a couple of NOS dacs but they are old and i feel my ad1955 dac is cleaner clearer and more open sounding, is the schiit modi 2 m worth picking up to try the multibit topology?
 
i know that not any two dac chips sound the same when implemented differently (so simply saying NOS dacs are warm with good mids but no detail and R2R are sterile and cold is totally stupid and wrong), so any recommendations for good dacs with optical that are very open and wide sounding in nature, under say 500 pounds (given current exchange rate that's close enough to be 500 us dollars too )

Switching over to WASAPI or ASIO should resolve the resampling problem. As for multibit DACs, check out Schiit Audio products. They build their dacs using chips used in missile guidance systems.

 

[Clean6eR]

  Switching over to WASAPI or ASIO should resolve the resampling problem. As for multibit DACs, check out Schiit Audio products. They build their dacs using chips used in missile guidance systems.

yea i was using waspi to the x7, not in direct mode so that the sound got piped out to the optical dac and thats when it outputs 48k, changing to WASPI x7 spdif gets it to send 44.1k and sounds great.
 
so i found thats how ill leave it, all the games will go through the x7 circuit and spit 48k and my music will get sent directly to the spdif so i dont hear any crackling on louder passages. and leaving my new dacs and amps free to perform well at what they do well at.
 
the modi 2 m looks like one ill pick up to try (cheapest i've seen a multibit dac), thanks for the tip off.

 

[Napalmhardcore]

  yea i was using waspi to the x7, not in direct mode so that the sound got piped out to the optical dac and thats when it outputs 48k, changing to WASPI x7 spdif gets it to send 44.1k and sounds great.
 
so i found thats how ill leave it, all the games will go through the x7 circuit and spit 48k and my music will get sent directly to the spdif so i dont hear any crackling on louder passages. and leaving my new dacs and amps free to perform well at what they do well at.
 
the modi 2 m looks like one ill pick up to try (cheapest i've seen a multibit dac), thanks for the tip off.

I'm curious to hear opinions on the Modi 2 multibit too. I tried searching for reviews a couple of days ago and didn't find much. I think people might be posting in the same thread that it was announced in and is generally discussed. I was tired at the time and couldn't be bothered to trawl through the thread trying to find opinions from owners.

 

[GVictim]

Thanks for the quick replies! Think I will pair up the ad700x (much difference between these and the original ad700?) with the A40TR MixAmp. Would it be just a case of getting a separate mic & y splitter cable as well? Thanks again

EDIT: hearing good things about pairing up the 2015 MixAmp with the newer variant of the PC360- the G4ME ONE. Would a setup like that negate the need to have a wire plugged into my controller as I have the older XB1 controller that annoyingly has no jack comnection

 

[Yethal]

Thanks for the quick replies! Think I will pair up the ad700x (much difference between these and the original ad700?) with the A40TR MixAmp. Would it be just a case of getting a separate mic & y splitter cable as well? Thanks again

EDIT: hearing good things about pairing up the 2015 MixAmp with the newer variant of the PC360- the G4ME ONE. Would a setup like that negate the need to have a wire plugged into my controller as I have the older XB1 controller that annoyingly has no jack comnection

Only TR mixamps use usb for chat audio.

 

[GVictim]

Thanks for your input, think i will pair up the GAME ONE with the MixAmp TR to minimise on wire clutter, i have a white control too so at least i'll be colour coordinated!

I take it i'll also need an optical cable to go from my MixAmp to the xbox?