[cskippy]

Compared to closed back probably not. I looked at the isolation measurements on Innerfidelity ( a very good resource) and they're not that different. What's your hesitation on the CAL? Do you have Amazon Prime? If so, give them a try and if they don't float your boat send them back.

 

[guisess93]

Compared to closed back probably not. I looked at the isolation measurements on Innerfidelity ( a very good resource) and they're not that different. What's your hesitation on the CAL? Do you have Amazon Prime? If so, give them a try and if they don't float your boat send them back.

My hesitation is that I don't live in the US. I can get the CAL from Japan for 45$ NEW (which is awesomely cheap) but it will also take quite some time for my cousin to bring it back to me. 668B is 40$ but I can directly go to the local shop and buy it. If 668B can't isolate the air con/fan noise then I will definitely get the CAL from Japan

 

[cskippy]

Now that sounds like a game plan!

 

[guisess93]

Now that sounds like a game plan!

What do you mean?

Btw, I looked into the isolation chart and to my noob eyes, they dont differ much. Please teach me how to tell the differences between the two. And what frequency range the air con and fan noise, do you know?
http://imgur.com/a/NeOqv

 

[Yethal]

So anyone else preorder an Xbox One X? So excited for this. I cannot wait to play in HDR with 4K abilities for everything, including apps.

Does it do 60fps on all titles? If yes then I'll sell a kidney to preorder it.

 

[Fegefeuer]

no, the CPU is still a weak point so you won't get easier 60fps than with the Pro. 2,3Ghz vs 2,1Ghz of the Pro is not a huge jump. Both are Jaguar cores.

 

[Yethal]

What's the point then.

 

[wazzupi]

The Massdrop HE-4XX would be a solid choice for gaming without an amp.

My personal recommendation is the Sony MDR MA900. You can find them used for under $200. It's like a baby HD800 with an excellent sound stage. It's also hilariously easy to drive and super comfortable.

but would you recommend the hd800s even at a 700-900 dollar price point for gaming ?
wait the mdr MA900 are discontinued >_< !!

 

[cskippy]

but would you recommend the hd800s even at a 700-900 dollar price point for gaming ?
wait the mdr MA900 are discontinued >_< !!

Yeah, I'm really mad they discontinued them. I'll let you know how the HD800 is in about a week when I get mine. For ~$700 HD800 is a good buy but try and get one with the SDR mod if possible. The mod helps tame the 6kHz peak.

 

[AxelCloris]

but would you recommend the hd800s even at a 700-900 dollar price point for gaming ?
wait the mdr MA900 are discontinued >_< !!

If you have the HD 800 (or HD 800 S, hard to know exactly which one people are asking about) already, they're spectacular for gaming. I wouldn't recommend going out and buying one if gaming is your only objective, though, as they're definitely overkill IMO. If you're going to listen to music, movies and gaming, then hell yeah get an HD 800 (S) for $700.

And IMO, the HD 800 doesn't need a mod to sound great.

 

[BearMonster]

Should I buy the BlasterX AE-5 and do comparison videos with the SBZ SBX? Could also throw in DHP. Just to clarify if that soundcard brings in a new gen of VST. It's 150€ however :|

I would not do so right now there are problems with this card while for me that is. The AE-5 is conflicting with my SBZ. Can't remember when i first noticed it but my SBZ will detect as AE-5 and AE-5 detects as SBZ.

After noticing the problem had to uninstall the SBZ driver reinstall driver for it to to finally detect the right one. Pulling that out and putting the AE-5 detects as SBZ, installing the driver finally gets it to detect as the AE-5.

Checking the sound playback & going to configure speakers i see 5.1 surround but no 7.1 surround (I talk about this later) Going around the sound blaster connect you have to pick headphones 7.1 if you want the surround sound unless you have speakers.

Playing around a couple of games i mess around testing the device untill i played Hard Reset under audio options it tells you the audio output which showed me 5.1 which confused me, plugging in the creative g5 & gsx 1000 both are shown 7.1, till i realise it's uses the default device configure speakers. My AE-5 only supports upto 5.1 surround, changing it to 7.1 speaker output or headphone mode in games does nothing and can still hear it in 5.1. And this lead to me having to reinstall and unistall everything again, then moving onto device manager and uninstalling it from there where the AE-5 was immune to being uninstall. I get the feeling i might have to do something in the registry entries, but thats not something i want to do. In all honesty i have lost a couple of days trying to fingure this out

My short play around with the AE-5 give me the impression it's what the creative g5 should've been.

While i was in the middle of uninstalling and installing drivers i decided to take off the cover of the AE-5 to take a picture.

Spoiler

I kind of don't see the soundcore3d chip unless it's microsope written. Unlike the SBZ the soundcore3d chip is clearly shown. If there is no soundcore3d chip not sure why creative kind of advertise it as such.

 

[Fegefeuer]

Hey Bearmaster,

thanks for your writeup. Hopefully the driver issues get sorted out fast so you'll be able to give us comparisons with the SBZ and Co. You're the man for this now.
Basically AE5's BXAE vs. SBZ's SBX vs GSX 1000. Looking forward to it.

 

[mbyrnes]

What's the point then.

If you own a 4K HDR TV, it's a rather large difference in picture quality. The PS4 Pro with HDR looks amazing. The Xbox has always been my main gaming system. Many games will be 4K 60fps, even if they are checker boarded, it looks amazing. Horizon Zero Dawn is truly amazing. The XOX will be more powerful, and it will play multiplat games better. Since I also will use the UHD player, UHD streaming apps, and with the Smyth Research A16 coming soon, Dolby Atmos for movies and hopefully games.

HDR is addictive, and I'm hoping Microsoft adds Dolby Vision support (I'll gladly pay for it). I really don't want to buy another 4K Blu-ray player for Dolby Vision. DV is much better than HDR10. My TV supports it, and I want it!

 

[illram]

If you own a 4K HDR TV, it's a rather large difference in picture quality. The PS4 Pro with HDR looks amazing. The Xbox has always been my main gaming system. Many games will be 4K 60fps, even if they are checker boarded, it looks amazing. Horizon Zero Dawn is truly amazing. The XOX will be more powerful, and it will play multiplat games better. Since I also will use the UHD player, UHD streaming apps, and with the Smyth Research A16 coming soon, Dolby Atmos for movies and hopefully games.

HDR is addictive, and I'm hoping Microsoft adds Dolby Vision support (I'll gladly pay for it). I really don't want to buy another 4K Blu-ray player for Dolby Vision. DV is much better than HDR10. My TV supports it, and I want it!

Yeah DV support would make the Xbox One X a killer media device. It already has a complete selection of streaming apps, plus 4K, plus UHD, plus HDR10, plus Dolby everything...other UHD players are $500+ with less functionality.

 

[mbyrnes]

Yeah DV support would make the Xbox One X a killer media device. It already has a complete selection of streaming apps, plus 4K, plus UHD, plus HDR10, plus Dolby everything...other UHD players are $500+ with less functionality.

Let's hope Microsoft realizes the importance of DV. If they pass on the cost, which is truly fine by me (not a lot of TVs can handle it currently). By next year, I expect a lot of 4K TVs to have the ability to decode Dolby Vision. It really is much better than HDR10.