[jessjj]

You get Tempest 3D with the G6 or any supported usb dac.

You don't want to use Creative's VSS through usb as it'll take a stereo signal as opposed to Dolby, which the VSS needs to correctly well.

Of course, you can use Creative's VSS, if you send HDMI audio to a TV or receiver, and that TV or receiver can send out Dolby Digital through optical to the G6.

As long as you can do that, you can decide between both Tempest 3D or SBX.

The G6's versatility continues to prove why it's a great dac/amp.

Can you give me your thoughts on the g6 vs the x3? Currently using the x3 and thinking about swapping it out.

 

[Lay.]

I literally said the G6 DOES work with Tempest 3D like two posts before yours...lol. And like...multiple times in the past few days.

Like I did one post before you. In the message you quoted I just said that you can't use G6 build in game/chat balance control when using Tempest 3D.

 

[AppleheadMay]

I've read quickly through a couple of pages, so Im sorry if this was already asked... But I just want to confirm about pluggin the G6 to the PS5:
- I need to plug both the USB and Optical IN (passthrough from the TV)
- If I want to use the Tempest 3D Audio, I basically use the USB and turn off any processing from the G6. (selecting the G6 in the output device of the PS5)
- If I want to use the G6 7.1 VSS, I use the optical IN of the G6 (selecting "TV" in the audio output of the PS5 which will send it to the HMDI and the optical passthrough).
- I also assume that if I need to use the G6 with my standalone 4K player (also coming out through the passthrough) , I will need to leave my PS5 opened to power the G6.
Have I got that right?

Yes on all counts. You can leave the PS5 in rest mode with the ps5 settings to power usb devices even in rest mode at all times.
PS5 had rest mode issues before, but it's since been patched.

Questions:
- I see that way I can connect the PS5 via USB, the XsX via HDMI to TV and from TV to optical in on the G6. From the G6 I can then go optical out to my DAC or DAC/amp.
As long as I leave SBX VSS off, that would give me tempest from PS and DAH/DSTXH from the Xbox. If I want SBX VSS I just press the SBX button on the G6. I can also press and hold to enable direct mode to make sure all SBX VSS is off.
- This would be a one time configuration in the PC to open up the optical input in the mixer and perform some other settings, no need to switch to the PC often to change something on the G6 I would use with my consoles?
- Stupid question I guess: Do I get Tempest audio from all PS games (so is it implemented on the OS level) or only the ones that were created with Tempest audio.

 

[jessjj]

Gone through all the comments since the Drop x HiFiMAN HE-5XX Review but still can't make my mind up...just seeing if anyone here has advice.

Came from a Sennheiser Game Zero (a few years of usage) to a Hyper X Cloud (Wired Mobius copy). God I loved the fullness, the richer bass, just everything else compared to the Game Zero (but Game Zero was great nonetheless). Mic was pretty eh in comparison though...so soft...Anyhow had to return it due to a technical fault.

Since then I've eyed the Penrose. I'm predominantly a PC user, I like the sound of wireless but I also want to sound clear on Discord so I will probably be wired the majority of the time anyway for the mic quality. While games are important to me I guess the real reason I'm using a "gaming" headset is because I need the mic. Otherwise, I'd be more wary about music performance.

Since then other devices have caught my eyes, primarily the HiFiMAN HE-5XX and the Sennheiser HD 6XX (and attaching a mod mic). I'm unsure how they'll compete to the 100mm planars I so happened to love on the Hyper X Cloud...again that fullness. As all three have in some shape or form been reviewed here, was just wondering if anyone has suggestions as to a path I should follow?

I have the pc38x (similarish to Game One), Penrose (similarish to Mobius), 5xx, and 6xx in hand right now and I'm a/b/c/d testing them for gaming. I far prefer the pc38x and Penrose for gaming - the 5xx seemed too airy, the 6xx didn't seem as spacious and lacked the fun bass of the pc38x. Between the pc38x and penrose - I find the pc38x to be better in most cases for my liking, but sometimes the penrose is better. Like footsteps and gunshots have more oomph to them with the penrose, and they penrose obviously feel closer to you. The pc38x are open back and make the world feel much bigger, and they have a nice balance of bass and richness. To me the world sound more real and alive with the pc38x but the penrose seemed more punchy in many circumstances.

Take this from a guy who has no idea what he's talking about - I'm a newb and don't know how to describe things but these are my experiences after hours and hours of testing on ps5/ps4/pc on a variety of types of games like Demon's Souls, Miles Morales, Ghost of Tsushima, RE2, Far Cry, Valorant, many more.

I'd love to hear MLE or others who have tried these 4 give their direct comparisons

 

[AppleheadMay]

Tested some DACs/solutions on both Xbox and PS5.
When reading my findings below please keep in mind I'm looking for a "higher end" solution, meaning:
- No bluetooth (compression)
- No double amping in the chain (so not some analog out from controller or TV to analog in of an amp)
- Using either the working dac/amp's built in headphone amp for easier to drive phones or chaining through digitally (opt/coax) to a better amp of your choice.
- Wireless headphones via wireless dongles are fine but I the only ones I consider are the Penrose and Penrose X, I prefer to avoid gaming brands.
I have both on order and hope they still come in this year here in Europe.
- I don't consider HDMI splitters/extractors until HDMI 2.1 splitters are available for the obvious reason that I don't want to give up 4K120 and VRR.


On XsX:
- Like expected, no USB DAC works, not even a G6.
We'll need MS licensed products like the Pensrose and some other gaming brands to use USB for audio.
- best solution so far is enable DAH/DTSHX via HDMI to TV, optical out from TV to you dac or dac/amp of choice.

On PS5:
- Topping D10s doesn't work
- iFi Micro iDSD (BL) doesn't work.
- And like MLE said heaps of times, the G6 is perfectly detected on the PS5.
I find the HP output on it not all that clean and/or powerful though so I route it via optical out to another dac/amp but it can be used with its internal amp of course.

I'll be testing two more devices as soon as they come in.

 

[MikeyMatou]

I have the pc38x (similarish to Game One), Penrose (similarish to Mobius), 5xx, and 6xx in hand right now and I'm a/b/c/d testing them for gaming. I far prefer the pc38x and Penrose for gaming - the 5xx seemed too airy, the 6xx didn't seem as spacious and lacked the fun bass of the pc38x. Between the pc38x and penrose - I find the pc38x to be better in most cases for my liking, but sometimes the penrose is better. Like footsteps and gunshots have more oomph to them with the penrose, and they penrose obviously feel closer to you. The pc38x are open back and make the world feel much bigger, and they have a nice balance of bass and richness. To me the world sound more real and alive with the pc38x but the penrose seemed more punchy in many circumstances.

Take this from a guy who has no idea what he's talking about - I'm a newb and don't know how to describe things but these are my experiences after hours and hours of testing on ps5/ps4/pc on a variety of types of games like Demon's Souls, Miles Morales, Ghost of Tsushima, RE2, Far Cry, Valorant, many more.

I'd love to hear MLE or others who have tried these 4 give their direct comparisons

Hmm, well if the Game One (let's equate it to the PC38X) was similar to Game Zero in terms of sound quality (not taking into account the open vs closed back) then I have to say I still felt as though I thoroughly enjoyed the HyperX Cloud (so equating to the Mobius) more. Maybe it's just because I'm looking for it primarily for music... I guess I was curious to see how the 6XX and HE-5XX performed in comparison, but I do worry if the 6XX lacks a fun bass.

 

[AppleheadMay]

Hmm, well if the Game One (let's equate it to the PC38X) was similar to Game Zero in terms of sound quality (not taking into account the open vs closed back) then I have to say I still felt as though I thoroughly enjoyed the HyperX Cloud (so equating to the Mobius) more. Maybe it's just because I'm looking for it primarily for music... I guess I was curious to see how the 6XX and HE-5XX performed in comparison, but I do worry if the 6XX lacks a fun bass.

6XX/650 isn't lacking in bass at all but it needs a powerful amp for that to come through.
Like with many higher end (doesn't matter if the price doesn't reflect that) phones it only shows its capabilities when properly driven.

 

[fbang]

Questions:
- I see that way I can connect the PS5 via USB, the XsX via HDMI to TV and from TV to optical in on the G6. From the G6 I can then go optical out to my DAC or DAC/amp.
As long as I leave SBX VSS off, that would give me tempest from PS and DAH/DSTXH from the Xbox. If I want SBX VSS I just press the SBX button on the G6. I can also press and hold to enable direct mode to make sure all SBX VSS is off.
- This would be a one time configuration in the PC to open up the optical input in the mixer and perform some other settings, no need to switch to the PC often to change something on the G6 I would use with my consoles?
- Stupid question I guess: Do I get Tempest audio from all PS games (so is it implemented on the OS level) or only the ones that were created with Tempest audio.

On the last point, based on my experience (with headset plugged directly in dualsense), you should not use 3D audio on all games. Only Demon Souls and Astro sounded excellent, but for me , other games like COD, BF1-5 and Spider-Man remastered sounded better with it turned off. But one thing to note: Demon Souls and Astro have no settings for sound in game, but the others have. So maybe the game's own sound processing is getting into conflict with the Tempest engine.

Long USB cable to the G6 or long optical cable from G6 to a portable amp?

Question about the G6 which I didn't quite understand: why can't it process 7.1 VSS with only the USB plugged in the PS5? Why does it also need to Optical?

 

[AppleheadMay]

On the last point, based on my experience (with headset plugged directly in dualsense), you should not use 3D audio on all games. Only Demon Souls and Astro sounded excellent, but for me , other games like COD, BF1-5 and Spider-Man remastered sounded better with it turned off. But one thing to note: Demon Souls and Astro have no settings for sound in game, but the others have. So maybe the game's own sound processing is getting into conflict with the Tempest engine.



Question about the G6 which I didn't quite understand: why can't it process 7.1 VSS with only the USB plugged in the PS5? Why does it also need to Optical?

- You mean turn off the 3D audio setting in settings or in the game?

- You don't need both for SBX VSS nor Tempest VSS.
You need an usb cable to go from PS5 to G6. Then you can connect your headphones.
Or you could connect the optical out from the G6 to a dac/amp like I do to have a better amp.
But you don't need to connect both optical and USB input into the G6.

 

[Zachik]

On XsX:
- Like expected, no USB DAC works, not even a G6.
We'll need MS licensed products like the Pensrose and some other gaming brands to use USB for audio.
- best solution so far is enable DAH/DTSHX via HDMI to TV, optical out from TV to you dac or dac/amp of choice.

Quick question:
I assume above solution will not work well for 2 people playing on the XsX?
Assume headphones are NOT identical (different impedance and/or sensitivity), so different volume levels would be needed for each.
Probably best solution would be using easy-to-drive headphones, and drive each directly from the XsX controller?

 

[AppleheadMay]

Quick question:
I assume above solution will not work well for 2 people playing on the XsX?
Assume headphones are NOT identical (different impedance and/or sensitivity), so different volume levels would be needed for each.
Probably best solution would be using easy-to-drive headphones, and drive each directly from the XsX controller?

I have no idea as I never played with two one one console.
Probably not even possible to split the optical cable.

Maybe use that solution for you and the controller solution for ta friend coming over?
Or maybe two headsets with wifi dongles works?
But it'd be better to ask someone who plays with two people on one console.

 

[fbang]

- You mean turn off the 3D audio setting in settings or in the game?

- You don't need both for SBX VSS nor Tempest VSS.
You need an usb cable to go from PS5 to G6. Then you can connect your headphones.
Or you could connect the optical out from the G6 to a dac/amp like I do to have a better amp.
But you don't need to connect both optical and USB input into the G6.

- I mean turn off the 3D in the Audio setting of the PS5 if playing a game that wasn't designed with the 3D audio in mind.

- From a thread before it was my understanding that the 7.1 processing only works with the optical in? The USB only will be in stereo?

 

[AppleheadMay]

- I mean turn off the 3D in the Audio setting of the PS5 if playing a game that wasn't designed with the 3D audio in mind.

- From a thread before it was my understanding that the 7.1 processing only works with the optical in? The USB only will be in stereo?

It is possible that the PS5 only puts out stereo via USB indeed, not sure though.
Optical is maximum 5.1, not 7.1.

 

[fbang]

It is possible that the PS5 only puts out stereo via USB indeed, not sure though.
Optical is maximum 5.1, not 7.1.

Well I meant to use the blaster,s 7.1 or 5.1 processing, you need the optical in.

 

[Evshrug]

Hmm, well if the Game One (let's equate it to the PC38X) was similar to Game Zero in terms of sound quality (not taking into account the open vs closed back) then I have to say I still felt as though I thoroughly enjoyed the HyperX Cloud (so equating to the Mobius) more. Maybe it's just because I'm looking for it primarily for music... I guess I was curious to see how the 6XX and HE-5XX performed in comparison, but I do worry if the 6XX lacks a fun bass.

I have both a Game One and Game Zero. The Zero offers a sealed, noise isolating listening environment, but the Game One just sounds better. More natural, more spacious, better detailed, etc etc.

The HD 6XX (I have the HD 650) is higher resolving, but the more direct/non-angled drivers present a smaller soundstage. Sennheiser went more for “natural” sound than enhanced bass, but the mids and bass have a nice weight and body to them even if they are crisper than the Game Zero and don’t have as much sub-bass presence.

The Game One/PC37X has more bass and a larger soundstage than the HD 6xx, but in trade the HD 6XX is yet another upgrade in clarity over the PC37X. I think the HD 6XX is also easer to listen to long-term, because of the intentional treble (quite high pitch) presence reduction, though honestly I can play PUBG for hours with either one.