Mad Lust Envy's Headphone Gaming Guide: (8/18/2022: iFi GO Blu Review Added)

[deanorthk]

The GX is a great, versatile set. Yes, I work for Audeze, but I recommended it long before that. It's a solid banger even if it was just a headphone. If you got the dough, the GX ain't gonna let you down.

Thanks Madlustenvy, and I know you work for Audeze, no worry. I've read many reviews and reports about the GX. i'm looking to buy a second hand set though, as I have just invested quite a lot of money for a IFI audio Idsd signature amp/dac I'm very curious to see how the GX would work with the SB X7 and all the EAX effects that it can offer for immersive gameplay!

 

[JdeFalconr]

I don't remember the M1570 being on sale for $399 at the moment. I hope it was.

To honor your purchasing splurge:

Amazon Payments sure says so. Next thing is to wonder if that Sound Blaster X4 will drive them all OK. Based on the specs it ought to. Guess I'll find out shortly.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I've made some decent headway into the written portion of my KPH40 review. Should have that up hopefully by this weekend.

 

[zx6guy]

Apologies ahead of time for the following ignorant question but will the Schiit Hel preserve Binaural Audio (Steam Audio, if turned on) in games like EFT or will it revert to Stereo? I've moved away from my GSX1000 as it missed a lot of in-game cues in games like EFT and now run the "on board" with my Magni 2. This set up with Steam Audio sounds way better but my mic gives off a lot of noise (discord) with this config so I'm hopeing the Hel will fix this. Also, if memory serves, this was primarily a console (I'm slowly moving away) forum so apologies if I've taken this off track, just didn't know where else to ask and you guys have always been cool. Headset is curently Game One and I'll likely stay in this family for now.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Apologies ahead of time for the following ignorant question but will the Schiit Hel preserve Binaural Audio (Steam Audio, if turned on) in games like EFT or will it revert to Stereo? I've moved away from my GSX1000 as it missed a lot of in-game cues in games like EFT and now run the "on board" with my Magni 2. This set up with Steam Audio sounds way better but my mic gives off a lot of noise (discord) with this config so I'm hopeing the Hel will fix this. Also, if memory serves, this was primarily a console (I'm slowly moving away) forum so apologies if I've taken this off track, just didn't know where else to ask and you guys have always been cool. Headset is curently Game One and I'll likely stay in this family for now.

Once binaural/virtual surround has been introduced to the chain, it can't be removed. So the Hel will preserve it.

And no worries, it may have started as a console thing, but for like the past half-decade or so, I mainly have done all testing on PC.

 

[zx6guy]

Once binaural/virtual surround has been introduced to the chain, it can't be removed. So the Hel will preserve it.

And no worries, it may have started as a console thing, but for like the past half-decade or so, I mainly have done all testing on PC.

Thanks and cheers!

 

[p1zzap1e]

I just got my fostex t50rp a couple of days ago. Coming from a pair of audio technica ath-g1 paired with blasterx g6 it is a completly different experience. My ath seems hollow, now i want to go back and play hellblade senuas sacrifice and some other games just to try them. Was afraid that the g6 was not going to be able to handle them, but they power them good. Pairing the fostex with zmf oval earpads, heaven.

 

[JdeFalconr]

Much to my amazement I am now seeing that it's possible the Steelseries chatmix dial (https://steelseries.com/gaming-accessories/arctis-5-chatmix-dial) may be usable with any headset you want by using a proprietary 8-pin to 3.5mm 4-pole adapter. This would take care of a need I've had to be able to adjust game/chat mix via some kind of hardware knob when using any headphones I want. I'd also in that situation just run something like Dolby Atmos or some other virtual surround solution from my PC. If that works it would really open things up for me with regard to amp and DAC choice; I wouldn't be restricted to the Sound Blaster X4 or GSX-1000 for the game/chat functionality. The only thing left would be to figure out mic monitoring/sidetone which I'm guessing would be done via the "Listen to" function of Windows audio recording devices, unless there's a more elegant solution out there for some amps/DACs.

My question: am I correct in assuming I'd connect from that 4-pole 3.5mm connector to an amp/DAC and, from there, to headphones? Any issue there?

 

[Jcue]

I mentioned earlier that I got the GC7 and the PC38x. So I am having a slight issue with the sound. I can only seem to get this to happen In call of duty Vanguard at the moment. Whenever an explosion happens, I tend to get a crackling sound in my headphones (idk what to call it, some people said clipping, some people said popping and crackling.) I cant get it to do the same thing on warzone or battlefield 2042. I have also played some movies and have not been able to reproduce the issue only on Vanguard, although on the movies I watched they were not real base heavy. I have also played real base heavy music and recorded gameplay through NVidia shadow play, and when I re-watch the clips where it happens, or am listening to the music the crackling does not happen, Just when I'm playing.. Is there anyway I can test and see if its the hardware or just the game. I will be testing 2 other headsets (Game Ones's and some audio technicas) and my onboard with just the headsets tonight to see if this continues to happen.

 

[NewCoke]

I mentioned earlier that I got the GC7 and the PC38x. So I am having a slight issue with the sound. I can only seem to get this to happen In call of duty Vanguard at the moment. Whenever an explosion happens, I tend to get a crackling sound in my headphones (idk what to call it, some people said clipping, some people said popping and crackling.) I cant get it to do the same thing on warzone or battlefield 2042. I have also played some movies and have not been able to reproduce the issue only on Vanguard, although on the movies I watched they were not real base heavy. I have also played real base heavy music and recorded gameplay through NVidia shadow play, and when I re-watch the clips where it happens, or am listening to the music the crackling does not happen, Just when I'm playing.. Is there anyway I can test and see if its the hardware or just the game. I will be testing 2 other headsets (Game Ones's and some audio technicas) and my onboard with just the headsets tonight to see if this continues to happen.

I have the PC38X and the GC7. That headphone definitely distorts in bass heavy movies for me with the the GC7, but not from other sources. Especially with SXFI on. The "budget" Koss stuff, too.

I just assumed it's because of the 10 ohm output of the amp. I have to turn up the volume to unhealthy levels with the 38X/Koss to hear any impactful bass, even for regular stereo.

You might want to get a higher ohm Sennheiser 6X0, 560S, or 58X to pair with the GC7 instead.

Unless we are both dealing with dud units (the GC7, that is).

 

[Jcue]

I have the PC38X and the GC7. That headphone definitely distorts in bass heavy movies for me with the the GC7, but not from other sources. Especially with SXFI on. The "budget" Koss stuff, too.

I just assumed it's because of the 10 ohm output of the amp. I have to turn up the volume to unhealthy levels with the 38X/Koss to hear any impactful bass, even for regular stereo.

You might want to get a higher ohm Sennheiser 6X0, 560S, or 58X to pair with the GC7 instead.

Unless we are both dealing with dud units (the GC7, that is).

That's kind of weird. My bass seems fine. Like I can only turn my unit up to about 40 before it is absolutely too loud. I've done quite a few bass tests, not the ones on YouTube, but some on a few different websites and the only time I had any issues is in the lower hz with sxfi turned on. Other then that mine sound great

Edit:
So my onboard does not reproduce the sound. With none of my headphones or headsets. However on the gc7 I get the same issues on all of them. I just realized it may have to do with surround. When I turn it on it happenes. I'm going to try with 5.1 and stereo next.

I do notice around 35hz that my pc38x will start to sound like it's rattling? But that only happenes at high volumes.

Edit 2:
the distortion/clipping only happens on 7.1, 5.1 and stereo sound great.

 

[JdeFalconr]

That's kind of weird. My bass seems fine. Like I can only turn my unit up to about 40 before it is absolutely too loud. I've done quite a few bass tests, not the ones on YouTube, but some on a few different websites and the only time I had any issues is in the lower hz with sxfi turned on. Other then that mine sound great

Edit:
So my onboard does not reproduce the sound. With none of my headphones or headsets. However on the gc7 I get the same issues on all of them. I just realized it may have to do with surround. When I turn it on it happenes. I'm going to try with 5.1 and stereo next.

I do notice around 35hz that my pc38x will start to sound like it's rattling? But that only happenes at high volumes.

Edit 2:
the distortion/clipping only happens on 7.1, 5.1 and stereo sound great.

The fact that this happens only within one application and the application itself - not a recording of that application's audio - implies to me it's something with how that game is outputting audio to your hardware and how your hardware is processing it. It's interesting too that it only happens with the GC7 and only with surround. Could you have surround turned on twice somewhere? As in could you have Windows doing surround processing in addition to the GC7 doing it? Might want to check your output settings in Windows for the GC7 playback device to make sure you don't have audio processing turned on there so it's all being done on the GC7. You also might want to check other settings there to make sure something isn't amiss. One other thing you might try would be lowing the output level on the Windows side to see if that makes any difference.

 

[Jcue]

The fact that this happens only within one application and the application itself - not a recording of that application's audio - implies to me it's something with how that game is outputting audio to your hardware and how your hardware is processing it. It's interesting too that it only happens with the GC7 and only with surround. Could you have surround turned on twice somewhere? As in could you have Windows doing surround processing in addition to the GC7 doing it? Might want to check your output settings in Windows for the GC7 playback device to make sure you don't have audio processing turned on there so it's all being done on the GC7. You also might want to check other settings there to make sure something isn't amiss. One other thing you might try would be lowing the output level on the Windows side to see if that makes any difference.

I've come to f8nd out it only happenes on 7.1 mode

 

[JdeFalconr]

I've come to f8nd out it only happenes on 7.1 mode

Some similar threads I found:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SoundBlast...gc7_distortionstrange_eq_with_sxfi_on_vs_off/
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=103366.0

From what I'm assuming is your Reddit thread on this issue (https://www.reddit.com/r/SoundBlasterOfficial/comments/ruj5yz/gc7_with_pc38x_crackling_sounds/) it looks like also turning on Scout Mode makes this issue no longer occur. Based on those other threads and your own findings it would seem that something in your GC7's audio processing of this particular sound in this particular game are the issue. Do you have some options within the 7.1 settings that could help? Or what about some EQ modes or other audio processing options on your GC7? Could you fiddle with those to get a sound scheme you like that also doesn't reproduce this issue?

 

[Chastity]

Some similar threads I found:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SoundBlast...gc7_distortionstrange_eq_with_sxfi_on_vs_off/
https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=103366.0

From what I'm assuming is your Reddit thread on this issue (https://www.reddit.com/r/SoundBlasterOfficial/comments/ruj5yz/gc7_with_pc38x_crackling_sounds/) it looks like also turning on Scout Mode makes this issue no longer occur. Based on those other threads and your own findings it would seem that something in your GC7's audio processing of this particular sound in this particular game are the issue. Do you have some options within the 7.1 settings that could help? Or what about some EQ modes or other audio processing options on your GC7? Could you fiddle with those to get a sound scheme you like that also doesn't reproduce this issue?

Try setting your output to the GC7 to 48KHz