[Viggen66]

Chastity

For Linux you have pulse effects, which has lots of customizations, actually too much.

I don't play on pc, I use it only for office work and media watching and now and then some programming.

I use gc7 as a pass-through for surround effects for my consoles and media player, consoles > optic in > gc7 > Bluetooth transmitter, gc7 without sxfi works like g6, sbx effects are transfered through optic out, but not sxfi, probably you're right it isn't a big issue 3.5 mm to the Bluetooth transmitter, if you think of it when you connect your headphones to your pc or a console controller it still going to use a 3.5 mm analog cable not a optic cable.

As my gc7 is at 25% volume to the Bluetooth transmittor, the sound is so loud on my headphones, and yes I truly like the surround effects from sxfi, for console gaming there's nothing better than it, tried atmos app from xbox store, the other DTS x, both are so weak, when compared to sxfi.

 

[roladyzator]

I measured GC7 headphone out using a loop from the headphone out to line in.
Results were very good, with SNR at ~110 dB, low THD, crosstalk below 80 dB, almost flat FR (just ~0.5 dB increase from 10 kHz to 20 kHz if I remember right).
Goes to 2.4V RMS before clipping.

I doubt that you can improve the quality when using digital connection, given that you're going to compress the audio anyway for Bluetooth transmission.

I understand your concern with lack of digital out for SXFI, that's a stupid marketing decision IMO. Still, using analog out to connect to a further audio device should work good.

 

[Viggen66]

roladyzator,

Thanks for your reply and technical analysis, I knew before hand this is a good DAC, for me is a huge upgrade from the G6, in what concerns surrounds effects, to listen to music, I reckon you must know of better dacs for that particular purpose, but since GC7 is directed to gaming, for me, this is the best DAC out there for people who want to upgrade their consoles effects.

 

[roladyzator]

Never heard the G6 but I second that SXFI is great for games. With PS5 being scarcely available and expensive at that, upgrading the sound can also elevate your experience to a new level.

There are many new exciting room virtualization apps and plugins, even free one like HeSuVi for PC use, but consoles users aren't so lucky
I'm glad that Creative is doing something and hope they continuing to evolve the SXFI (for example the Gen3 personalization profile does sound more natural to me than Gen2).

I actually sometimes put SXFI on for music for a change. Works well with KSC75, I can get nice bass out of these with SXFI on and the bass dial turned up. I did not expect that.

What's your experience? Any headphone which sound well with SXFI?

 

[Jcue]

Hello everyone, first time posting here, but I have a quick question.

So my setup is currently Audio Technica ws1100is while using the onboard audio of my motherboard (SupremeFX S1220A).

I have the PC38x and a GC7 on the way. I was wondering how much better this setup will sound, and also what to look for when comparing. This will be my first time delving into the audiophile world, so I have no idea what to look for and probably need to do some research into some terms so I have an idea.

 

[illram]

Never heard the G6 but I second that SXFI is great for games. With PS5 being scarcely available and expensive at that, upgrading the sound can also elevate your experience to a new level.

There are many new exciting room virtualization apps and plugins, even free one like HeSuVi for PC use, but consoles users aren't so lucky
I'm glad that Creative is doing something and hope they continuing to evolve the SXFI (for example the Gen3 personalization profile does sound more natural to me than Gen2).

I actually sometimes put SXFI on for music for a change. Works well with KSC75, I can get nice bass out of these with SXFI on and the bass dial turned up. I did not expect that.

What's your experience? Any headphone which sound well with SXFI?

Forgot they updated to gen3 recently. May have to dust off the old gc7.

I tried the older sxfi amp (first one) headphone out to my Koss Esp950 (via the electrostat amp), it was fine. Just hate the idea of double amping. But your measurements make me a little more comfortable with the idea for sure.

 

[ronfifer]

Hello everyone, first time posting here, but I have a quick question.

So my setup is currently Audio Technica ws1100is while using the onboard audio of my motherboard (SupremeFX S1220A).

I have the PC38x and a GC7 on the way. I was wondering how much better this setup will sound, and also what to look for when comparing. This will be my first time delving into the audiophile world, so I have no idea what to look for and probably need to do some research into some terms so I have an idea.

For gaming I assume?

• You will be able to more accurately position the sounds around you, this we call "imaging"
• You will be able to hear things further away from you, within an oval, circular, or semi-circular perimeter, this we call "soundstage"
• You will be able to hear things for the first time that you didn't know existed in the game before, such as soldiers mumbling words when dying, soldiers whispering in your ear in the trenches, a bird tweeting on a tree in the battlefield, enemy reloading their weapon, you stepping on a dry leaf, etc.. this we call "detail retrieval"
• You will hear all these distinct sounds (relatively speaking) with clarity and without them being congested or overlapping on top of each other, this we call "separation" or "resolution" or "clarity"
• You will hear more of the high-pitched, metallic sounds or footstep sounds or simply the sound of air in what we call a "bright" headphone (Treble)
• You will hear more of the rumble, texture and punch of explosions in what what we call a "warm" headphone (bass)

The PC 38X, being a low-fi gear, will not necessarily deliver perfectly on all of these aspects combined, but it will definitely give you a taste of each unlike a regular gaming headset.

 

[Jcue]

For gaming I assume?

• You will be able to more accurately position the sounds around you, this we call "imaging"
• You will be able to hear things further away from you, within an oval, circular, or semi-circular perimeter, this we call "soundstage"
• You will be able to hear things for the first time that you didn't know existed in the game before, such as soldiers mumbling words when dying, soldiers whispering in your ear in the trenches, a bird tweeting on a tree in the battlefield, enemy reloading their weapon, you stepping on a dry leaf, etc.. this we call "detail retrieval"
• You will hear all these distinct sounds (relatively speaking) with clarity and without them being congested or overlapping on top of each other, this we call "separation" or "resolution" or "clarity"
• You will hear more of the high-pitched, metallic sounds or footstep sounds or simply the sound of air in what we call a "bright" headphone (Treble)
• You will hear more of the rumble, texture and punch of explosions in what what we call a "warm" headphone (bass)

The PC 38X, being a low-fi gear, will not necessarily deliver perfectly on all of these aspects combined, but it will definitely give you a taste of each unlike a regular gaming headset.

Thank you! And yes for gaming. I'm looking forward to giving these things a try.

Also thanks for explaining what I'm looking for, I tried asking somewhere else and all I got was "use google". i have been going through this thread and it seems like a pretty good community.

 

[Hemlocke]

Thank you! And yes for gaming. I'm looking forward to giving these things a try.

Also thanks for explaining what I'm looking for, I tried asking somewhere else and all I got was "use google". i have been going through this thread and it seems like a pretty good community.

There’s a time for “use Google,“ but this definitely isn’t it. Welcome to the forums.

 

[NewCoke]

Hello everyone, first time posting here, but I have a quick question.

So my setup is currently Audio Technica ws1100is while using the onboard audio of my motherboard (SupremeFX S1220A).

I have the PC38x and a GC7 on the way. I was wondering how much better this setup will sound, and also what to look for when comparing. This will be my first time delving into the audiophile world, so I have no idea what to look for and probably need to do some research into some terms so I have an idea.

I have been meaning to ask this...

Doesn't the GC7 need a headphone with at least 80 ohm for it not to mess with a headphone's FR (because of the GC7s 10 ohm output impedence if by going by the 1/8th rule)? I plugged the 60 ohm Koss budget "Trinity" into the GC7 and I did not like how they sounded.

The PC38x is 28 ohm and is outside of the GC7's 32-300 ohm headphone specs. Might not be a good fit for the GC7?

 

[Jcue]

I have been meaning to ask this...

Doesn't the GC7 need a headphone with at least 80 ohm for it not to mess with a headphone's FR (because of the GC7s 10 ohm output impedence if by going by the 1/8th rule)? I plugged the 60 ohm Koss budget "Trinity" into the GC7 and I did not like how they sounded.

The PC38x is 28 ohm and is outside of the GC7's 32-300 ohm headphone specs. Might not be a good fit for the GC7?

Apparently at some point it changed, Maybe? I have read reviews and have seen reddit post where it is stated to be at 2 or lower impeadance, the. Some at 10. One reddit post even stated 2 then a while later someone commented and said it's 10 now that it must have changed. I would be very curious what it actually is.

 

[roladyzator]

I just measured GC7 frequency response in three scenarios. See attached graph.
1. Connected through a 3.5mm -> 2x 3.5mm splitter to line in (presumably 10 kOhm) and K371 (32 Ohm)
2. Connected through a 3.5mm -> 2x 3.5mm splitter to line in and nothing in the other 3.5mm jack.
3. Connected through a 3.5mm -> 2x 3.5mm splitter to line in and K702 (62 Ohm)

The difference in measured voltage would suggest output impedance of 10 Ohm.
But it doesn't cause that much of a difference in FR.

There is some noise in the graph lines because I tested on a low volume due to K371's sensitivity.
Didn't want to put the entire house on alert with the sound of the sweep at full 2.4V output

 

[Viggen66]

What is this new SXFI gen3? I know GC7 if I'm not mistaken had in beginning gen1 and they upgraded to gen2, concerning the latest firmware 1.2 which is the second one they released, I notice yesterday again, when SXFI is turned on, and when it has little background noise, like birds, steps etc, the SXFI just mutes itself, you don't hear anything, but when I turn off SXFI to SBX, this doesn't happen, some bug on the SXFI.

I reckon SXFI must be an sound algorithm, which is directed to the X-FI Ultra DSP chip, to process.

 

[roladyzator]

What is this new SXFI gen3? I know GC7 if I'm not mistaken had in beginning gen1 and they upgraded to gen2, concerning the latest firmware 1.2 which is the second one they released, I notice yesterday again, when SXFI is turned on, and when it has little background noise, like birds, steps etc, the SXFI just mutes itself, you don't hear anything, but when I turn off SXFI to SBX, this doesn't happen, some bug on the SXFI.

I reckon SXFI must be an sound algorithm, which is directed to the X-FI Ultra DSP chip, to process.

There are some bugs with SXFI on GC7 and they have to address them in firmware updates.

The way SXFI / Out of your head / HeSuVi works is that for each speaker in a 7.1 setup, there is a pair of impulse responses - to left ear and to right ear.
Ideally, this impulse response should be a recording of the speaker in actual room playing back an impulse.
Said impulse would be recorded on a dummy head with microphones in ear canals. Or an actual person with microphones in their ears.

An impulse is a real-life approximation of the Dirac delta, a signal that is infinitely loud and infinitely short. In real-life that would be one sample with the maximum value.
In frequency domain, such signal has a flat frequency response up to a point determined by how loud and short it is.

So if you record an impulse after it passes through a system (in this case a DAC -> amplifier -> speaker -> room -> outer ear -> ear canal -> microphone), you get the complete time and frequency domain changes that the system as a whole introduces.
(Note that it doesn't capture dynamic, non-linear behavior such as harmonic distortion or compression. But no room should have those to the best of my knowledge).
So in the case SXFI the recorded impulse from let's say a front left speaker would include speaker frequency response, reverbations, changes to sound caused by ear shape and so on.

You do that for all speakers in a setup to essentially gain full knowledge of how this complete speaker setup would sound to a dummy head. The more that head resembles yours, the better is the effect when translating to your experience.

You can then apply the impulse response to your playback chain by the means of convolution operation.
This adds all of the above mentioned effects to the sound of your headphones.

This is where the problems start.
I presume that Creative recorded the in-room impulse responses for many individuals.
The pictures that you send to their server are scanned by a machine learning algorithm to determine the frequency response that you would get if you were in that room.
Then the impulse response of each speaker to each ear is calculated based on the result.

Then, this has to be played back through your headphones.
Creative don't know the frequency response of your headphones, so they have to assume a certain frequency response of your headphones so the effect works.
They provide some EQ profiles in the SXFI app which target few models but unit variations or the differences in your head shape and fit vs what they measured on will cause differences so it's never 100% right.


I'll share the differences between Gen2 and Gen3 Front Left to left ear frequency response later.
Subjectively, it's a somewhat smaller room sensation but more natural sound.

Based on what I see I can guess that either:
- they changed how the machine learning algorithm calculates the impulse responses, making it more accurate.
- they changed their reference speaker setup and made new impulse response recordings.

To get Gen3, get another set of ear and head pictures. Now it should show Gen3 next to them.

 

[Viggen66]

Installed the SXFI App again, did the head mapping, and it appeared gen3, I guess it has only to do with the scanning of your head this new gen3, probably a new algorithm to your personal profile.