[Mad Lust Envy]

Lemme know how you like it. I couldn't get far into the first one because the gameplay and map design was terrible.

BTW guys, SSX seems to be quite a bit heavy on the bass with its soundtrack. I couldn't listen to it with the D7000. Even the Q701 sounded like basshead cans but its good with those. DH sounds pretty sweet when you start a run and the heli spins around.

 

[Mysterious]

Quote:

Lemme know how you like it. I couldn't get far into the first one because the gameplay and map design was terrible.
BTW guys, SSX seems to be quite a bit heavy on the bass with its soundtrack. I couldn't listen to it with the D7000. Even the Q701 sounded like basshead cans but its good with those. DH sounds pretty sweet when you start a run and the heli spins around.

Can't wait to get my hands on SSX
Spent countless hours on the PS2 playing it 

 

[Pilule]

Hello everyone!
 
Read bits and there of this pretty nice thread, learned about the Mixamp, attachable mic (like the Antlon Modmic) and probably made up my idea about a real soundcard if I have still have the place on the motherboard.
 
Here goes : I pretty much only game on the PC, as of now i'm more on League of Legends but I pretty much play different kind of genre from FPS ( mostly casually ) RTS, RPG, MMO.
 
I've had those Logitech G35 Headset for 2 years and they just broke up (cheap plastic part exploded from the Right socket). So here i am checking out for a new Headphone/Headset package.
Music I'm currently listening : Daft Punk, Metal, Cee Lo Green, Red Hot, I guess popular music?
 
Most of the time I'll be Playing a game while talking on Vent/Steam Chat system and also playing some music in the Background.
I'd also need something that wouldn't let that much noise in since there's always 5-6 kids jumping and running on the floor right above me so something noice cancelling would be nice or nice isolation.
Oh and I currently own V-Moda V-80 for portable means for my phone, could I use that as a not so bad beginning?
My budget range would be 100-500$ CAN
 
 
Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Mastakilla]

Thanks again for all replies... Below some answers and questions
 
Quote:

It's real surround sound as far as I can tell, I've never used it for gaming, but it's great for Blu-ray movies.
I put the Blu-ray disk into my Panasonic Blu-ray player and plug my DT990 Pro 250-Ohm into the Yamaha and it's like I'm at the movie theater.
9 out of 10 reviews on Silent Cinema are positive
As far as I can tell, the Yamaha receivers support all the audio formats just as well as any other receiver brand.
Full support for the latest Dolby Digital, just not Dolby Virtual Headphone, which Silent Cinema covers.
The Yamaha RX-V667 and RX-A700 are the cheapest Yamaha receivers with the better speaker amplifiers.
 
 
 

Can anyone else confirm that it is "real" virtual surround or "made up" virtual surround? This is pretty important for gaming...
 
Also when talking about those audio formats, I meant to ask if Silent Cinema only works with some specific kind of surround inputs
for example:
It may be only possible to enable Silent Cinema when the sound input is DTS and not when it is a bit streamed 5.1 input or whatever other surround input is possible.
Or perhaps it is even more tricky and it is possible to always enable Silent Cinema, but it only does something with specific sorts of sound input.
 
You definitely put Yamaha back on my radar though. I need to buy a new AV amp anyway for my speakers and I was more thinking about Onkyo or Pioneer, but both seem to completely lack any real Headphone Surround.
 
Quote:

Correct me if I am wrong, but all surround sound you hear through your headhones is "made up". This means that you have to have some device that mixes the sound and sends it to your headphones in an order that they appear to be surround sound, when acutally you only have 2 speakers of course (left and right). 
There are only a hand full of "real" surround sound headsets (meaning multiple speakers on each side) and from what I´ve heard they just simply suck. So not an option.
 
What I don´t get is this: People (including me) all want a good surround sound experience. Understandably so. But even now, when I just plug my headphones into the headphone jack (or RCA) of my TV I already get "surround sound". I mean technically I think it´s stereo of course, but if I play MW3 I still can tell if somebody is behind me or in front of me or if he is comming left or right around the corner, or if that fire is behind/in front, left or right of me. Same with movies: I can hear the a starship in Star Wars passing by just as I would in real life. So there must be some sort of processing already beeing done by my TV, Blu Ray Player, Xbox or whatever. Maybe somebody can explain that mystery to me

In my eyes (or ears) there is a big difference between a headphone surround that uses a stereo sound as input (This is what I call "made-up". For example: CMSS-3D Surround and probably many others where it is not so clearly specified- - I suppose also Pioneers "Headphone Surround" falls in this category?) and a headphone surround that uses a surround sound as input  (This is what I call "real". For example: Dolby Headphone, CMSS-3D and perhaps also Silent Cinema)
 
And perhaps your TV supports one of these surround techniques?
 
Quote:

@ Mastakilla
 
I had the HD598's and to be honest, they dont sound at all good listening to hip hop. The bass they produce lacks "punch" and imo takes the life out of the music. They worked great for gaming but that was about it. Now I have the 770 Pro 80's and am so glad I tried them. Movies and Music have life now because the bass they produce and that "punch" that is needed. Again, just my opinion. But if you want hip hop bass and movie bass to sound good, skip the senns

Quote:

I second the 770s. Epic entry level headphone for a good price. If you have the cash for an amp and don't care about being able to travel, get the 990s which sound better.

That is indeed what I heard from some people about the HD598 and why I have my doubts about this headphone.
 
However I am more afraid of the DT770 Pro 80 for it's "too strong" bass. As Mad Lust Envy said about them "Too bad it's too wild in bass for hardcore FPS gaming. The finer details are prety much sucked out because of the bass.". This scares me even more then a lack of bass, also for music....
Also for the DT990, I actually fear the too strong treble more then the weak bass of the HD598. A too strong treble may become uncomfortable after awhile.
With this I don't mean that those fears are justified. Perhaps I do like the 770 and 990 better than the HD598. I just mean that IF not, it seems less painfull to have too little bass, than having too much bass / treble.
 
But the really important question here is my question nr 2, which wasn't answered so far:
is it possible to "fix" the too weak bass from the HD598 with an equalizer (software or hardware)?
or does this have downsides / side effects?
 
Quote:

 

The reason I haven't really mentioned Silent Cinema much is simply lack of experience with it. I don't have an A/V receiver that has it, nor do I have any plans to get one.
 
For PC use, though, I find it much more economical to just get a sound card.

I understand. It is just because I need to buy a AV amp for my speaker setup anyway, that I prefer finding an all-in-one solution.
 
However I am not even close to figuring out if that is the best (for sound quality - in gaming, movies and music - and being practical - I prefer not going through tons of setting windows when switching between speakers and headphone).
For example, I was thinking that if I let me AV amp do the headphone surround stuff, then I may not have to change any settings on my computer when switching between speakers and headphone (in both cases it will be set to 5.1 sound)

 

[Gambit61]

So I tried the ax720 again with my portapros and a few games. Besides the constant hiss in the background it sounds pretty good in the ME3  multiplayer demo. Shockwaves and some other biotic powers sound really cool going off all around you lol. I also tried it in the Alan Wake American Nightmare demo and was able to catch a few Taken trying to quietly attack from behind which was awesome. Now I'm just waiting for Binary Domain to come in the mail to see if I'll keep this.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Can anyone else confirm that it is "real" virtual surround or "made up" virtual surround? This is pretty important for gaming...
Also when talking about those audio formats, I meant to ask if Silent Cinema only works with some specific kind of surround inputs
for example:
It may be only possible to enable Silent Cinema when the sound input is DTS and not when it is a bit streamed 5.1 input or whatever other surround input is possible.
Or perhaps it is even more tricky and it is possible to always enable Silent Cinema, but it only does something with specific sorts of sound input.
You definitely put Yamaha back on my radar though. I need to buy a new AV amp anyway for my speakers and I was more thinking about Onkyo or Pioneer, but both seem to completely lack any real Headphone Surround.
In my eyes (or ears) there is a big difference between a headphone surround that uses a stereo sound as input (This is what I call "made-up". For example: CMSS-3D Surround and probably many others where it is not so clearly specified- - I suppose also Pioneers "Headphone Surround" falls in this category?) and a headphone surround that uses a surround sound as input  (This is what I call "real". For example: Dolby Headphone, CMSS-3D and perhaps also Silent Cinema)
And perhaps your TV supports one of these surround techniques?
That is indeed what I heard from some people about the HD598 and why I have my doubts about this headphone.
However I am more afraid of the DT770 Pro 80 for it's "too strong" bass. As Mad Lust Envy said about them "Too bad it's too wild in bass for hardcore FPS gaming. The finer details are prety much sucked out because of the bass.". This scares me even more then a lack of bass, also for music....
Also for the DT990, I actually fear the too strong treble more then the weak bass of the HD598. A too strong treble may become uncomfortable after awhile.
But the really important question here is my question nr 2, which wasn't answered so far:
is it possible to "fix" the too weak bass from the HD598 with an equalizer (software or hardware)?
or does this have downsides / side effects?
I understand. It is just because I need to buy a AV amp for my speaker setup anyway, that I prefer finding an all-in-one solution.
However I am not even close to figuring out if that is the best (for sound quality - in gaming, movies and music - and being practical - I prefer not going through tons of setting windows when switching between speakers and headphone).
For example, I was thinking that if I let me AV amp do the headphone surround stuff, then I may not have to change any settings on my computer when switching between speakers and headphone (in both cases it will be set to 5.1 sound)

Ok, I just played Avatar Blu-ray (scene 30) with my Yamaha RX-V671 (Silent Cinema) and then on my PC (Essence STX, Dolby, PowerDVD 11 Ultra), using Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro 250-Ohm headphones, could not really tell any differance in audio quality.
The Essence STX (Dolby) might have a very slight edge, I have to think it has more has to do with the sound card having better support for headphones over a stereo receiver.
And I'm still learning how to get the best "setting" for my Yamaha.
I do run bit-stream from my Panasonic Blu-ray player to the Yamaha, so the Yamaha is doing all audio processing.
I have not found any reviews or other info that say that Silent Cinema is not true surround sound.
I do know other receiver manufacturers use fake surround sound, it's more like they use expanded stereo, like Dolby Pro Logic, upmixing 2.0 signals to 5.0
I really doubt you could "fix" any weak bass of the HD598 (I believe others have tried), maybe the Beyer DT880 would work better for you?
My Senn HD558s have decent bass, not as full as the DT990s, but I never think "If only my HD558s had more bass"
I like the idea of using the receiver for both speakers and headphones, you can run an digital optical cable from the motherboard to the receiver.
I know digital optical can carry Dolby Digital 5.1, but I'm not sure about Dolby TrueHD.
 
 
 

 

[Eric_C]

MLE: Eh, less talk on SSX's soundtrack and more impressions of the gameplay, plz.

 

[SniperCzar]

I think TrueHD is only over HDMI. Also, to the guy thinking about getting an Onkyo, I just got a 508 and will probably be putting up my impressions in a few days (comes in tomorrow). And if you're already looking at the Beyer 770s, know that the bass is much more manageable if you have a source with low output impedance. I'm loving just how much more refined they sound after hooking them to my new E17.

 

[Ricanlegend]

hey Mad lust envy am thinking about buying the AKG K 701 and i read you will need another amp to power the voice chat and in game sound will the Fiio e11 do the job ? 

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[chicolom]

Quote:

hey Mad lust envy am thinking about buying the AKG K 701 and i read you will need another amp to power the voice chat and in game sound will the Fiio e11 do the job ? 

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You might want to try them yourself first.  For me the mixamp has enough volume even when mixing in voice chat....

 

[Azathoth]

Great impressions on the headphones for gaming, I use and enjoy the CAL! myself for FPS gaming. Even on old-school stuff like Diablo 2, the soundtrack just sounds so rich on them. Now I'm seriously tempted by the Senn PC360, if only they weren't so expensive in my country...$300ish, ouch.
 
Thanks for the link the Nameless Guide by the way, it's proving to an excellent resource.

 

[Drastion]

I figured I would let everyone know the bad news. After waiting a month for the 5.8 to come in stock I got fed up and put in a support ticket. So even though they still have it on there site. They will NOT be selling the mixamps on their own anymore. If you want one now you have to buy it withe the headset for "the full gaming experiance".

I am more than a little pissed right now. I already spent plenty on headphones and dont need another one lying around. Either I am going to have to bite the bullet or figure out what to do with $200 in astro store credit.

 

[DCB305]

Wow, that sucks. I would fight for a complete refund or the product you ordered and not settle for the in-store credit. They need to be responsible and accountable, it is not your fault that they have decided to only sell the equipment bundled and neglected to reflect that decision on their products page and they need to honor the order or refund the money. Store credit is unacceptable (I hate that crap, I shouldn't be confined to spending those dollars only at your store, it should be illegal), report them to BBB, but I don't think it would help but maybe give you the feeling that they didn't get away with it.

 

[Drastion]

Well its not quite like that. I bougjt some coupons back before christ?ass. I didnt realize they shut down for a few weeks during the holidays. By the time they came up ces was almost on so I wanted to see if they had anything new coming out. I used one to get a gift card to mmake sure it will work. So I dont think I can get a refund since I used it already. That and my second cupon does not work right even though astro said it should.

If I knew someone who wanted the headset I would get it and sell it off just think I would never get around to doing it.

 

[DCB305]

I think I have seen the headset sell on ebay for like $100.