[Kostantinos]

First I want to wish you all a happy new year!
I'm using an AV receiver (pioneer VSX-920K) connected via HDMI to gaming pc through Nvidia GTX 1070 while using Sennheiser's HD 559 stereo Headphones for output.
My question is what settings do I need to use at windows 10 sound options and also at the receiver to get the best surround experience in FPS games like ARMA III and DayZ standalone.
It will be 7.1 speaker configuration at win10 sound options and PCM Direct at the receiver?...stereo at win 10 sound options and advance surround at the receiver or any other combination?
What sample rate - bit depth should i use?

Thank you in advance for you replies
Kostantinos

 

[PurpleAngel]

So far there is nothing on your Win 10 PC or the Pioneer receiver that can create headphone surround sound.
Also the Pioneer's headphone jack might give the HD559 a bloated bass.
Better off buying a new sound card, that comes with headphone surround sound support.

 

[Kostantinos]

What if I use the adv. Surround for headphones option on my AVR?

 

[PurpleAngel]

What if I use the adv. Surround for headphones option on my AVR?

So far i'm not finding any info on the Pioneer advance surround sound option?

It looks like the receiver comes with Dolby Pro Logic, which might provide a somewhat faked headphone surround sound.

 

[Kostantinos]

So if I combine my AVR with an external sound card - DAC like mixamp or gamedac will I have good surround?...or the AVR is totally useless to use it with headphones for surround?
Can you propose me someway to combine my AVR with to use it with my gaming pc so I don't have to put it away?

 

[PurpleAngel]

So if I combine my AVR with an external sound card - DAC like mix-amp or game DAC will I have good surround?...or the AVR is totally useless to use it with headphones for surround?
Can you propose me someway to combine my AVR with to use it with my gaming pc so I don't have to put it away?

The Pioneer is just not the best way to drive lower impedance (Ohm) headphones, like the 50-Ohm HD559.
Nor does the Pioneer receiver seem to offer what I would consider a desirable headphone surround sound feature, for FPS gaming.
I would try and talk you into getting a sound card (Creative AE-5?) and plug the headphones directly into the sound card.

For speaker output from the Pioneer, running audio from the PC to the Pioneer, using HDMI is preferred.
HDMI can pass 8-channels (7.1) of un-compressed digital audio (24-bit/192K or greater)

 

[Kostantinos]

What about the Creative Sound BlasterX G5 or the mixamp pro tr?

 

[PurpleAngel]

What about the Creative Sound BlasterX G5 or the Mix-amp pro tr?

Mix-amp is great for gaming consoles, but $25 PC sound card would work just about as well, for Windows PC use.
So the Creative Labs X G5 is a better choice, for your PC.

You can run an S/PDIF (optical or coaxial) cable, from a PC sound card, to the Pioneer,
as most PC sound cards can pass it's headphone surround sound feature (thru S/PDIF), to a receiver (Pioneer).
If you ever decided to buy headphones in the 250-Ohm to 600-Ohm range, that would be fine for plugged into a receiver.

 

[Kostantinos]

So...the optimal solution for me in order not to forget about the pioneer AVR is to buy a Creative AE-5 to connect it with the optical to the AVR using pcm direct?
Sorry if I make to many questions but my English don't help me...so I need to clarify a bit!

 

[PurpleAngel]

So...the optimal solution for me in order not to forget about the pioneer AVR is to buy a Creative AE-5 to connect it with the optical to the AVR using PCM direct?
Sorry if I make to many questions but my English don't help me...so I need to clarify a bit!

Yep, run optical from AE-5 to Pioneer.
PC > sound card > optical > Pioneer
For an optical connect (PC to receiver) itself, a Sound Blaster Z card (OEM is fine), I think would be just as good.
(buy used off eBay)
In order to pass more then two audio channels (2.0, stereo audio) thru S/PDIF (optical or coaxial) compression is used (Dolby DDL or DTS-Connect).
So the audio (compressed audio) that gets sent from the PC to the Pioneer, thru S/PDIF, max audio quality would be 24-bit/48K, which about DVD movie quality and I would assume is more the enough for gaming.

 

[Kostantinos]

My friend thank you very much for your help....you are truly an Angel...Purple or not I don't care!!!