chicolom
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- May 3, 2008
- Posts
- 3,757
- Likes
- 233
(^ please "sign" the petition if interested ^)
Dear FiiO,
As you know, popularity in audiophile headphones has grown a lot in recent years. New products are coming out all the time (including those by FiiO) to fill new roles for this growing headphone community. However, there is still one large area of headphone usage that has been lacking high quality audio products to meet the needs of its users. I'm referring to the gaming market.
Let me explain. All the owners of audiophile headphones enjoy being able to pair their headphones with high quality amps and DACs when listening to music. There is no shortage of high quality products available on the market at all price points to meet their needs. It should be noted that a significant portion of these people also enjoy using their audiophile headphones for gaming (and watching movies). If you want proof this, just look to Mad Lust Envy's Headphones + Gaming Guide/Thread - which is one of the largest threads on Head-Fi with well over One Million Views.
Unlike the music-listening community though, when it comes to gaming there is a painful lack for comparable high quality products for people to pair with their audiophile headphones. In fact, the only real options for people are devices made by companies such as Turtle Beach, Astro Gaming, and Tritton. Most of these devices are not "audiophile grade" and feature disappointing DAC sections, amplifier sections, and poor SNR ratios, etc. A lack of options on the market means gamers are essentially forced to choose between whichever device disappoints the least ("Which device has less hiss?") New people join threads like Mad Lust Envy's every day asking for recommendations on such a device, and we have no choice but to recommend the aforementioned devices, because they are the ONLY options available.
Right now in the headphone community there is a gaping hole in the market for an audiophile company to come in and introduce an audiophile grade device (DAC/amp with virtual surround sound) which gamers can pair with their audiophile headphones when gaming. Based of FiiO's proven track record of making high quality and affordable audiophile products, they seem poised as an ideal company to introduce such a device - and there is a market for such a device (see that aforementioned 1300 page thread with ~1,180,000 views and counting).
If such a device were properly developed, implemented the right features, and was up to FiiO's usual audiophile standards, it would easily wipe out the current weak competition and become the #1 recommendation among people who game with headphones.
Thank you for your time FiiO,
Chicolom
Here are some features the device would need:
Here are some additional features requests for the device:
Dear FiiO,
As you know, popularity in audiophile headphones has grown a lot in recent years. New products are coming out all the time (including those by FiiO) to fill new roles for this growing headphone community. However, there is still one large area of headphone usage that has been lacking high quality audio products to meet the needs of its users. I'm referring to the gaming market.
Let me explain. All the owners of audiophile headphones enjoy being able to pair their headphones with high quality amps and DACs when listening to music. There is no shortage of high quality products available on the market at all price points to meet their needs. It should be noted that a significant portion of these people also enjoy using their audiophile headphones for gaming (and watching movies). If you want proof this, just look to Mad Lust Envy's Headphones + Gaming Guide/Thread - which is one of the largest threads on Head-Fi with well over One Million Views.
Unlike the music-listening community though, when it comes to gaming there is a painful lack for comparable high quality products for people to pair with their audiophile headphones. In fact, the only real options for people are devices made by companies such as Turtle Beach, Astro Gaming, and Tritton. Most of these devices are not "audiophile grade" and feature disappointing DAC sections, amplifier sections, and poor SNR ratios, etc. A lack of options on the market means gamers are essentially forced to choose between whichever device disappoints the least ("Which device has less hiss?") New people join threads like Mad Lust Envy's every day asking for recommendations on such a device, and we have no choice but to recommend the aforementioned devices, because they are the ONLY options available.
Right now in the headphone community there is a gaping hole in the market for an audiophile company to come in and introduce an audiophile grade device (DAC/amp with virtual surround sound) which gamers can pair with their audiophile headphones when gaming. Based of FiiO's proven track record of making high quality and affordable audiophile products, they seem poised as an ideal company to introduce such a device - and there is a market for such a device (see that aforementioned 1300 page thread with ~1,180,000 views and counting).
If such a device were properly developed, implemented the right features, and was up to FiiO's usual audiophile standards, it would easily wipe out the current weak competition and become the #1 recommendation among people who game with headphones.
Thank you for your time FiiO,
Chicolom
Here are some features the device would need:
- + Optical/toslink input
- + Support for Dolby Digital 5.1 decoding
- + Support for Virtual Surround Sound encoding (such as Dolby Headphone, GenAudio Astoundsound, etc.)
- + Audiophile grade DAC section WITH a line-out
- + Headset and chat support
- ...
Here are some additional features requests for the device:
- + Multiple digital inputs
- + HDMI input
- + Digital Equalizer
- + Support for DTS decoding
- + Digital output of processed signal
- ...