[x7007]

Just found out I can also use 7.1 with my 5.1 direct channel speaker setup and it works great! I can't believe I never knew this. the the two side/back corner speakers, sound like thats where they are coming from combination of the front and back playing the sounds. and the rears are much louder and I have them placed as two close rears behind me as in the windows 10 menu picture. I learned so much using the gsx, that it helped out my gaming experience just from the opportunity to try it out. lol

What exactly did you do ? how did you connect your 5.1 to the GSX ?

 

[Sinery]

All games with directional sounds use HRTF as it is merely the digital reproduction of directional hearing.
Not to be confused with VSS which is basically the same thing but usually refers to an optional DSP.

 

[Sinery]

Just found out I can also use 7.1 with my 5.1 direct channel speaker setup and it works great! I can't believe I never knew this. the the two side/back corner speakers, sound like thats where they are coming from combination of the front and back playing the sounds. and the rears are much louder and I have them placed as two close rears behind me as in the windows 10 menu picture. I learned so much using the gsx, that it helped out my gaming experience just from the opportunity to try it out. lol

But you are aware that the GSX only outputs 2.0 right?

 

[Glasofruix]

All games with directional sounds use HRTF as it is merely the digital reproduction of directional hearing.
Not to be confused with VSS which is basically the same thing but usually refers to an optional DSP.

Uh not really, the vast majority of modern games do not use hrtf. Hrtf being the algorithms used to downmix positionnal audio (or more precisely, channel based audio of today's games) into a stereo signal while retaining the positionnal cues. It litterally means head-related transfer function, the key word being head, ears included (the wikipedia entry explains it nicely). Modern games are channel based, meaning that a 2D circle is created around the player and sounds are positionned into the appropriate 5.1 or 7.1 channels. Here's a nice vid explaining it:
https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/GDC/GDC-2017/GDC2017-002

 

[happycamperjack]

Yes I set it up correctly and it sounds muffled. I even set it up wrong with the mic as default device to hear the difference, and there is indeed a dfiference. If you read this thread I'm not the only one who thought it sounded muffled.

Today's games all have hrtf by default now. EVen cs:go has a stereo hrtf option, i'm really not sure what you are talking about. Maybe in games like witcher 3 and fallout where there is no advanced sound settings. But even they don't sound bad without it, so I wonder if they do too. But fps games would be the main reason for me to buy the gsx and they already have good hrtf options built in.

I have my windows speakers set to stereo, with my onboard and bf1 set to surround is a noticeable difference compared to bf1 set to stereo. And for people buying the gsx solely for an advantage, they are better without it. The footsteps in bf1 are way louder without it. But the more dynamic sound the gsx has might make it more immersive for some.

But were some of you guys paid to review this thing? Sennehiser fan boys? Cause there is nothing mindblowing about it, and in fact most people will see it as a downgrade. I gave it more then a fair chance and refused to believe it was a scam. But for over 200 dollars its almost an insult.

Why don't some of you guys tell us again how you don't see a difference setting bf1 to stereo vs surround with any old headphones and sound card. I bet the phoebus works fine, since my asus onbard does... I think EA put a whole lot into the sound in bf1 , definitely quelled any similar complaints people had bout the sound in bf4.

The positional ques are right on point, the only problem is you can't tell distances well, so maybe that would sound broken to some people but I actually prefer it. Because its actually an advantage!! .

It definitely sounds like you have a defective unit, or there's wrong with your headset. Why don't you send the unit back and get a new one? And no most games these days don't have HRTF build in as a quick google search can give you that answer. CSGO is actually one of first that supports it and very rare case of it. While you are at it, you should consider selling your headphone and get a new one. A better headphone with better response in all frequencies will be able to reproduce HRTF better due to the way it works.

 

[CooloutAC]

It definitely sounds like you have a defective unit, or there's wrong with your headset. Why don't you send the unit back and get a new one? And no most games these days don't have HRTF build in as a quick google search can give you that answer. CSGO is actually one of first that supports it and very rare case of it. While you are at it, you should consider selling your headphone and get a new one. A better headphone with better response in all frequencies will be able to reproduce HRTF better due to the way it works.

for better hrtf you want good soundstage. For the gsx you definitely want something bright sounding especially if you want to use any of the eq presets which are very bass heavy.

I'll stick with the game zeros for closed cans since they have a great soundstage, have a convenient mic and sound very good. Alot of reviews say they have no bass compared to game ones. But I had the game ones first and these have just as much bass so it baffles me why most reviews said that. They are more bright sounding but eq'd they sound the same. minus closed vs open.

Uh not really, the vast majority of modern games do not use hrtf. Hrtf being the algorithms used to downmix positionnal audio (or more precisely, channel based audio of today's games) into a stereo signal while retaining the positionnal cues. It litterally means head-related transfer function, the key word being head, ears included (the wikipedia entry explains it nicely). Modern games are channel based, meaning that a 2D circle is created around the player and sounds are positionned into the appropriate 5.1 or 7.1 channels. Here's a nice vid explaining it:
https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/GDC/GDC-2017/GDC2017-002

is bf1's virtual surround documented?

 

[Glasofruix]

There is no virtual surround in BF1. There are some optimisations for headphones though, since BF3 actually (there should be a vid about it somewhere).

 

[Sinery]

Uh not really, the vast majority of modern games do not use hrtf. Hrtf being the algorithms used to downmix positionnal audio (or more precisely, channel based audio of today's games) into a stereo signal while retaining the positionnal cues. It litterally means head-related transfer function, the key word being head, ears included (the wikipedia entry explains it nicely). Modern games are channel based, meaning that a 2D circle is created around the player and sounds are positionned into the appropriate 5.1 or 7.1 channels. Here's a nice vid explaining it:
https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/GDC/GDC-2017/GDC2017-002

Certainly this is a deep rabbit hole and Wikipedia certainly is lacking and I should have used spatial audio instead of HRTF in my previous comment.

Scientifically a head-related transfer function would be the the mathematical function describing the acoustic change between a sound output and the audio input into presumably a human.
Commonly HRTF seems to refer to the measurement of human hearing or even the physical phenomenon of human hearing.
But it certainly isn't the downmixing of surround sound.

 

[Glasofruix]

But it certainly isn't the downmixing of surround sound.

I might have oversimplified it a bit.

 

[CooloutAC]

There is no virtual surround in BF1. There are some optimisations for headphones though, since BF3 actually (there should be a vid about it somewhere).

Well this is my point. Most games have it whether documented or not. or whether we are talking about hrtf or some other way of making you think sounds are coming from behind you. =

But I can tell you right now. I'm using bf1 surround mode with my on board card and stereo headphones, and windows set to stereo, and I am definitely hearing front and rear sounds. And even though the left and right sounds are not as dynamic as the gsx, I think its more of an advantage. And it does not sound bad.


Maybe I had a bad unit, I don't know, Maybe I should have done the exchange just to confirm, but I don't think anything can justify its price at this point now.

 

[raband]

 

[Glasofruix]

Well this is my point. Most games have it whether documented or not. or whether we are talking about hrtf or some other way of making you think sounds are coming from behind you.

The answer is still no. Most games have a dumb stereo downmix, BF has some form of smarter downmix, most games do not have virtual surround. When they do, it is documented or clearly marked in the settings.

 

[CooloutAC]

The answer is still no. Most games have a dumb stereo downmix, BF has some form of smarter downmix, most games do not have virtual surround. When they do, it is documented or clearly marked in the settings.

but how do you know that? is it documented?

every game I have installed has surround sounding sounds in my stereo earphones lol.

to me just like bf1 most games have sounds that sound like they are coming from behind them or in front, pretty sure they design them that way on purpose. They probably all differ technically how but thats not my concern.

Of Course bf1 is the most amazing, for whatever reasons, and in the end I believed the game itself was the biggest factor for superb positional audio, not the gsx, which is way overpriced for whats its worth.

 

[Glasofruix]

Because if it was there would be no market for dolby headphones & co, just because you managed to convince yourself (many think that stereo is better than virtual surround) doesn't mean that every game has it. Games that have HRTF or 3D audio have a specific setting for it, as i've said there are a about three of them on PC (on ps4 there is Uncharted 4, Uncharted Lost Legacy, Horizon Zero Dawn). When it comes to BF1, there was an "enhanced stereo" mode in BF3 which was moved into "headphones" later on, it's a pseudo virtual surround, it doesn't do much. And when you select "surround" it does explicitly say that this setting is made for surround headphones (read dolby & co).

 

[happycamperjack]

but how do you know that? is it documented?

every game I have installed has surround sounding sounds in my stereo earphones lol.

to me just like bf1 most games have sounds that sound like they are coming from behind them or in front, pretty sure they design them that way on purpose. They probably all differ technically how but thats not my concern.

Of Course bf1 is the most amazing, for whatever reasons, and in the end I believed the game itself was the biggest factor for superb positional audio, not the gsx, which is way overpriced for whats its worth.

HRFT is a complicated tech that most companies don't have either the expertise, or enough incentive to license the tech for. Valve literally bought a company called Impulsonic just to use the tech for CSGO (and future HRFT support for Source engine especially for VR).