[unknownsolo]

I have a new laptop (Alienware 15) that has Sound Blaster Recon3Di sound card with SBX Pro. I like SBX Pro a lot for gaming. When not gaming, I have it completely disabled.
 
When I go to my Windows Sound and right click on my speaker and configure, I only have the option for Stereo output. When I game, I enable SBX Pro and use surround. However, since Windows only see Stereo output, would it be better to install Razer Surround to make Windows see that I have a 7.1 AND apply SBX Pro on top of it to see better results? Or should I just use SBX Pro alone?
 
Some games do not give you the option to change your sound settings and auto detects whatever is found in Windows Sound. Which means they automatically detect stereo and not give you the option to change to 7.1. Will SBX Pro still work then? I was under the impression that when you enable SBX Pro, you have to change your game settings to 5.1/7.1 too.
 
I only want to use the Razer Surround Pro for the fact that it enables 7.1 and not for any audio mixing.
 
Any help is appreciated.

 

[obobskivich]

If SBX Pro is "enabled" (ticked-on) it should be working regardless; on my Recon3D and ZxR (both PCIe cards) it is an independent feature from the "headphones" mode. If the card is set to the "headphones" mode it will do the 5.1->stereo trickery automatically, and then SBX can be applied in addition to that. Alternately if the card is just in stereo output SBX can still be enabled. I'm not sure if there is a difference in processing between SBX in "headphones" and "stereo" though.

I have not used Razer Surround, but I have connected my Razer soundcard into my ZxR, and can tell you enabling Razer ESP (the soundcard's "surround feature" - I don't know how much, if at all, it differs from the standalone Razer Surround application) and SBX at the same time did not sound good at all. That's generally been my experience elsewhere as well - not to stack surround-sound simulacra.