[Asim Yusaf]

Hi guys, i have a pair of fidelio x2's which sound great but i would to use virtual surround sound in games. I have a budget of up to £100 what would you recommend?

It has to be an external sound card or amp.

 

[Monsterzero]

Astro Mixamp Pro

 

[Testo]

I don't believe Fidelio X2's require the amount of power to warrant purchasing an amplifier.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Hi guys, i have a pair of fidelio x2's which sound great but i would to use virtual surround sound in games. I have a budget of up to £100 what would you recommend?

It has to be an external sound card or amp.

Your only choice is the Xonar U3 for a lot less than that. Or you can save up a bit more and get a Sound Blaster E5 - better headphone amp (comparable to a good portable DAC-HPamp, albeit with less power than, say, an Ibasso D14) and connectivity options. Even the U3 has enough power but it might have a high output impedance.

Either way, both have DSP that can run virtual surround. Just make sure you open up the soundcard suite and enable that, and have every game and movie use 5.1 or 7.1. If you're playing games that have virtual surround/headphone-specific audio in the options like Overwatch, disable the soundcard's DSP and use the software version.

I don't believe Fidelio X2's require the amount of power to warrant purchasing an amplifier.

Well you can't just hook it up to a line output either. Whatever he uses will have a headphone amp circuit in it.

 

[squee116]

Virtual surround really isn't necessary for headphones... Save your money.

 

[Asim Yusaf]

Its not just for virtual surround sound though, its for all round music, gaming and movies (virtual surround sound does sound good in some games and movies) and my laptops line in makes my headphones sound dim. What are your opinions on the Creative soundblaster E5 versus the G5 and GSX 1000? i'm looking for a good allrounder.

 

[squee116]

Its not just for virtual surround sound though, its for all round music, gaming and movies (virtual surround sound does sound good in some games and movies) and my laptops line in makes my headphones sound dim. What are your opinions on the Creative soundblaster E5 versus the G5 and GSX 1000? i'm looking for a good allrounder.

I'm not absolutely sure on this, but I don't think most music is recorded in surround. So even running it through virtual surround isn't going to make it "surround", so much as just add reverb and crossfeed. I could see movies benefiting from its use, but games would be highly questionable. Most games' audio engineering is kind of garbage, their audio engines that generate sounds from x,y,z coordinates can be very buggy. From a cinematic sense, in a AAA title, maybe you'd see some improvement in immersion? Assuming the virtual surround distortion doesn't distract you. But competitively? There won't be much improvement.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I'm not absolutely sure on this, but I don't think most music is recorded in surround. So even running it through virtual surround isn't going to make it "surround", so much as just add reverb and crossfeed.

Music is recorded in stereo. Running virtual surround for that is in very basic terms Crossfeed plus reverb, and you can't totally remove reverb (just a minimum setting).

He can just disable virtual surround for music and run some kind of Crossfeed app, like the Meier Crossfeed on Foobar or Equalizer APO.

Its not just for virtual surround sound though, its for all round music, gaming and movies (virtual surround sound does sound good in some games and movies) and my laptops line in makes my headphones sound dim. What are your opinions on the Creative soundblaster E5 versus the G5 and GSX 1000? i'm looking for a good allrounder.

Either your laptop has high distortion, low damping factor due to a high output impedance, or it's the Dolby software. My Lenovo just plain sucks with that running (unlike my older Asus). It has some kind of virtual surround (just not labeled as Dolby Headphone) but it boosts the bass too much regardless of the material; if anything, movies aren't as affected by music if you run Dialogue Enhancer (whcih doesn't run for music at all).

Normally I'd just get rid of it but it's great for movies on a plane or a terminal using headphones (if at least because there's no need for an external soundcard or DAC-HPamp), and I use USB output to a DAC-HPamp on my desk (the Dolby software doesn't work this way).

 

[Asim Yusaf]

I'm not absolutely sure on this, but I don't think most music is recorded in surround. So even running it through virtual surround isn't going to make it "surround", so much as just add reverb and crossfeed. I could see movies benefiting from its use, but games would be highly questionable. Most games' audio engineering is kind of garbage, their audio engines that generate sounds from x,y,z coordinates can be very buggy. From a cinematic sense, in a AAA title, maybe you'd see some improvement in immersion? Assuming the virtual surround distortion doesn't distract you. But competitively? There won't be much improvement.

What i meant was that i'd like an amp/external sound card that would make my music sound better, as well as the added bonus of providing virtual surround sound for some games and movies.

 

[squee116]

What i meant was that i'd like an amp/external sound card that would make my music sound better, as well as the added bonus of providing virtual surround sound for some games and movies.

The MixAmp Pro will work, but it's power output is kind of anemic. If you ever decide on harder to drive headphones in the future, it wouldn't have the oomph to drive them to their best. I'm not seeing the power output on Creative's website, but one nice thing about the G5 and MixAmp is that you can use them to "brew" your own headsets on a PS4, which is vastly superior to the headsets provided by Sony.

 

[Asim Yusaf]

Music is recorded in stereo. Running virtual surround for that is in very basic terms Crossfeed plus reverb, and you can't totally remove reverb (just a minimum setting).

He can just disable virtual surround for music and run some kind of Crossfeed app, like the Meier Crossfeed on Foobar or Equalizer APO.



Either your laptop has high distortion, low damping factor due to a high output impedance, or it's the Dolby software. My Lenovo just plain sucks with that running (unlike my older Asus). It has some kind of virtual surround (just not labeled as Dolby Headphone) but it boosts the bass too much regardless of the material; if anything, movies aren't as affected by music if you run Dialogue Enhancer (whcih doesn't run for music at all).

Normally I'd just get rid of it but it's great for movies on a plane or a terminal using headphones (if at least because there's no need for an external soundcard or DAC-HPamp), and I use USB output to a DAC-HPamp on my desk (the Dolby software doesn't work this way).

I don't use any surround sound software, have you had any experience with the Creative soundblaster E5? im very tempted to go for that

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I don't use any surround sound software, have you had any experience with the Creative soundblaster E5? im very tempted to go for that

It's what I'd get considering its amp is a lot better than cheaper external cards and most internal cards (and the G5 has some kind of DSP use difference; I think it's meant to work more smoothly with consoles and SPDIF input) but every time it gets recommended some people pop up and rant about the drivers. Haven't seen that dynamic in a while so maybe Creative fixed it, but better to double check.