[SaLX]

I disagree about not ever using scout mode: use it if you've got crap headphones. Then again, if you're here on Head-Fi, you'll have looked at MLE's guide and read other poster's threads; hopefully we're all using, or about to buy a good gaming solution.
 
It's not a **** feature by any means and it's a keyboard shortcut toggle.

 

[Evshrug]

Or a button on the Recon3D (so it can work with consoles on the fly).

I'm not entirely sure if scout mode does or does not disable surround processing... At first, I would sometimes use it at night with lower volumes so I could give my ears a break and still stay pretty competitive, but I rarely use it anymore. Haven't even tried it on the Omni.

 

[NamelessPFG]

I believe MLE said you couldn't even use Scout mode at the same time as the THX on the Recon3D.  So you gain some questionable value from the EQ, but lose your surround processing.  Terrible tradeoff...

Unfortunately, that's correct. It's either THX TSP Surround or Scout Mode with the Recon3D USB, not both.

The Z-series cards may be different, but I can't say for sure.

 

[KamikazeIce]

  Okay, my search-fu has failed me.  You guys are my best hope!


 
I got my Modi and SYS tonight.  I setup the SYS to switch between the Modi and the RCA out from the SB Omni.  This lets me A/B to hear the differences.  I figured out how to make the SPDIF Out the default device in Windows so that my Winamp and games and such output to it.  So far so good.


 
So my issue is that when I'm using the SPDIF output from the sound card, the SBX Studio stuff (including virtual surround) doesn't do anything.  If I swap the default back to the Speaker Out (RCA), the SBX stuff works fine.


 
Now I know there's supposed to be a way to get this working and I feel like there's something obvious I'm missing.  Can someone help?


 
BTW, really enjoying the Modi for music. 

I've been tinkering about with the Omni the last week or so, as I was having problems similar to your. You can read the original posts about my experience in the Sound Blaster Z/Zx/ZxR thread. Fair warning, I have problems being coherant, so I appologize if it's hard to understand.
 
As you noticed, SBX effects don't work properly with optical. I know of two solutions to this, but there may be more. Give one a try and see if it helps.
 
One involes using the "What U Hear" recording device. Make the Omni (analog) the default device, open the "What U Hear" device properties and check "Listen to this device" and select the Omni SPDIF out device. The only problem with this solution is you cannot listen to discrete surround channels without SBX. I have multichannel music (quads, DVD-A, SACDs) and movies that I don't like with SBX on, so I don't use this method.

 
For the other, just stick something in the headphone port. This does not have to connect to anything, a 3.5mm adapter plug is what I use. This forces the driver to use a "headphone" mode that processes SBX properly. I have no clue as to why this works, so I think it's just a "feature" (bug) since Creative is known for their amazing driver software.

 
In anycase, the control panel should be set to "headphone" and set the Omni's analog device in windows, not the control panel, to 5.1.
When using optical out the difference between using or not using this headphone port trick is night and day.

 

 

 

 
I've been playing with having Dolby Digital Live encoding enabled, or not, while using SBX. The soundstage is definetly larger when enabled compared to when it's disabled, but they both have different imaging/localization. I don't know which is the correct result. I assumed it was DDL disabled was correct since you'd think the game sends 5.1 to the card, and then processed and mixed into stereo instead of a DDL 5.1 compressed signal.

 

[Stillhart]

 

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

I've been tinkering about with the Omni the last week or so, as I was having problems similar to your. You can read the original posts about my experience in the Sound Blaster Z/Zx/ZxR thread. Fair warning, I have problems being coherant, so I appologize if it's hard to understand.
 
As you noticed, SBX effects don't work properly with optical. I know of two solutions to this, but there may be more. Give one a try and see if it helps.
 
One involes using the "What U Hear" recording device. Make the Omni (analog) the default device, open the "What U Hear" device properties and check "Listen to this device" and select the Omni SPDIF out device. The only problem with this solution is you cannot listen to discrete surround channels without SBX. I have multichannel music (quads, DVD-A, SACDs) and movies that I don't like with SBX on, so I don't use this method.

 
For the other, just stick something in the headphone port. This does not have to connect to anything, a 3.5mm adapter plug is what I use. This forces the driver to use a "headphone" mode that processes SBX properly. I have no clue as to why this works, so I think it's just a "feature" (bug) since Creative is known for their amazing driver software.

 
In anycase, the control panel should be set to "headphone" and set the Omni's analog device in windows, not the control panel, to 5.1.
When using optical out the difference between using or not using this headphone port trick is night and day.

 

 

 

 
I've been playing with having Dolby Digital Live encoding enabled, or not, while using SBX. The soundstage is definetly larger when enabled compared to when it's disabled, but they both have different imaging/localization. I don't know which is the correct result. I assumed it was DDL disabled was correct since you'd think the game sends 5.1 to the card, and then processed and mixed into stereo instead of a DDL 5.1 compressed signal.

 

 
Thanks for the reply, bud.  I actually fixed the problem by updating my SB Omni Control Panel software.  Turns out I was using an old version and this was fixed in the January update.  I'm a bit embarrassed by this, but hopefully I can help others with my stupidity.
 
Regarding DDL, for my uses (sending SBX 2.0 virtual surround over optical to a DAC) you want DDL off.  The DAC can't interpret the DDL signal.  If you're sending it over optical to a Recon or Mixamp, you need DDL on, I believe.

 

[KamikazeIce]

I'm also using the latest drivers, and firmware, from Creative. Still, could you try plugging the headphone port? It may do nothing for you, but I'm interested if doing that does make such a large change that I experienced so I can find out if I should return my Omni for a replacement. Then you can tell me to stuff it


 


 
My Denon 4520CI has DTS Neo: X and Audyssey DSX. If you're not familliar with them, Neo: X has a more centered listening point while DSX is slightly back so there is more emphasis on front sounds than rear.


 
I prefer Neo: X over DSX for my real speakers for gaming, it keeps sounds the same "distance" as the sound pans from speaker to speaker when turning around. 9.2 setup with Wides ATM, so I would be extracting embedded sound queues either way but both do it differently.
I bring this up as this is my current opinion from results I hear with my Omni. SBX + headphone port plugged with DDL disabled produces something thats more similar to DSX, whereas SBX + headphone port plugged with DDL enabled gives me something more similar to Neo: X


 
Both results are good, one focuses on even distribution of sound all around you and the other emphasizes the frontal sounds more. Please note that I say similar, this is not literal and only used to illustrate the general relativity of their differences. I won't say which I think is which, try it out for yourself. I don't want to risk influencing someone's decision by giving specific expectations


 


 
Of course it is as you say, you can only make use of this option if you can decode said DDL signal.


 
I've been using the RAW track in THIS THREAD for testing. The first 40 or so seconds is the ingame speaker test, followed by three segments of the intro that is great to test audio localization. I really like  this because there is no video for you to rely on for location. I'm not trying to say X setup is wrong, only that it's worth trying with and without DDL encoding (Windows@ 5.1, Omni set to "Headphone", SPDIF cloning)

 

[Stillhart]

I pluggd something into the headphone port and heard no change.  Might be your Omni, man.
 
I'll check out that track later on, thx!

 

[GoldenboyXD]

Hi Guys, hoping for your suggestions and recommendations. I posted this on the other thread but i thought this would be appropriate here.
 
I own a X-Fi Titanium and O2 and thinking of buying an external DAC (optical) or TiHD?

 

[NamelessPFG]

Hi Guys, hoping for your suggestions and recommendations. I posted this on the other thread but i thought this would be appropriate here.
 
I own a X-Fi Titanium and O2 and thinking of buying an external DAC (optical) or TiHD?

 
Either route is viable. I suppose it depends on whether you don't mind having an external DAC around your computer space or not.
 
It's worth nothing that a DAC with S/PDIF input would benefit a wide range of sources; a new sound card only benefits a computer, and since you're already packing an X-Fi Titanium, you already have most of the DSP stuff the Titanium HD brings to the table.
 
If you were to buy the Titanium HD, what are you going to do with the existing X-Fi Titanium (non-HD)? Move it to a different computer? Resell it?

 

[GoldenboyXD]

   
Either route is viable. I suppose it depends on whether you don't mind having an external DAC around your computer space or not.
 
It's worth nothing that a DAC with S/PDIF input would benefit a wide range of sources; a new sound card only benefits a computer, and since you're already packing an X-Fi Titanium, you already have most of the DSP stuff the Titanium HD brings to the table.
 
If you were to buy the Titanium HD, what are you going to do with the existing X-Fi Titanium (non-HD)? Move it to a different computer? Resell it?

Thanks NamelessPFG! I'm glad hearing your response. If i can manage to get the best deal on TiHD i will sell the non-HD card.
 
I don't want to spend more just for TiHD or DAC. I'm thinking of buying the Schiit Modi (optical) DAC for about $99 and pair it up with my O2 which kinda weird.

 

[thecalculator]

Hey guys. So I've had my Titanium HD and k712 Pros for about a week now. I love it very much. (Coming from a onboard mobo soundcard, Turtle Beach's x11's, and DSS). But it feels like something is missing. An amp maybe? If so. which one should I purchase? Should I use my DSS for the meantime?

 

[Dark_wizzie]

I have HD800 with O2/Dac. Do you think this is a fine setup for positional audio? I don't have a sound card with all their EAX and audio stuff.

 

[Stillhart]

  Hey guys. So I've had my Titanium HD and k712 Pros for about a week now. I love it very much. (Coming from a onboard mobo soundcard, Turtle Beach's x11's, and DSS). But it feels like something is missing. An amp maybe? If so. which one should I purchase? Should I use my DSS for the meantime?

The DSS isn't going to give you the amping you need for the K712.  Grab any of the ones in the MLE guide (E09K, E12, O2, Magni/Vali, etc.)  Or move up to the next price bracket with a Matrix M-Stage or Asgard.  FWIW, I love my M-stage.

 

[NamelessPFG]

Thanks NamelessPFG! I'm glad hearing your response. If i can manage to get the best deal on TiHD i will sell the non-HD card.
 
I don't want to spend more just for TiHD or DAC. I'm thinking of buying the Schiit Modi (optical) DAC for about $99 and pair it up with my O2 which kinda weird.

 
I actually didn't know the Schiit Modi had an optical/Toslink S/PDIF input variant now. The existing USB-only version would not have been ideal. I'll keep that in mind for the future.
 
And, no, there's nothing really weird about that. I prefer separate DAC/amp components anyway so I can mix and match as desired. (I don't use a dedicated DAC, though; when I've already got an X-Fi Titanium HD, there's not much point in it.)
 

I have HD800 with O2/Dac. Do you think this is a fine setup for positional audio? I don't have a sound card with all their EAX and audio stuff.

 
It would be quite fine, except the ODAC isn't going to give you any sort of headphone virtual surround at all, and neither will the vast majority of games on the market. You'd be stuck with hard-panning, one-dimensional stereo the way they treat headphones...
 
You could try out Razer Surround, but it was pretty crappy in my experience.
 
All of that said, the HD800 should bring out the best in whatever virtual surround tech you opt for, be it CMSS-3D Headphone, Dolby Headphone, SBX Pro Surround or whatever else you might favor.
 
(I'd love to try one myself one of these days, though I also have to keep in mind spritzer's warning that they only sound good with the right amp backing them. Keep in mind that's coming from a guy who almost never considers a dynamic headphone good-sounding and even hated the HD800 at first before he heard it off a different amp.)

 

[Fegefeuer]

  I have HD800 with O2/Dac. Do you think this is a fine setup for positional audio? I don't have a sound card with all their EAX and audio stuff.

 
You have the best headphone in the world for this, now you need a DAC/AMP with optical input so you can connect a soundcard with virtual surround tech. I recommend the Asus Essence One (or Muses) for a start, it'll cover both DAC and AMP purposes very well (for the price) and SBX for your gaming needs. CMSS-3D and HD 800 can kill you in games with low quality samples. Honorable mention: Bioshock Infinite. Sure you can EQ the highs down but remember that it also changes spatial information. No problem with the lows.