[pr0g4m1ng]

I have a question regarding ZXR and SBX Pro Surround:
 
Does using this have an (negative) effect on native HRTF (=Stereo) material?
 
My settings:
SBX Pro Surround: 50%
Windows Speaker: 5.1
Creative Speaker: Headphones
 
The virtual barbershop demo e.g will work with these settings. 

 

[RandomSanity]

Hello everyone, 
 
I'm certainly an audio noob compared to most on the head-fi forums so I apologize for any confusion and/or incorrect assumptions. I've read through the main post and several good responses, but I haven't gone through all 250 pages. 
 
I've been a huge PC gamer for the past 20 years, but I've never worried too much about the audio side of things. I have a Sound Blaster Z sound card that I generally use with headphones (ATH-AD700s), or bookshelf speakers for gaming. I've always made use of SBX Pro Studio surround for bianural headphone surround sound when playing first person shooters, and I've never tried the Dolby Headphone alternative offered by Asus/Xonar so I can't compare. Other game genres I play without any surround effects while using speakers or headphones. 
 
I've recently become a lot more interested in getting a better experience for gaming audio and have been debating the Sound Blaster X7 and the Sennheiser GSX 1000/1200 so I can use some of my better headphones on my PC. I realize these are quite different products, but I could make use of either. I've read a lot of reviews and I really couldn't decide between the two. 
 
I've unexpectedly come into a bunch of other audio equipment to try out and I'm hoping to get some recommendations or suggestions. 
 
I've got the following equipment sitting on my floor. 
 
Amp/Dac/Etc.
Asus Essence One (x2 for some reason, maybe different opamps, I haven't checked) 
Zero (version 09) 
Woo Audio WA7 - one of the tubes on the top is broken, is it worth replacing to try this out? Looks like the replacement tubes are about $55. Hopefully the amp is functional otherwise. 
Asus Xonar Essence STX Sound Card
 
 
Headphones
Dennon D7000
Beyerdynamic 770 Pro 250
Beyerdynamic T1
Sennheiser HD 650
 
I've read through Mad Lust Envy's Headphone Gaming Guide and can certainly compare and choose which headphones I like myself, but I would appreciate any advice on the best setup/configuration to try out with a focus on PC gaming. Would any combination of the above come out comparable to or superior to the X7 / GSX 1000 options? Note that I do also listen to music and watch movies on my computer, but I have a main living room setup that focuses on this so a lot of this may be overkill. 
 
I'll most likely be selling any of the above that I can't make use of and could use the proceeds to buy a more suitable product if it's recommended. I realize Asus also has a new line of gamer-centric sound cards (strix soar?) available but I haven't bothered to research these yet. 
 
If it helps, my main living room setup for music and movies is a NAD T747 with a Tannoy dc4lcr and a pair of KRK monitors. 
 
Thanks! 

 

[PurpleAngel]

   I'm certainly an audio noob compared to most on the head-fi forums so I apologize for any confusion and/or incorrect assumptions. I've read through the main post and several good responses, but I haven't gone through all 250 pages. 
I've been a huge PC gamer for the past 20 years, but I've never worried too much about the audio side of things. I have a Sound Blaster Z sound card that I generally use with headphones (ATH-AD700s), or bookshelf speakers for gaming. I've always made use of SBX Pro Studio surround for bianural headphone surround sound when playing first person shooters, and I've never tried the Dolby Headphone alternative offered by Asus/Xonar so I can't compare. Other game genres I play without any surround effects while using speakers or headphones. 
I've recently become a lot more interested in getting a better experience for gaming audio and have been debating the Sound Blaster X7 and the Sennheiser GSX 1000/1200 so I can use some of my better headphones on my PC. I realize these are quite different products, but I could make use of either. I've read a lot of reviews and I really couldn't decide between the two. 
Amp/Dac/Etc.
Asus Essence One (x2 for some reason, maybe different opamps, I haven't checked) 
Asus Xonar Essence STX Sound Card
I've read through Mad Lust Envy's Headphone Gaming Guide and can certainly compare and choose which headphones I like myself, but I would appreciate any advice on the best setup/configuration to try out with a focus on PC gaming. Would any combination of the above come out comparable to or superior to the X7 / GSX 1000 options? Note that I do also listen to music and watch movies on my computer, but I have a main living room setup that focuses on this so a lot of this may be overkill. 
I'll most likely be selling any of the above that I can't make use of and could use the proceeds to buy a more suitable product if it's recommended. I realize Asus also has a new line of gamer-centric sound cards (strix soar?) available but I haven't bothered to research these yet. 
If it helps, my main living room setup for music and movies is a NAD T747 with a Tannoy dc4lcr and a pair of KRK monitors. 

Hopefully you disabled the motherboard's on-board audio, in the BIOS, when you installed the SB-Z card
 
I'm guessing the Creative X7 will not offer any better SBX Headphone surround sound, then the SB-Z.
(As the SB-Z with it's SoundCore3D audio processor, is connected to the PCI-E bus, it might(?) provide better SBX Headphone, then the X7)
So I say to optically connect the SB-Z to the Essence One, so the SB-Z provides SBX Headphone surround sound and the Essence One provides the DAC function and the headphone amplifier.
If you want to try Dolby Headphone, replace the SB-Z with the Xonar Essence STX, connect the STX optically to the Essence One.

 

[BlueNinja0]

  I have a question regarding ZXR and SBX Pro Surround:
 
Does using this have an (negative) effect on native HRTF (=Stereo) material?
 
My settings:
SBX Pro Surround: 50%
Windows Speaker: 5.1
Creative Speaker: Headphones
 
The virtual barbershop demo e.g will work with these settings. 

 
It might still work to some degree, but you're putting HRTF on top of HRTF, so it certainly would not be optimal.

 

[cefx]

  Hello everyone, 
 
I'm certainly an audio noob compared to most on the head-fi forums so I apologize for any confusion and/or incorrect assumptions. I've read through the main post and several good responses, but I haven't gone through all 250 pages. 
 
I've been a huge PC gamer for the past 20 years, but I've never worried too much about the audio side of things. I have a Sound Blaster Z sound card that I generally use with headphones (ATH-AD700s), or bookshelf speakers for gaming. I've always made use of SBX Pro Studio surround for bianural headphone surround sound when playing first person shooters, and I've never tried the Dolby Headphone alternative offered by Asus/Xonar so I can't compare. Other game genres I play without any surround effects while using speakers or headphones. 
 
I've recently become a lot more interested in getting a better experience for gaming audio and have been debating the Sound Blaster X7 and the Sennheiser GSX 1000/1200 so I can use some of my better headphones on my PC. I realize these are quite different products, but I could make use of either. I've read a lot of reviews and I really couldn't decide between the two. 
 
I've unexpectedly come into a bunch of other audio equipment to try out and I'm hoping to get some recommendations or suggestions. 
 
I've got the following equipment sitting on my floor. 
 
Amp/Dac/Etc.
Asus Essence One (x2 for some reason, maybe different opamps, I haven't checked) 
Zero (version 09) 
Woo Audio WA7 - one of the tubes on the top is broken, is it worth replacing to try this out? Looks like the replacement tubes are about $55. Hopefully the amp is functional otherwise. 
Asus Xonar Essence STX Sound Card
 
 
Headphones
Dennon D7000
Beyerdynamic 770 Pro 250
Beyerdynamic T1
Sennheiser HD 650
 
I've read through Mad Lust Envy's Headphone Gaming Guide and can certainly compare and choose which headphones I like myself, but I would appreciate any advice on the best setup/configuration to try out with a focus on PC gaming. Would any combination of the above come out comparable to or superior to the X7 / GSX 1000 options? Note that I do also listen to music and watch movies on my computer, but I have a main living room setup that focuses on this so a lot of this may be overkill. 
 
I'll most likely be selling any of the above that I can't make use of and could use the proceeds to buy a more suitable product if it's recommended. I realize Asus also has a new line of gamer-centric sound cards (strix soar?) available but I haven't bothered to research these yet. 
 
If it helps, my main living room setup for music and movies is a NAD T747 with a Tannoy dc4lcr and a pair of KRK monitors. 
 
Thanks! 

Do you get to keep the woo audio? Replace the tube. Buy a good USB dac like ODAC, Modi Multibit, HifimeDIY Sabre, etc.
DAC -> woo -> headphones.
 
Never look back.

 

[Atrumitos]

Hello everyone. I'm considering changing my audio setup from X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty pro -> 5.1 HTIB to... something involving headphones My main concerns when it comes to headphones is comfort, considering how I tend to game for relatively extended periods of time. Other than that, I'm looking for something that doesn't distort the audio from my games but doesn't ruin the immersion by muting sounds either.

Those two factors and my budget considered, my eyes are on the BeyerDynamic DT 990 Pro (140 euros) or the Sennheiser HD558 (which is on sale for some reason at 115 euros). First question... Any other suggestions or any reasons I should prefer one or the other (audio and comfort wise)?

Second question is whether I should switch my sound card to something more appropriate. As I said previously I am using a X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro on a windows 10 system. It's currently connected to my HTIB via optical (Dolby Digital live encoder). What I plan to do is use the headphones while gaming and easily switch to the HTIB for movies with friends or whatever. From my experience, the drivers aren't exactly the best in windows 10, and my card doesn't have any specific headphone features.

So the question is, should I upgrade to Sound Blaster Zx in order to drive them with surround audio in games without having to jump through hoops or am I set? Maybe some sort of addon or some other card?

Thank you for your answers in advance


Got the AKG K612 Pro instead. Go figure. The sound card seems to be able to drive them just fine too and I haven't raised the volume over 60%. If someone wants to recommend something anyway, or for future reference, I'm open to suggestions

 

[RandomSanity]

  Do you get to keep the woo audio? Replace the tube. Buy a good USB dac like ODAC, Modi Multibit, HifimeDIY Sabre, etc.
DAC -> woo -> headphones.
 
Never look back.

 
Yes, I can keep the Woo Audio if I want. I ordered two new tubes off ebay, which will take a while to arrive. I'll give it a shot as you suggested. 
 
To expand on my question with your suggestion in mind, will using a USB DAC not be less beneficial than using a SPDIF amp? I would like to continue to make use of SBX Surround when playing games, and I've heard there is a lot of degradation by re-routing this through USB rather than going through the sound card and SPDIF. 
 
In the mean time I'm going to try out the setup including the Essence One as suggested by Purple Angel. Unfortunately I don't have much experience to compare this to. 

 

[cefx]

Oh that's my preferential recommendation. I have lost any interest in surround sound in headphones, personally. I'm a convert to USB based audio over anything else.
 
SPDIF out is fine, but I'm not familiar with it at all.

 

[RandomSanity]

I've spent the last 5 hours trying to get SPDIF to output some form of audio, followed 20+ guides and it just won't work.. I'm ready to smash this piece of crap sound blaster z into a million pieces. /endrant.

 

[BlueNinja0]

  I've spent the last 5 hours trying to get SPDIF to output some form of audio, followed 20+ guides and it just won't work.. I'm ready to smash this piece of crap sound blaster z into a million pieces. /endrant.

 
Have you tried a different receiver?

 

[thuNDa]

  I've spent the last 5 hours trying to get SPDIF to output some form of audio, followed 20+ guides and it just won't work.. I'm ready to smash this piece of crap sound blaster z into a million pieces. /endrant.

When i used an optical cable(amazon basics) for the first time, i wasn't aware that you have to remove the (transparent

) cap.

 

[BearMonster]

  I've spent the last 5 hours trying to get SPDIF to output some form of audio, followed 20+ guides and it just won't work.. I'm ready to smash this piece of crap sound blaster z into a million pieces. /endrant.

 
If you are on windows 10, download the windows 10 driver.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  I've spent the last 5 hours trying to get SPDIF to output some form of audio, followed 20+ guides and it just won't work.. I'm ready to smash this piece of crap sound blaster z into a million pieces. /endrant.

 
Did you disable the motherboard's on-board audio, in the BIOS, when you installed the SB-Z card?
In the control panel, in the Sound sub-section, in the Playback tab, what is the default audio device?

 

[Diji1]

Presumably this has been pointed out already but just though I'd pipe in with Overwatch.

Specifically Dolby Atmos in Overwatch: it is goddam amazing. It's freakishly good to my ears as far as positional accuracy and it's everywhere. Up, down, left, right, back and forward. There's no "is that coming from there?" moments, it's just real. So good!

Setup is AKG K712 using X-Fi Titanium HD (which is not a suitable amp for these headphones I think - SB ZxR is on the way.

 

[rudyae86]

Presumably this has been pointed out already but just though I'd pipe in with Overwatch.

Specifically Dolby Headphone in Overwatch: it is goddam amazing. It's freakishly good to my ears as far as positional accuracy and it's everywhere. Up, down, left, right, back and forward. There's no "is that coming from there?" moments, it's just real. So good!

Setup is AKG K712 using X-Fi Titanium HD (which is not a suitable amp for these headphones I think - SB ZxR is on the way.

uh I think you have them confused. Creative Labs sound cards use SBX, not Dolby Headphone. Overwatch also has it's own Dolby Atmos for headphones though in which you can enable with or without a sound card. I wonder if you have it set up correctly?