[SaLX]

Evs -no no!! - Don't get me wrong. I only came here on head-Fi to suss out what bloody headphone and soundcard to get and promptly leave - and now I'm aiming for around $600 max worth of gear! I'm sure you're privvy to this brand of audiopathology.  You're a damned good poster and I didn't mean anything by that.
 
If you want to hear a hare brained line of thought:  SBZ OEM > Audio-GD 11.32 > Philips X1 ( I know the Dac/Amp is overkill) <> To be replaced with a AKG K712 pro around April next year when I get the cold hard readies. The AKG will actually benefit from the NFB's amp.
 
And don't sing mate.. no way.... not even in jest

 

 

[SaLX]

There really are no words to properly describe the feeling of hearing my new Schiit stack with my new HD650 headphones.  Let's just say that this combination has opened a whole new world into the PC HD audio realm for me, and I will never look back.

I'm really glad that you've got there Foo - I'm hoping that my inane choice works just as well

 

[TwelveTrains]

Just an FYI, the "primary" or default audio for the Xbox One at-launch is DTS-HD, though Microsoft recently announced they will be adding support for Dolby Digital Live out through optical in the future. Right now, an Astro Mixamp wouldn't work with surround output from an Xbox One.

Just my opinion, DH and Yamaha's Silent Cinema are basically on-par, I prefer the various solutions from Creative (began testing a Sound Blaster Z this week).

Battlefield 3's audio settings are confusing, I think the "home theater" setting is for 5.1 channel surround, which you'd want to use with your own surround processing. I'm not totally clear about this being the best mode to use with a soundcard, though.

I thought a Creative sound card could process DDL and DTS connect if the source was inside the computer like a disc drive or media file. I enjoyed a few DVD's in surround with my Mac and Recon3D USB.

So when playing a movie in a PC that has a Creative card, will the Dolby 5.1 or DTS encoding benefit from being faced with CMSS-3D? Or is PC movie watching only truly optimized with a Asus card being fed through Dolby Headphone?

I was under the assumtion that only hardware could decode (or is it encode?) a Dolby or DTS signal that then could be sent as a virtual headphone surround signal. But even VLC has a Dolby surround setting...which I am not sure anymore if a Dolby headphone card or if an external decoder is needed to take advantage of this.

I would like to think I could get some kind of virtual heaphone surround for movies with my Creative card alone, but CMSS-3D just makes everything sound...weird for movies. Perhaps it is because I had Dolby surround enabled in player?

 

[PurpleAngel]

So when playing a movie in a PC that has a Creative card, will the Dolby 5.1 or DTS encoding benefit from being faced with CMSS-3D? Or is PC movie watching only truly optimized with a Asus card being fed through Dolby Headphone?

I was under the assumtion that only hardware could decode (or is it encode?) a Dolby or DTS signal that then could be sent as a virtual headphone surround signal. But even VLC has a Dolby surround setting...which I am not sure anymore if a Dolby headphone card or if an external decoder is needed to take advantage of this.

I would like to think I could get some kind of virtual heaphone surround for movies with my Creative card alone, but CMSS-3D just makes everything sound...weird for movies. Perhaps it is because I had Dolby surround enabled in player?

The software Cyberlink PowerDVD 11 Ultra should be able to deal with an audio on a Blu-ray disk.
Usually sells for $30 on eBay.

 

[Evshrug]

Evs -no no!! - Don't get me wrong. 
Huh? I wasn't offended or anything, just tried to re-clarify what I was trying to say: I haven't observed a clear change yet, but I'm not that experienced yet so I won't rule out the possibility that a more expensive DAC makes enough difference to justify the added cost.
I only came here on head-Fi to suss out what bloody headphone and soundcard to get and promptly leave - and now I'm aiming for around $600 max worth of gear! I'm sure you're privvy to this brand of audiopathology.  You're a damned good poster and I didn't mean anything by that.
Oh, why thanks, I just do my thing and you do yours (& others,theirs), and that's what makes this community fun. And yes, I Am privvy... I resist impulse buys as much as possible, but I basically bought my AKG K712 just because I could. Love 'em.

If you want to hear a hare brained line of thought:  SBZ OEM > Audio-GD 11.32 > Philips X1 ( I know the Dac/Amp is overkill) <> To be replaced with a AKG K712 pro around April next year when I get the cold hard readies. The AKG will actually benefit from the NFB's amp.
Oh heeeey, speak of the AKG... If you haven't bought the X1's already, apparently the K612 is well worth a long look.

If I get the chance I'll try processing surround with my Z and using my Recon3D USB as a DAC, just to see if it can be done, but tonight, instead of testing, I saw the very thought provoking "Ender's Game." Everything the face-tattoo'd guy says is important. Is it strange that I would LOVE to watch this movie again with my headphones to hear a better audio balance and more articulation?

Hope to hear DAC impressions, even for different brands/models.

And don't sing mate.. no way.... not even in jest  

Aw c'mon man, you've never hummed a song stuck in your head? Even if you just do it for yourself, singing feels good

So when playing a movie in a PC that has a Creative card, will the Dolby 5.1 or DTS encoding benefit from being faced with CMSS-3D? Or is PC movie watching only truly optimized with a Asus card being fed through Dolby Headphone?

I was under the assumtion that only hardware could decode (or is it encode?) a Dolby or DTS signal that then could be sent as a virtual headphone surround signal. But even VLC has a Dolby surround setting...which I am not sure anymore if a Dolby headphone card or if an external decoder is needed to take advantage of this.

I would like to think I could get some kind of virtual heaphone surround for movies with my Creative card alone, but CMSS-3D just makes everything sound...weird for movies. Perhaps it is because I had Dolby surround enabled in player?

THX sounded great for me with the proper settings; I have no idea what your setup is like. Double-processed virtual surround definitely makes for weirds.

 

[NoOneLt]

Hello everyone, i have a thread here, need an advice between PC 350 SE vs. ATH-A500X for PC FPS online gaming, and wrote details there, any help would be appreciated!

 

[kezzo]

hi, i ve got a question.
 
when im watching gameplay videos on youtube i take unbelievable sounds with my headset. positional voices are perfect. but when i play same game i couldnt take this sound.
 
i have a headset with usb surroun soundcard.

 

[SaLX]

Looks like you haven't turned on your surround features kezzo. You've been listening to youtube in stereo most likely. Check out your manual or google how to set up your specific card.

 

[kezzo]

i am using creative headset and my headset control panel's surround option is on everytime.

 

[SaLX]

Have you set it to 7.1 or 5.1 in the Windows Sound control panel (speaker icon> playback devices>configure in systray)? If it's set to stereo = no surround. Also switch off your motherboards audio in Bios.

 

[kezzo]

i have not have a sound card, iam using headsets driver which has only virtual surround. there's no 5.1 nor 7.1 option. my motherboard doesnt support 5.1 or 7.1
 
thats why i am thinking to buy a real sound card.

 

[OverlordMittenz]

Okay, so this has probably been asked a million times, so please don't murder me.  I currently have a Turtle Beach Ear Force DSS, ASUS Maximus VI Hero mobo and am using optical, and Superlux 661B.  I am getting AKG Q701 from my wife for Christmas and whatever other accessory I will need to get dolby headphone to them.  I was planning on getting the Objective 2 right off the bat, but seeing as my Ear Force DSS isn't getting Dolby Digital signal from my computer... I think I might need to invest in a sound card?  Any help would be appreciated.  PLIIX is bleh.

 

[NamelessPFG]

So when playing a movie in a PC that has a Creative card, will the Dolby 5.1 or DTS encoding benefit from being faced with CMSS-3D? Or is PC movie watching only truly optimized with a Asus card being fed through Dolby Headphone?

I was under the assumtion that only hardware could decode (or is it encode?) a Dolby or DTS signal that then could be sent as a virtual headphone surround signal. But even VLC has a Dolby surround setting...which I am not sure anymore if a Dolby headphone card or if an external decoder is needed to take advantage of this.

I would like to think I could get some kind of virtual heaphone surround for movies with my Creative card alone, but CMSS-3D just makes everything sound...weird for movies. Perhaps it is because I had Dolby surround enabled in player?

 
For movie watching, CMSS-3D Headphone works, though you should also know that WinDVD and PowerDVD both have the option of software Dolby Headphone mixing. Presumably, other media players do too; I just don't know which ones or how to set it up. Just make sure you don't accidentally have both on simultaneously, as that just destroys the intended positioning.
 
Said software mixing is obviously useless for PC gaming, which is what this guide tends to center on.
 
Dolby Digital/DTS decoding on PC is generally done in software via the media player program; you shouldn't have to worry about that. Dolby Surround/Pro Logic is a bit trickier, as it's a means of matrixing a surround signal into only two channels, and as most devices can't tell it apart from a conventional stereo signal, you need to manually enable or disable it. Worse off, I don't know of any software decoders. However, the only times I've found Dolby Surround/Pro Logic decoding to be a concern are when you're dealing with console games that don't have Dolby Digital or DTS support.
 

Okay, so this has probably been asked a million times, so please don't murder me.  I currently have a Turtle Beach Ear Force DSS, ASUS Maximus VI Hero mobo and am using optical, and Superlux 661B.  I am getting AKG Q701 from my wife for Christmas and whatever other accessory I will need to get dolby headphone to them.  I was planning on getting the Objective 2 right off the bat, but seeing as my Ear Force DSS isn't getting Dolby Digital signal from my computer... I think I might need to invest in a sound card?  Any help would be appreciated.  PLIIX is bleh.

 
First off, the Maximus VI Hero only supports DTS Connect; I guess Asus didn't feel like licensing any Dolby features for their ROG boards.
 
The Ear Force DSS cannot decode DTS signals. For that matter, if this is strictly for PC gaming, I don't see why you'd go out and buy one when you could've bought a cheap X-Fi Titanium or Xonar DGX. Are you trying to re-use the same setup across PC and console?
 
On top of that, they didn't license any of Creative's X-Fi MB software suites either, so you don't have any form of headphone surround whatsoever with the integrated audio drivers. Not unless you're willing to experiment with Razer Surround or Out Of Your Head, anyway.
 
At the very least, I suppose you could give that Sonic Radar software a shot if you need the situational awareness advantage. (I don't use it myself; it seems to be tied to the M6H's Realtek driver, and I keep the Realtek codec disabled due to having a proper sound card installed.)

 

[OverlordMittenz]

   
 
 
First off, the Maximus VI Hero only supports DTS Connect; I guess Asus didn't feel like licensing any Dolby features for their ROG boards.
 
The Ear Force DSS cannot decode DTS signals. For that matter, if this is strictly for PC gaming, I don't see why you'd go out and buy one when you could've bought a cheap X-Fi Titanium or Xonar DGX. Are you trying to re-use the same setup across PC and console?
 
On top of that, they didn't license any of Creative's X-Fi MB software suites either, so you don't have any form of headphone surround whatsoever with the integrated audio drivers. Not unless you're willing to experiment with Razer Surround or Out Of Your Head, anyway.
 
At the very least, I suppose you could give that Sonic Radar software a shot if you need the situational awareness advantage. (I don't use it myself; it seems to be tied to the M6H's Realtek driver, and I keep the Realtek codec disabled due to having a proper sound card installed.)
 

From what I understand, the ROG series cards are supposed to be getting Sonic Radar.  It's not a feature I really care for.  
 
I bought the Ear Force DSS a year or two ago on eBay for 2.50.  That's the only reason I have it.  I originally bought it for Console gaming, but then switched to the Creative Extigy with a "true" 5.1 headset.  Now, after hearing the sound quality of my Superlux over Psyko Carbons, I've decided to switch to Dolby Headphone and a pair of good cans (AKG Q701)  They aren't soley for gaming though, I plan on listening to a fair bit of music on them as well. Otherwise I would have gone with the much cheaper option of the AD700 even if they are bit hard to find now that they are discontinued.  
 
So, what would be my "best" way of moving forward as far as getting Dolby Headphone to the AKG Q701s? There is a ASUS Xonar Essence STX on eBay right now with upgraded OP Amps that I was looking into, but I'm not positive that it supports Dolby headphone and I'm not positive it would sufficiently power the cans for a pleasant audio experience.  I'm still not positive as I've never really delved this far into audio equipment.  On console it was quite easy.  Plug in this, this, and this and play games. 
 
I went into windows audio and clicked dolby digital and was able to see the dolby digital light on the DSS light up, so there must be some way of enabling it even though it is probably locked down somewhere from ASUS.
 
EDIT: When I say best.  I mean in the ~150 dollar price range.  Used it absolutely fine, I just am kinda pushing the wifey already to get another device to pair up with the headphones.  So, amplification and Dolby Headphone are absolutely necessary.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  Okay, so this has probably been asked a million times, so please don't murder me.  I currently have a Turtle Beach Ear Force DSS, ASUS Maximus VI Hero mobo and am using optical, and Superlux 661B.  I am getting AKG Q701 from my wife for Christmas and whatever other accessory I will need to get dolby headphone to them.  I was planning on getting the Objective 2 right off the bat, but seeing as my Ear Force DSS isn't getting Dolby Digital signal from my computer... I think I might need to invest in a sound card?  Any help would be appreciated.  PLIIX is bleh.

Asus Xonar DX or D1 sound card, used $60.
Plug the Objective 2 (or Schiit Magni?) headphone amplifier straight into the Xonar DX.
No need for the DSS.