[NamelessPFG]

I don't have a Beyerdynamic DT990 to do comparisons with, sorry.
 
However, you might be able to do some comparisons yourself using these videos. If that doesn't work out and the treble still bugs you, you can always try toning it down using the EQ.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

I'm looking at the Asus Xonar DG right now for Dolby headphone. Is there another sound card with Dolby headphone that you guys can recommend me?
Edit: How do the Beyers 990 premium/pro sounds with CMSS-3D? I would switch to CMSS-3D if it can contain the high treble the Beyers 990 seem to have. DH smoothed out the knife piercing highs for me.

The Asus Xonar DG ($30) can decently power Beyerdynamic DT990 250-Ohm headphones, not the best choice for amping 250-ohm headphones.
The Xonar DS. DX, D1 are worst for powering 250-Ohm headphones then the DG.
One option is to get the Fiio E9  headphone amplifier and plug it into the DG sound card and use the E9 to drive the DT990s.
 
 
 

 

[Danny0990]

I have the lyr to power the beyers. I just want to make sure I wont be going brain dead when it amps their notorious highs lol
 
Atm Im using the mixamp for DH but I want to switch out of it.
 
 
Edit: The HT Omega Halo XT looks very promising. I think I'm going to give that a trial run.

 

[mindstarr]

Very interested in people's opinions on the best amping options for K550 or D2000. 
Would the Fiio E9 or E10 improve sound quality if source is Creative X-Fi Titanium HD? 
What other amps might work well with this setup?

 

[btkramer]

I realize this is a bit of a noobish question, but I am just getting back into PC gaming after a few years break. I have been looking into 3D sound recently, comparing Dolby Headphone and CMSS-3D. The comparison seems to be moot however, as it appears that most new games have their own 3D sound engine. My two questions therefore are:
 
1. Does it not matter AT ALL what your sound hardware is, as far as achieving the 3D sound effect goes, for games that have their own 3D sound engine? (I do realize actual SQ will vary according to the hardware.) My current sound setup on my laptop does not support any type of surround at all. The only speaker options I have are 2.1 speakers and headphones. Would I not need a sound card that lets me at least select 5.1 surround for the game's 3D sound engine to kick in and start giving me 3D sound in my headphones?
 
2. Will any set of headphones give the same performance, regardless of the 3D sound engine (Or other tech, like DH or CMSS-3D)? In other words, is it possible for a particular set of headphones to work well with one technology, producing a nice 3D sound effect, but not work well with another? 

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

Very interested in people's opinions on the best amping options for K550 or D2000. 
Would the Fiio E9 or E10 improve sound quality if source is Creative X-Fi Titanium HD? 
What other amps might work well with this setup?

First off, the T-HD (Titanium HD) already has a decent DAC, so really do not need the E10.
The T-HD does not have a true headphone amplifier, but does a fairly decent job of powering headphones.
So you should at least try the headphone(s) plugged straight into the T-HD first.
The Fiio E9 works better with headphones 80 to 100-Ohms or higher, and the Denon AH-D2000 is only 25-Ohms.
 
 
 

 

[mindstarr]

Quote:

First off, the T-HD (Titanium HD) already has a decent DAC, so really do not need the E10.
The T-HD does not have a true headphone amplifier, but does a fairly decent job of powering headphones.
So you should at least try the headphone(s) plugged straight into the T-HD first.
The Fiio E9 works better with headphones 80 to 100-Ohms or higher, and the Denon AH-D2000 is only 25-Ohms.
 
 
 

What do you think about the HRT Headstreamer as DAC/Amp combo vs the T-HD?
http://www.head-fi.org/t/597886/review-hrt-headstreamer-asynchronous-usb-dac-amp

 
 

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

What do you think about the HRT Headstreamer as DAC/Amp combo vs the T-HD?
http://www.head-fi.org/t/597886/review-hrt-headstreamer-asynchronous-usb-dac-amp

The HRT Headstreamer does not offer any surround sound features for gaming and movies.
But as someone who has never used the HRT, I may not be the best person to advise on it.
But I'm going "guess" it would work well enough for you.
and as an external, it's much easier to move around and use with different source(s).
 
 
 

 

[NamelessPFG]

 
Quote:

I realize this is a bit of a noobish question, but I am just getting back into PC gaming after a few years break. I have been looking into 3D sound recently, comparing Dolby Headphone and CMSS-3D. The comparison seems to be moot however, as it appears that most new games have their own 3D sound engine. My two questions therefore are:
 
1. Does it not matter AT ALL what your sound hardware is, as far as achieving the 3D sound effect goes, for games that have their own 3D sound engine? (I do realize actual SQ will vary according to the hardware.) My current sound setup on my laptop does not support any type of surround at all. The only speaker options I have are 2.1 speakers and headphones. Would I not need a sound card that lets me at least select 5.1 surround for the game's 3D sound engine to kick in and start giving me 3D sound in my headphones?
 
2. Will any set of headphones give the same performance, regardless of the 3D sound engine (Or other tech, like DH or CMSS-3D)? In other words, is it possible for a particular set of headphones to work well with one technology, producing a nice 3D sound effect, but not work well with another? 

1. - The problem is that games that have a software-driven sound engine do NOT have a binaural headphone mixing option. Apparently, to the developers of XAudio2 + X3DAudio, FMOD Ex, and the like, headphones are only good for one-dimensional, left-to-right panning, with no sense of front and rear or up and down. That is why we go to great lengths to use CMSS-3D Headphone or Dolby Headphone; at the very least, two-dimensional virtual 7.1 is better than not having front and rear cues at all.
 
2. - I had the general impression that CMSS-3D Headphone and Dolby Headphone both work about as well on any given headphone; that is to say, either a headphone works great with both or works badly with both. However, upon closer inspection (as noticed over in Mad Lust Envy's thread), Dolby Headphone tends to be more bass-emphasized while CMSS-3D Headphone is a bit more treble-emphasized, and without EQing the tonal balance back to neutral, this could skew with the headphone's own sound signature and the user's listening preferences.

 

[Phos]

All a headphone needs is good high frequency extension.  HRTF's work by adding in a treble cleft (yes, "cleft", not clef) at whatever frequency corresponds to that angle.  That's the simple version.  

 

[maverickronin]

Plus the timing differences between ears.

 

[NamelessPFG]

I just edited the guide to include Rapture3D, which I didn't think about too much before, but now that I've figured out how to get it working for binaural mixing (unfortunately, the method runs counter to what is needed to get XAudio2 and FMOD Ex titles to provide surround information), I can do some testing with it. Only good for OpenAL games, though.
 
More testing and experiences from other people would be appreciated. In fact, experience and suggested settings for non-X-Fi cards (that I don't own and can't afford to buy just for the sake of improving the guide) would be appreciated and allow me to improve the guide.

 

[Ilya--s]

Rapture3D is really great thing. Interesting, how good is built-in SRC in this - It doesn't load CPU too much (tested hardware X-fi vs Rapure3D in DIRT2 benchmark - didn't find a big difference in the results)

 

[Roller]

Frame rate wise, there has been reports of frame rate drops up to 15fps when using Rapture3D in ultra mode. Do keep in mind I'm just talking about visual performance penalties, as SQ wise they are quite close. I have to admit that Rapture3D is quite good and has great potential for both hardware and software OpenAL users.

 

[NamelessPFG]

Too bad we can't just replace XAudio2 + X3DAudio and FMOD Ex in all these new PC releases with OpenAL now...that would really go a long way toward making Rapture3D an easier sell.
 
What would also be nice is if they include their own DirectSound3D wrapper (a utility like ALchemy) to extend compatibility further, since I have more DirectSound3D titles than native OpenAL ones.