What settings for headphones?

[Twisteve]

I have hd555's, a bithead amp, and a sb audidy2.

What should it be set to in the advanced voluem settings where you can choose between "headphones, 7.1 surround, 5.1 surround,... etc etc"

Which one would be best for gaming / music?

Thanks

 

[Reck45]

Well the saddest thing is with creative cards, the "2 speaker" setting sounds better than the "headphone" one...

 

[Rhythmatic]

Bwhahah too true.

I recommend the kxDriver instead of creatives drivers. Here they are: kxDrivers
They are much better than the creative drivers, especially the spatialization. IMO, they are the only way to make a creative card sound good at all. Don't worry about rebooting or uninstalling your previous drivers in xp, unless they conflict.

In case you don't run xp, here's the download page for the Win98 Fix Heh, I am so getting that Chaintech ASAP.

 

[sanity8me]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rhythmatic Bwhahah too true. I recommend the kxDriver instead of creatives drivers. Here they are: kxDrivers They are much better than the creative drivers, especially the spatialization. IMO, they are the only way to make a creative card sound good at all. Don't worry about rebooting or uninstalling your previous drivers in xp, unless they conflict. In case you don't run xp, here's the download page for the Win98 Fix Heh, I am so getting that Chaintech ASAP.

aren't those "firmware" drivers? not sure if it's cause i still use win98se, but i had a terribly difficult and frustrating time uninstalling them.

just a word of advice: be careful.

 

[Mr.Radar]

Also, set your master and wave volume controls at 50% to avoid the Audigy's horrible clipping problems. The best Foobar2000 for the Audigy 2 non-ZS are resample to 48000 Hz, and use Strong ATH Noise Shaping dither. For the ZS use resampling to 96000 Hz, 24-bit fixed padded to 32 bit, no dither (with the Kx drivers on either card you should also use ASIO output instead of DirectSound or WaveOut).

 

[Twisteve]

Could someone answer the question I asked, please

 

[Mr.Radar]

Two channel (or Stereo). Don't use the headphone setting.

 

[ogewo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Radar Also, set your master and wave volume controls at 50% to avoid the Audigy's horrible clipping problems. The best Foobar2000 for the Audigy 2 non-ZS are resample to 48000 Hz, and use Strong ATH Noise Shaping dither. For the ZS use resampling to 96000 Hz, 24-bit fixed padded to 32 bit, no dither (with the Kx drivers on either card you should also use ASIO output instead of DirectSound or WaveOut).

For the ZS with Kx drivers do you still recommend ASIO over Kernel Streaming in Foobar? My ASIO doesn't seem to be working right just yet so would be nice if I could avoid it all together.

Awesome av710/foobar guide btw radar, really helped me.

 

[Mr.Radar]

I don't know if Kernel Streaming works with the Kx project drivers. If it does then that should be fine.

 

[breez]

Why 96KHz for ZS, but not for non-ZS?

 

[Twisteve]

Why not set it as "5.1 channel" or "7.1 channel"

Wouldnt it be eaiser to hear where enemys are, like more precisley?

 

[Geise]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Twisteve Why not set it as "5.1 channel" or "7.1 channel" Wouldnt it be eaiser to hear where enemys are, like more precisley?

That is only if you have a set of surround sound speakers. With headphones, those settings may actually muffle and conjest the sound (in my experience). Certain sounds that are meant to be heard through the rear speakers, for instance, may be silenced to some degree because your soundcard thinks it's outputting though all its surround connectors, but your headphones only use one connector (which is probably the one used only for the two front speakers in a surround speaker setup).

 

[Twisteve]

yep, your right.. i cant hear jack from behind

The headphone settings give me no depth at all, everything sounds the same distance..

So 2 channel would be my best bet then, and can i hear things from far away and close and be able to tell the difference?

 

[ogewo]

Apparently 24bit ASIO support for the Audigy 2 ZS is not yet available. ASIO works when setting foobar to 16bit and resample to 48khz, but is that going to be better than KS @ 24bit padded to 32bit and resampled to 96khz?

New reasons every day to add an av710 or 0404.

 

[Geise]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Twisteve yep, your right.. i cant hear jack from behind The headphone settings give me no depth at all, everything sounds the same distance.. So 2 channel would be my best bet then, and can i hear things from far away and close and be able to tell the difference?

That really should depend entirely on the game you're playing...though the 2 channel setting is the only one I'd use for headphones.