[Capunk]

Well this is interesting, I saw many people use their rigs for gaming, but the real question is, is there any advantages over normal gaming soundcard?

I use my D1 DAC & AMP (USB & OPTICAL) -> Denon D2000 for gaming (PC & X360), and they are awesome... but does it taking advantages from EAX?
From my Bioshock experiences, D1 perfectly process the sound, and my D2000 capture the whole atmosphere, so make it more ~creepy. But still when I tick EAX on or off, I don't find any differences?

So anyone willing to share their experiences, gaming with audiophile rigs.

 

[Zorander]

I play Oblivion on my rig. I remember running the game through the Move too (DAC & amp stages). They sound nice.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Are you running from your X-Fi via optical into the D1, or just doing USB into it? If its the former then you will take advantage of EAX, if you use USB you won't. Hmm, actually I'm not entirely sure if you still get EAX doing digital out from the X-Fi or if its just via analog.

 

[philodox]

Will EAX make a big difference with headphones? I know that when I played Oblivion on my rig using an Alien DAC as the source I felt like I was getting good spatial effects and positioning... and there was no EAX at play there, just K340 magic I guess.

 

[Capunk]

I don't have X-FI, but I'm using Audigy 2 ZS.
However, I'm using it through USB, and just about 5 mins ago, finished playing FEAR PERSUSE MANDATE Demo (doh...how to spell it), and yeah, EAX options disabled.

Which is strange, for some couple games, I'm able to toggle it on, even though I'm using D1 DAC via USB. Oh well, good system do their magic ~

I love using my system to play games, all sound effects & music within the games, sounds ~ High Definition, sharp and clear.
But for the surrounding effects, is this caused by our rig's soundstage... or in-game sound processing?

 

[darkswordsman17]

Quote:

Originally Posted by philodox /img/forum/go_quote.gif Will EAX make a big difference with headphones? I know that when I played Oblivion on my rig using an Alien DAC as the source I felt like I was getting good spatial effects and positioning... and there was no EAX at play there, just K340 magic I guess.

Well, supposedly the biggest advancement the X-Fi made over the earlier Creative cards was its surround effect with headphones (CMSS3D Headphone or whatever its called). Again, not sure if it applies it and then outputs PCM or if you have to do analog direct from the card.

And, if I'm not mistaken, EAX is really all software, Creative just made anything beyond 2 or 3 prohibitively expensive to license, which is why most cards don't do it. I might be wrong in that, but a lot of Creative's advantages over other companies is that they own the rights/patents to the technology which is software (that's how they got in on Doom 3, they found out Carmack's engine violated their intellectual property and so told id they had to remove it or license it, which they chose to license since it would have required a major delay to resolve). I think EAX 5 might have some tie with the X-Fi chip, but at this point PC gaming audio is so convoluted that its just stupid.

 

[GAD]

I absolutely did while playing Half Life 2. I love playing with headphones - makes it more involving to me.

GAD

 

[kool bubba ice]

With my DAC1 everything is crystal clear..

 

[spacemanspliff]

EAX does work via the digital out. I have used the 1/8th to coax to external dac for years now and will not use anything else. It is really a great way to improve the meh to bright x-fi sound. The CMSS sounds a bit weird to me atm b/c I just got my first Stax with the SR-Lambdas and they do such an awesome job just in stereo that I don't feel a need to use the 3D option. I do use speaker out instead of headphone out however. Audio Creation mode bit-perfect output for music. I will have my Oritek Zhalou soon but my old Sony ES1000 Pre-amp is doing a decent job atm.

 

[sum1]

well i play Bioshock (PC)with my Bro's D2000 as well but i actually use Audigy 2 for it.

Here is my reason why (I'm not an expert so i dont really know how valid my point is)
Audigy/X-fi supports up to 64/128 voices while a DAC/AMP using the generic usb driver i think only support 16 so you might not be getting all the sound with it.

As for EAX i can hear a difference with it but i actually prefer it to be off since for some reason the background sound seems to distant of low in volume for my taste. One reason you did not hear a difference with the EAX is that the DAC/AMP such as ibasso and move does not have EAX support since they use a generic usb driver.

But of course if you are using it with the xbox360 then all of this should not be a problem.

 

[spacemanspliff]

That is a really good point actually. I wonder too. However, I much prefer a good dac to the X-Fi analogue out. I recently was astounded by how deep my soundstage actually was with the upgrade of my headphones to Stax. I really could hear distances and positioning in the most realistic fashion I have ever experienced while gaming. This was while using an external PS Audio II Dac.

To explain it is difficult but it was like seeing several invisible rectangles which got smaller and smaller until I "saw" the sound far off to my left of a guy I just wasted with a grenade launcher dying. I had looked away and forward. He was then on my left about 75 yards away.Crazy moment. Made all the effort worthwhile. Now when I get my Oritek Zhalou I REALLY expect fireworks lol.

 

[epaludo]

I used a MicroDAC + Hornet "M" + K701 combo for gamming a couple of times and the difference was huge. I don't game much though. I liked the result when i tested it. Would probably be using the combo if gamming was one of my priorities ...

 

[kool bubba ice]

Quote:

Originally Posted by epaludo /img/forum/go_quote.gif I used a MicroDAC + Hornet "M" + K701 combo for gamming a couple of times and the difference was huge. I don't game much though. I liked the result when i tested it. Would probably be using the combo if gamming was one of my priorities ...

Pretty sweet portable gaming rig.. You should go to lans with it..

 

[Zorotto]

I am enjoying that XBox360 and PC tie to MOVE.
It is large activity in a narrow desk though MOVE doesn't turn to
carry in Japan.
The speaker is a time domain.

 

[Capunk]

Good! so many gamer hook-up with audiophiles stuff , or vice-versa.
Personally I was in pursuit for gaming headphones before, until I got seduced by this forum's web of temptations...

From a headphone, to amps, then sources, the IC, etc...
So I was wondering who has K701 and play games with it?
The most extreme setup I've heard, is some from here... playing Counter Strike Source with STAX 007, that's freakin crazy...