Better virtual surround

[breakfastcereal]

So I have the Xonar DX. I don't know much about this field, but I play with Dolby headphones, Dolby Prologic IIx and 7.1 Virtual Speaker Shifter enabled. The sound is very "unnatural", like listening to stuff happen in an echoing bathroom. Are there any ways/tweaks to get it sound more natural?

 

[spaceman]

Yes. Turn it all off and try just stereo. See how that sounds. Then try selecting just dolby headphone and that's it. Your problem is adding the prologic and virtual. Too much messing with the sound.

If you can, I would suggest getting a creative Z. I went from a dx to the Z and find it a bit better sounding for games.

 

[breakfastcereal]

I guess that's the problem. I'm going to upgrade to Xonar STX in the future, I don't expect better surround from it, but that isn't as much of an importance for me as the original post suggested.

 

[spaceman]

I guess that's the problem. I'm going to upgrade to Xonar STX in the future, I don't expect better surround from it, but that isn't as much of an importance for me as the original post suggested.

The Creative ZxR might be worth looking into over the Stx if the regular Z vs the dx is anything to go by. I prefer the Z. Even the headphone amp is stronger sounding despite not needing an additional power connection.

 

[breakfastcereal]

I've found that while it does sound weird, you'll get used to it in few minutes. I just watched the Hobbit with Dolby Headphone enabled, but it was kinda religious experience anyway.

 

[spaceman]

Yeah but just use Dolby headphone and not the others bc it gets games sounding weird. For movies, they might sound better with dolby II and the virtual 7.1. The real issue is with games the sound position keeps changing and has to be recoded on the fly. In a movie it is fixed and already encoded.

Btw Creatives SBX creates better 7.1 for headphones than I have heard outside of a Smyth Realizer.