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Simulated 5.1 surround for gaming

E

eddieck

Gawd
Joined
Dec 13, 2009
Messages
1,010
I've seen 5.1 and 7.1 surround headphones, particularly from Logitech and Razer, and have also read they're no good. I'm interested in getting something similar to surround sound from standard headphones though.

I've got a Xonar DS sound card. I'd be playing quite a few games but let's take MW2 as an example. It supports 5.1 surround natively. My Xonar card should also be capable of DTS Surround Sensation. What's the kind of setup I should use for a half-decent fake surround experience here?

TIA!
 
theres many theories as to how to do this correctly, most of them will get the same result

generalized, they boil down to one of the following:

- surround simulation from stereo/headphone audio

- surround simulation from 5.1 through hp audio

personally I always suggest the former, basically, enable headphone or stereo output in the game, and then enable Dolby Headphone on your soundcard, as well as telling your soundcard you have headphones connected, not 5.1 speakers

alternately, some users will enable the game to 5.1, and leave the soundcard in stereo/headphone mode, this doesn't make much difference for the end result, and can in some cases be a negative (games like Half-Life 2, which use an internal software system for their audio, should be left in headphone mode, as opposed to having the audio driver attempt to simulate that after the game engine has already done its business)
 
Thanks for the info.

I've checked my Xonar drivers and I can't find anything for fake surround. There are a bunch of DTS technologies present (DTS Neo and a few others, but not Surround Sensation) but no Dolby technologies. So I guess I may have to upgrade my sound card?

Oddly enough, the onboard audio on my P6T SE (a Realtek ALC1200) does advertise and support DTS Surroud Sensation. It doesn't make sense the cheap onboard audio would support that and my Xonar wouldn't.
 
I'm not sure about the DS, but on the DX you can set 5.1 audio in Windows, then in the Xonar control panel set it for 6 speakers, with headphone as the output, and it should automatically engage Dolby Headphone or the DTS equivalent - that's wha tthe DX does.
 
Forceman said:
I'm not sure about the DS, but on the DX you can set 5.1 audio in Windows, then in the Xonar control panel set it for 6 speakers, with headphone as the output, and it should automatically engage Dolby Headphone or the DTS equivalent - that's wha tthe DX does.
Click to expand...

unfortunately I don't know either, its a new little board that I haven't heard much about

DTS Neo is DTS' alternative to Pro Logic though, try enabling all of that as Forceman explained, see if it gets you somewhere
 
Thanks. I've just been able to try it out and there's no difference. :( It seems the Xonar DS doesn't support any kind of simulated surround.

If I do upgrade should I look for Dolby Headphone or DTS Surround Sensation? What sounds better, keeping in mind all of my source audio will be 5.1 so DTS Neo or Dolby's equivalent is not required?
 
eddieck said:
Thanks. I've just been able to try it out and there's no difference. :( It seems the Xonar DS doesn't support any kind of simulated surround.

If I do upgrade should I look for Dolby Headphone or DTS Surround Sensation? What sounds better, keeping in mind all of my source audio will be 5.1 so DTS Neo or Dolby's equivalent is not required?
Click to expand...

better is relative, and theres also CMSS to consider
I'd probably avoid the DTS thing, mostly because it seems new or obscure, you'd need Neo:6 or 5.1 speakers enabled as well (which is the same for D-H)

Xonar DX/D1 or most of the other C-Media based cards from HT Omega/Auzen, or any of the X-Fi cards, will do just fine
 
obobski said:
better is relative, and theres also CMSS to consider
I'd probably avoid the DTS thing, mostly because it seems new or obscure, you'd need Neo:6 or 5.1 speakers enabled as well (which is the same for D-H)
Click to expand...

What? DTS Surround Sensation (on my onboard audio) works fine on a standard cheap-o pair of headphones. They're most certainly not DTS Neo or Dolby headphones.

obobski said:
Xonar DX/D1 or most of the other C-Media based cards from HT Omega/Auzen, or any of the X-Fi cards, will do just fine
Click to expand...

Yeah. I'm going to go for a D1. Anyone interested in a DS with an LM4562 opamp? :) I'm against Creative because of their extremely poor Linux drivers.
 
eddieck said:
What? DTS Surround Sensation (on my onboard audio) works fine on a standard cheap-o pair of headphones. They're most certainly not DTS Neo or Dolby headphones.
Click to expand...

DTS Neo is roughly equivalent to Pro Logic II, so it'd take your stereo signal and make it 5.1
Surround Sensation is like Dolby Headphone, it takes your multi-ch signal and plays with HTRF

I generally don't bother to look for DTS tech on the PC, because it isn't as widespread as Dolby, my point isn't that its bad, but that its not as adopted as the competing standards from Creative or Dolby, and either of those will do the same thing
 
Ah. I'm REALLY loving Surround Sensation Headphone though. I can't seem to find any decent sound cards though that do DTS Surround so I'm just going to go for the Dolby Headphone.
 
eddieck said:
Ah. I'm REALLY loving Surround Sensation Headphone though. I can't seem to find any decent sound cards though that do DTS Surround so I'm just going to go for the Dolby Headphone.
Click to expand...

I'm really doubting if you can tell the difference between it and Dolby Headphone, most users can't discern CMSS-Headphone from Dolby Headphone, since they effectively do the same thing, same goes for the DTS tech
 
I was using Dolby Headphone for games with my Xonar Essence STX card. I too wanted to get the surround sound effect with headphones. Now, the Essence STX is an awesome card and DH does work ok, the effect sounded artificial to me. It was like I was listening from inside a metal drum or something. That may be exaggerating a bit, but I wasn't crazy about the sound that DH produced with that card.

So, I decided to try the Auzentech Forte X-fi card. Using CMSS 3D on the forte I get a much better surround sound feel than I did with DH on the Essence. Sounds can pin-pointed with excellent accuracy and the overall effect is much more convincing to my ears.

I do miss the punch of the Essence card though, but for gaming the Forte fits the bill in my opinion.
 
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