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Surround sound from stereo headphones

K

Kbfore

n00b
Joined
Oct 8, 2012
Messages
36
Hi guys. I'm using Asus Essence One and a pair of Denon headphones that are stereo. I've mainly been listening to music but I'm missing surround sound in games. Is there software that can sim surround in games? I've heard of rapture3d but I'm unfamiliar with audio software. Some direction would be great! Thanks
 
Not for that dac. Not unless you want the sound to be weird. I don't use any effects myself. You might want to select 8 speakers in windows. Otherwise, the game sound should be as "surround" sounding as the game engine allows. Try BF3 in high fi mode. Not enhanced. Just hi fi and tell me it isn't doing a good job of surround sound. That is it's game engine. Old games need help from 3d cmss and dolby headphone.

A good pair of stereo headphones should provide you with surround sound. Why does it not seem like it? Compared to speakers they certainly won't sound like that kind of surround btw.
 
I can't view that website from work.

I can't imagine it doing anything unless it's an audio driver which you have to then select and then passes audio to your actual DAC. If it's not doing this then at best all it is doing is basic effects in regards to simulating room size. If the multi-channel audio isn't being passed to it it won't have the intelligence to do anything beyond that.

OP - You'll have to buy a soundcard that supports Dolby Headphone or a creative card with CMSS-3D. The Essence One is an amazing DAC. Given your requirements of needing virtual surround you should have just bought the STX instead. I'd return the Essence One if you still can and exchange it for the STX. The STX on paper is supposed to provide superior audio quality as it is. Although most agree the Essence One sounds a tiny bit better for practical usage.
 
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spaceman said:
Not for that dac. Not unless you want the sound to be weird. I don't use any effects myself. You might want to select 8 speakers in windows. Otherwise, the game sound should be as "surround" sounding as the game engine allows. Try BF3 in high fi mode. Not enhanced. Just hi fi and tell me it isn't doing a good job of surround sound. That is it's game engine. Old games need help from 3d cmss and dolby headphone.

A good pair of stereo headphones should provide you with surround sound. Why does it not seem like it? Compared to speakers they certainly won't sound like that kind of surround btw.
Click to expand...

The included 'Headphone' software modes in newer games comes no where near to producing the surround effect that virtual surround DSP's like DH or CMSS-3D are capable of. (And BF3 is the best i've heard, but even that pales in comparison to setting it to 8 channel mode in the game/windows and then using Dolby Headphone.)

There are a number of high quality youtube videos floating around demonstrating how beneficial something like dolby headphone is in games. As the DSP has already been applied to the youtube recording you can hear the effect in your own headphones as long as you don't have any DSP's fooling around with your audio.
 
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Mchart said:
I can't view that website from work.

I can't imagine it doing anything unless it's an audio driver which you have to then select and then passes audio to your actual DAC. If it's not doing this then at best all it is doing is basic effects in regards to simulating room size. If the multi-channel audio isn't being passed to it it won't have the intelligence to do anything beyond that.
Click to expand...

this is part of their spiel on the website, if it sheds any light on it: "TB Isone employs real-time HRTF (head-related transfer function) and BRIR (binaural room impulse response) processing in a flexible VST plugin format. This makes Isone the perfect tool for headphone mixing, binaural room and loudspeaker simulation, and 3D virtual audio processing."

spaceman said:
I think that is for Apple?
Click to expand...

Windows and Mac OSX
 
Porter_ said:
this is part of their spiel on the website, if it sheds any light on it: "TB Isone employs real-time HRTF (head-related transfer function) and BRIR (binaural room impulse response) processing in a flexible VST plugin format. This makes Isone the perfect tool for headphone mixing, binaural room and loudspeaker simulation, and 3D virtual audio processing."



Windows and Mac OSX
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It's a VST plugin..

There are methods to get that working for all Windows Audio output, but good luck getting it working in stable latency free fashion.
 
Mchart said:
It's a VST plugin..

There are methods to get that working for all Windows Audio output, but good luck getting it working in stable latency free fashion.
Click to expand...

fair enough. they offer a free trial download so it might be worth a try for the OP.
 
I didn't know about that 'MyEars' thing.

I'd check that out OP. Looks easy to use and should work good.

Although it costs money and you have to deal with switching Windows between MyEars / Essence One whenever you wanted untouched stereo audio.
 
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Can't you just get a DSS box to plug them into? I used one with a set of turtle beach headphones and the difference to my ears was huge. I could really tell the direction of where people and sounds were coming from in games
 
Bman123 said:
Can't you just get a DSS box to plug them into? I used one with a set of turtle beach headphones and the difference to my ears was huge. I could really tell the direction of where people and sounds were coming from in games
Click to expand...

Yes but it defeats the purpose of having a nice dac/amp like the essence.

He is referring to something like the Astro mixamp dolby headphone mixer. The turtle beach version of it at least. A lot of pro gamers use the mixamp and I would say it does work well for games that need the help. You could possibly use that instead or with the essence. Might run optical out into the mixamp and usb into the essence. I think you can do both at the same time.

http://www.astrogaming.com/mixamp-pro-2013-edition

Found a short blurb about myears

I'd read conflicted comments on which was superior or if there was any real difference at all between the two, I tried MyEars out with the PC360 because my X1's had not shown up by the time I wanted to test it out - therefore I had a set of cans that are known for having a great soundstage and positional audio and have used Dolby Headphone from my Mixamp with them for several years.

MyEars has a fairly lengthy set-up process that must be completed with each set of cans that you want to use with the software (it took me around 30 minutes though I rushed the latter half of it) and is only compatible with PC audio, whilst the creators did say they were going to get console audio working it seems that all development has ceased. Judging by their Facebook and Twitter feeds it looks like it never really took off so there was little reason for them to continue working on it.

So, how did it sound once the set-up was complete? Superb, well in terms of positional audio at the very least. I allowed myself to get accustomed to MyEars for a while before I A/B'd between it and DH, I found that whilst DH is very clear on sounds that are coming from in front of you it isn't so great with rearward sounds (again, this could well just be with the PC360). MyEars was great at simulating a true 7.1 enviroment in terms of speaker placement but it fell flat on it's face when compared to the soundstage of DH.

I don't know about other people but the moment I press that DH button on the Mixamp the soundstage grows immensely which I like very much and find that it's more pleasing to my ears during games compared to the more intimate presentation that stereo sound delivers. MyEars sounds like you are wearing some ridiculous contraption that has somehow allowed you to position seven speakers around your head, DH sounds like these speakers are spread out around the room as they would be in a real surround sound set-up.

Initially I thought I would end up using MyEars for competitive play (which I don't do very often) and DH for everything else, that was until I noticed the distortion. MyEars seems to distort certain frequencies in the upper-mid to treble region for me (this isn't something I have seen others complain about) - this is most noticeable when characters are speaking, whilst I could have coped with a smaller soundstage this was the final nail in the coffin for MyEars. I am by no means disappointed by DH but I now know that it can be bettered for at least positional audio.

Source:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/646786/evs...i-know-now-discussion-journal/15#post_9125519
 
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