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Surround sound

K

Kbfore

n00b
Joined
Oct 8, 2012
Messages
36
What kind of surround sound could you get with a high end headphone and a dac versus a headset with 5.1 or 7.1 surround.
For example- asus xonar essence 1 with sennheiser hd 800
Vs
Logitech or razor meglodon
I know sound quality is WAY different here but what about surround for gaming?
 
I have a pair of $110 Sennheiser 558s and asus dx that have damn near perfect surround for a headphone. The directional sound of a good pair of stereo headphones always wins for gaming. The only thing better is an actual surround system with speakers.

I do have a fairly high end receiver that cost $3200 new powering my headphones but the difference is only noticeable in a subtle way. Like trying to listen to the same thing in a noisy room compared to a quiet one.
 
You don't have to go to such extremes, even entry level hifi headphones like the 558 and a $50 Xonar will outperform any of those gimmicky 5.1 headsets at reproducing positional cues in games.
 
Ok. So would that asus xonar essence one be ok as a gaming soundcard? Does the asus software create surround in a set of headphones? I think my sb xfi fatality titanium created simulated surround called cssmd or something like that. I guess instead of buying another headset at $300+, I'd rather buy a really good pair of headphones and upgrade my audio at the same time. I'm thinking maybe senn hd700 or Denon ah7100s. I do play a lot of games and would need them to do surround. Anyone know a good clip-mic for such a setup? I'm also not sure if my motherboard(asus sabertooth x58) has coax out or spdif out? Is there an easy way to check? The essence 1 supports either I believe but the USB drivers are buggy I hear. Thanks
 
Zalman clip on mics are decent but they pick up every little background noise. The Antlion ModMic is a bit expensive at $30 but a much better mic and the mounting system for the boom is very clever. Xonar cards can do Dolby Headphone which is equivalent to CMSS3D... Some people like one or the other a bit more, some don't care at all for virtualization. I'm not super familiar with ASUS' DAC and how it competes with the huge variety of USB DACs out there, sorry.
 
Why the hell would you want to blow $600 on a DAC designed for music, and use it for gaming? Get an Essence soundcard or lower Xonar and you'll be just as happy. You'll never use half the hardware capabilities of the Essence One that you're paying big bucks for, i.e. the balanced XLR connectivity, so why waste the money?
 
I plan on using the balanced xlr and the E1 as a HP amp. I have a big music collection so I want high quality audio with headphones and bookshelve monitors. My soundcard is broken and my motherboard audio and dac is trash. Other than buying a receiver and amps for speakers I could do both with the smaller essence1 and it is a soundcard. I need quality closed headphones because of the environment I'm listening in. Just making sure they are gonna be ok for gaming too. I want some kickass gear too. Any ideas for small monitors/speakers in the 300$ range? I'm gonna be using HP 95% of the time. I'm a bit worried about the USB dac connection...not sure if my MB uses optical or spdif yet. Any ideas?
 
Kbfore said:
I plan on using the balanced xlr and the E1 as a HP amp. I have a big music collection so I want high quality audio with headphones and bookshelve monitors. My soundcard is broken and my motherboard audio and dac is trash. Other than buying a receiver and amps for speakers I could do both with the smaller essence1 and it is a soundcard. I need quality closed headphones because of the environment I'm listening in. Just making sure they are gonna be ok for gaming too. I want some kickass gear too. Any ideas for small monitors/speakers in the 300$ range? I'm gonna be using HP 95% of the time. I'm a bit worried about the USB dac connection...not sure if my MB uses optical or spdif yet. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

What is your room setup? Are you wanting near-field monitor speakers or living-room distance bookshelves? XLR speakers mean less choice as you'll need powered speakers a la M-Audio near-fields to stay in budget and small form factor.

USB versus SPDIF is a pick your poison issue. Both can have their issues/"features"

For ASIO most people like Foobar2K among the few options...that said even the Foobarr devs are skeptical about it being needed for any application other than ultra-low latency needs like live mixing-which you wouldn't be doing with a Xonar anyway.

BTW, IIRC the Essence One does not do Dolby headphone. Meaning no fake surround sound.
 
Last edited:
Great info. Probably near field speakers. Just one on either side of the computer. I will check out m-audio. I'm not sure either about the essence supporting Dolby ss. If not, this whole setup might need to be reworked. I've been through the forums to find out about the E1 supporting ss, my guess is since the cheaper xonar models support it maybe the E1 does too. I'm gonna go try and find out. So does foobar asio w/ dac and good HP = better sound and more enjoyable audio? That's my goal here. Thanks
 
Kbfore said:
Great info. Probably near field speakers. Just one on either side of the computer. I will check out m-audio. I'm not sure either about the essence supporting Dolby ss. If not, this whole setup might need to be reworked. I've been through the forums to find out about the E1 supporting ss, my guess is since the cheaper xonar models support it maybe the E1 does too. I'm gonna go try and find out. So does foobar asio w/ dac and good HP = better sound and more enjoyable audio? That's my goal here. Thanks
Click to expand...

Read through the entire 64-page E1 Head-Fi thread, since I don't think you have:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/542563/asus-essence-one-headphone-amp-dac-cebit-2011

Most of the 1st ten pages or so is pre-release chatter followed by some piss matching about if Asus is an "audiophile" brand, then it gets back to being useful. Last I knew the E1 didn't implement Dolby anything. In theory Asus could add it at anytime, but last I knew they didn't...and for music Dolby is utterly pointless, and music fidelity is the point of a USB DAC. In theory if you have an E1 daisy chained via SPDIF to another Xonar soundcard with Dolby headphone you'd get the fake surround sound, but last I knew that was just a theory.

Whether you enjoy and notice the $1k you propose to spend depends entirely on what source you're listening to and how good or bad your ears are. Teenagers today have the hearing loss/damage of 60 year old office workers of the 1940s to start with, nvm the lack of attention to listening due to elevator music being everywhere. I know people who have good ears who are trained musicians who think $50 is a ton to spend on headphones and think $50 cans sound "fantastic"....and those are professionals in music, not just middle-schoolers who got their first iPod and crappy earbuds.

If you've never owned or worked with nice gear, you might be horrified at how some of your tunes/sounds you're accustomed to sound through higher-fi and more honest gear. I.e. you can hear mixing errors in movies, or with acoustic music you can hear a violinist's fingers on the fingerboard to name a few examples. In addition to tone quality and sound stage being quite different. "Better" depends heavily on taste, some prefer vanilla neutral gear or some prefer warmer sounding gear etc. E1 is generally considered to be on the warmer side of the more honest spectra.
 
I've read some. I'll read and research more. I won't buy anything till I know better. Thanks for your help its been great.
 
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