Wanted 7.1 or 5.1 headset with seperate 3.5MM jacks.

Asomodai

Asomodai

Asomodai

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11 Jan 2009
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72
Hey guys.

Very specific i know, but pretty desperate to replace my Speedlink Medusa 5.1 headset with something a little better.

Looking for something that uses seperate 3.5MM jacks as i have a pretty decent soundcard and dont want to use built in soundcard headsets.

Cheers!

Rob.
 
Asomodai said:
Yup thats what i mean!
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I think most people on here will agree with me when I say that whilst the Roccat Kave's are probably the best "hardware 5.1" headset, they are no way near as good as a decent sound card with Dolby Headphone/CMSS-3D and a good stereo set (Razer Carcharias / Corsair HS1A / etc.).
 
Yep. Former Medusa user here. Decent stereo headphones and a soundcard with Dolby Headphone is far superior for both sound quality and positioning.

Make sure to get headphones that are well suited to Dolby Headphone though.
 
Your titanium supports 5.1 out on optical via Dolby Digital Live and DTS Connect. You could keep the souncard and get an external receiver. I use a Victor SU-DH1 (about £60-70 to import I think). And plug some stereo headphones into that.

An alternative would be a Xonar (except DS model) but I think that X-Fi with an external receiver is a better solution for gaming.

Using my X-Fi Prelude I get some latency when using Dolby Digital Live but DTS Connect is pretty much perfect.
 
Uriel said:
Your titanium supports 5.1 out on optical via Dolby Digital Live and DTS Connect. You could keep the souncard and get an external receiver. I use a Victor SU-DH1 (about £60-70 to import I think). And plug some stereo headphones into that.

An alternative would be a Xonar (except DS model) but I think that X-Fi with an external receiver is a better solution for gaming.

Using my X-Fi Prelude I get some latency when using Dolby Digital Live but DTS Connect is pretty much perfect.
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Hang on a min Uriel, I thought that optical could only transmit DTS/Dolby Digital/2 Channel PCM so how can you go from what is essentially "analogue" to 5.1 Dolby? How do you set that up? Is it possible with the Xonar DG?
 
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The soundcard has an optical out. It encodes the game audio as DTS or Dolby Digital in 5.1. This is sent to the receiver which decodes it, adds dolby headphone, performs digital to analogue conversion and outputs an analogue signal at the headphone jack.

The soundcard does not actually perform digital to analogue conversion here. It's all essentially digital until it gets to the receiver.

The Xonar DG does not have Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect so it can only pass pre-encoded 5.1 content over optical, not encode game audio etc.
 
Right, I'm a little confused and I'll explain why:

- On a PS3/Xbox pretty much every game supports Dolby Digital / DTS / etc. so using a JVC SU-DH1 or a Ear Force DSS would be fine as the optical will always have a Dolby signal sent over it, allowing the use of "true" 5.1 emulation in Dolby Headphone.

- On a PC the game audio isn't Dolby Digital / DTS / etc. encoded. So how do you encode the 5.1 game audio "into" Dolby Digital / DTS ?
 
Global_Inferno said:
Right, I'm a little confused and I'll explain why:

- On a PS3/Xbox pretty much every game supports Dolby Digital / DTS / etc. so using a JVC SU-DH1 or a Ear Force DSS would be fine as the optical will always have a Dolby signal sent over it, allowing the use of "true" 5.1 emulation in Dolby Headphone.

- On a PC the game audio isn't Dolby Digital / DTS / etc. encoded. So how do you encode the 5.1 game audio "into" Dolby Digital / DTS ?
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Soundcards supporting Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect can encode any audio up to 5.1 as Dolby Digital or DTS respectively. It's the same thing consoles have done since the original Xbox. It's not the game that supports Dolby or DTS: it's the hardware.
 
Ok I get it.. I've just taken a look at the hardware and I see that Asus Xonar D2/D2X/HDAV cards support this feature.

So given that these cards also support Dolby Headphone themselves, is it better to use the Dolby Headphone straight from the card, or:

Optical Out -> JVC SU-DH1 / Ear Force DSS -> Headphone Amp -> Headphones

Obviously that's more of a "seperates" route, I'd be interested to get your opinion.
 
No point in using a separate receiver if you have Dolby Headphone in a Xonar. I think it's worth keeping the X-Fi though as (aside from Dolby Headphone) they offer better gaming compatibility and features than Xonars.

Sound quality using DH on my old Xonar D2 was marginally better than the SUDH1 but there's not a lot on it.
 
Fair enough, it's seems so silly really; to be able to use a SU-DH1 you need a card that can encode DTS/etc. but a card that does that will more than likely support Dolby Headphone in the first place!?
 
Plenty of motherboards support Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect but not Dolby Headphone.

Also no X-Fi has Dolby Headphone but several have Dolby Headphone and DTS Connect.
 
Global_Inferno said:
Think you mean Dolby Digital on the second sentence mate ;)
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Dolby Digital Live actually. ;)

In my experience Dolby Headphone beats CMSS-3D Headphone but these generic HTRF systems rely on an individual having a good match. Some people may prefer CMSS-3D Headphone but most people that have used both seem to get on with Dolby Headphone better.

X-Fi has several other positional features that come in to play though (designed for speakers as well as headphones). Those features are becoming less important as a higher percentage of games now have software based audio engines that don't really use a soundcard's full potential.
 
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