Tiamat 7.1 vs Xense vs separates

DeathofRats · 7 Dec 2012 at 13:43

I know headset preference can be very subjective, but my wife insists I make a choice for my xmas pressie

This started out with 'get me the razer tiamat 7.1' but I've read hundreds of reviews and just can't make up my mind, so time to ask the forum

I'm looking for FPS gaming headset really BUT for if I'm going to push the budget out past to the £150 mark (xense with 350s, and tiamat) I don't think it's too much to ask to be able to listen to music with reasonable quality also ...

I've narrowed the choices to these:

1. Xonar Xense - good quality audio card and decent sennheiser headset - price a bit steep, but good value given the quality of both pieces.

2. Tiamat 7.1 - convenient choice. I have Xonar DS 7.1 as my current soundcard, these would just be plug and play with a very convenient control unit - the surround sound may actually work too!

3. Separates - reading the forum, a choice of decent headphone, soundcard with amplified headphone out, and a clip on mic is popular - and with the right choices cheaper than both the other options...

a pair of Creative Aurvana live phones, with an asus dg, and a zalman clip on fits the bill nicely, the DG has dolby headphone for surround...and probably for less or close to a hundred squid all in - my only problem with this is the DG means i'll end up losing 2 speakers from my current setup and is probably worse than the DS generally in quality (according to net based reviews) - it's quite a leap in cost for a better card with the amped out and dolby.. which loops me back to the Xense or Tiamat

ANY opinions y'all want to share ;-)

delta0 · 7 Dec 2012 at 13:52

I've only heard good things about the Tiamat 7.1 http://www.razerzone.com/tiamat/en/features
It is an analog headset so the soundcard is necessary. It needs to be a 7.1 sound card which the Xonar Xense is.
I don't think it needs an amp because it takes power from the USB.

DeathofRats · 7 Dec 2012 at 14:09

it would actually be a very easy setup for me delta, I already have a xonar ds card for the analog 7.1 - problem is, I've found some very mixed views about it around the net - of course you don't know who has an axe to grind, so hopefully somebody here can comment

PapaLazaru · 7 Dec 2012 at 14:36

Choice 3 will serve you well for gaming. No need to spend more unless you want really high quality audio for playing misuc.

melmac · 7 Dec 2012 at 16:11

Ok, you have £150 to spend?

OEM version of the Creative Z with Zalman Clipon mic. And then pick from any of the headphones below. They are listed in order of what I think are best for gaming.

Audio Technica AD700
JVC RX900's
Creative Aurvana Live

And it means you don't lose a speaker connection at the back because it has a dedicated headphone socket, so can plug speakers and headphone in at the same time.

If your budget is £100, then what you said should be good, the DG with the Creative aurvana lives with the zalman mic. You will be able to plug speakers and headphones in at the same time if you use the front panel connection, unless of course you have no speaker connections on the front of your case.

Or before you spend any money on a sound card, consider just getting a good pair of headphones. A lot of games now come with good sound engines and can do virtual audio very well when you select headphones in game. So your DS might be good enough depending on the games you play.

DeathofRats · 7 Dec 2012 at 16:56

melmac said:
Or before you spend any money on a sound card, consider just getting a good pair of headphones. A lot of games now come with good sound engines and can do virtual audio very well when you select headphones in game. So your DS might be good enough depending on the games you play.

That's an interesting point; I've never really gotten my head around the sound settings in my fav online game (BF3) - I'd ASSUMED to get best positional audio that setting the audio in game to home theatre and then switching on dolby headphone on the xonar would be the way to go... are you suggesting something like bf3 will do good positional audio without the use of dolby headphone if the headset is good enough?

delta0 · 7 Dec 2012 at 17:00

DeathofRats said:
That's an interesting point; I've never really gotten my head around the sound settings in my fav online game (BF3) - I'd ASSUMED to get best positional audio that setting the audio in game to home theatre and then switching on dolby headphone on the xonar would be the way to go... are you suggesting something like bf3 will do good positional audio without the use of dolby headphone if the headset is good enough?

Yes you need to set BF3 to home theatre (or wartapes) and it will send (5.1) surround sound for the sound card to manage for your headphones.

melmac · 7 Dec 2012 at 17:09

Well some people say that a good pair of stereo headphones is all you need anyway, just set the game to headphone and enjoy. I sorta agree, but, the game needs to have good sound engine, if it doesn't then turning on virtual surround in your sound card whether it's dolby headphone, CMSS3D or SBX surround can help a lot with positional audio.

I have never played BF3, but, it's a modern game, I think it should sound pretty good through headphones. If you could get a chance to demo some stereo headphones and see what you like then that would be best.

DeathofRats · 11 Dec 2012 at 13:14

thanks chaps - after reading a few more threads I'm asking Santa for the Creative Z oem (so even though I 'downgrade' my DS 7.1 to 5.1, the audio quality should be a step up from the Xonar DG I was going to get) - the simple zalman clipon mic (since I can't find a uni-directional clip-on) AND I'm actually going to stick the Sennheiser 598s on my wishlist and see if the missus goes for it!!