Gamers, What's Your Audio Set Up?

Got my tygr 300 a few days back but been on holiday the past few days. I'll hopefully get a shot of them over the next day or so. They look brand new anyway and feel very comfy so good start on that end.
 
for pc use Sennheiser hd650 connected to schiit fulla for now or sony wh1000 mark 4 depending on the mood. for tv gaming use, dennon ax2300w and q acoustic 2020i 5.1 speakers, including 4 2020i's, 2070 and cant recall the name of the Centre :p
 
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henson0115 said:
for pc use Sennheiser hd650 connected to schiit fulla for now or sony wh1000 mark 4 depending on the mood. for tv gaming use, dennon ax2300w and q acoustic 2020i 5.1 speakers, including 4 2020i's, 2070 and cant recall the name of the Centre :p
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Time for an upgrade?

www.qacoustics.co.uk

Q Acoustics 5040 5.1

The big screen never sounded bigger than through the 5040 5.1 set-up - and a surround-sound system never looked more minimal and sophisticated while it’s rocking your multi-channel world. A blockbuster home cinema sound with a Hollywood A-list presence.
www.qacoustics.co.uk www.qacoustics.co.uk
 
hornetstinger said:
Time for an upgrade?

www.qacoustics.co.uk

Q Acoustics 5040 5.1

The big screen never sounded bigger than through the 5040 5.1 set-up - and a surround-sound system never looked more minimal and sophisticated while it’s rocking your multi-channel world. A blockbuster home cinema sound with a Hollywood A-list presence.
www.qacoustics.co.uk www.qacoustics.co.uk
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to be honest ive not really got any need, ive been thinking about it but the 2020i's give everything and more to be fair. plus no money atm :D
if anything id grab some atmos speakers or equivs for atmos use
 
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WhiteHartMart said:
Yea - I missed the override option to start with and was about to box it back up lol

I'll have a closer listen/look later but if I was to position it, I'd say it has far, far more headroom than the Fosi K5 I had but perhaps not quite the same amount as the G6. That's assuming I'm just using the 3.5mm connection on the 5k. There are so many features to look through on the Qudelix app though that I might not have fully explored what it can do yet.
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Finally got around to getting the Qudelix 5K.

  • The Qudelix is so tiny, the case is like playing with Slyvanian Families scale or something.
  • For the PS5 even with the 'host volume override' setting it doesn't quite get as loud as the Creative Sound Blaster X1 (even though that gets louder on everything else) but does have extra detail. In Horizon Zero Dawn there is detail from metal hitting metal you can't quite hear on the X1. Very minor stuff but its there. That said I'm not sure the 5K is worth 2-3 times the price over something like that for just PS5 audio. Although the 5K is about the best sound I've heard out of the PS5. It's a shame how much Sony (and MS) make you jump through hoops to extract high fidelity audio from their latest consoles.
  • Via bluetooth to my phone for music it blew me away. Such clarity and power. I struggled to tell this apart from a wired DAC/AMP. The mobile app is something else too, such granular levels of control.

Going to sell the G6 & X1 as this makes those redundant for me.

WV3Y7RPl.jpg
 
michty_me said:
I was tempted by a Qudelix 5K a year or so back to replace a G6 for my travel setup but due to the internal battery, I wouldn't be allowed to take it with me.
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I was reading it's a li-po 500mA battery too.

I was on the fence about it for a longtime, but in hindsight I did use the G6 has a portable DAC for ages with my laptop so I can definitely see me using this as a portable DAC/AMP with things like the Steam Deck, laptop, Switch etc. But it being one of the very few DAC/AMPs that can bypass the volume/power limit on the PS4/5 is a big plus. Just hope durability is good too.
 
Timber said:
I was reading it's a li-po 500mA battery too.

I was on the fence about it for a longtime, but in hindsight I did use the G6 has a portable DAC for ages with my laptop so I can definitely see me using this as a portable DAC/AMP with things like the Steam Deck, laptop, Switch etc. But it being one of the very few DAC/AMPs that can bypass the volume/power limit on the PS4/5 is a big plus. Just hope durability is good too.
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I think before I was going to purchase, I contacted Qudelix who stated that the battery could not be removed so that was that out the window. I ended up buying a SoundBlaster G3 and left the G6 at home but its pretty useless.

I swapped out the G6 for some Schiit and bundled the G6 into my laptop bag now.
 
I want to improve my gaming audio set-up for 2024 but I have a few questions that you guys should be able to help with.

Firstly, does it matter if you use USB or Optical to connect a source (be it PC, or console) to your DAC? I know bits are bits, but there's something nagging at the back of my mind that one is preferable over the other.

If USB is preferable for example, can you use a USB switching device to change sources without introducing any sound issues?

Basically I want to connect a gaming PC, PS5, and maybe my Switch to the one device (or stack maybe) at my home office desk (I work there sometimes too, I swear) and be able to use both headphones and speakers with it.

What would you all suggest?
 
von Humboldt said:
I want to improve my gaming audio set-up for 2024 but I have a few questions that you guys should be able to help with.

Firstly, does it matter if you use USB or Optical to connect a source (be it PC, or console) to your DAC? I know bits are bits, but there's something nagging at the back of my mind that one is preferable over the other.

If USB is preferable for example, can you use a USB switching device to change sources without introducing any sound issues?

Basically I want to connect a gaming PC, PS5, and maybe my Switch to the one device (or stack maybe) at my home office desk (I work there sometimes too, I swear) and be able to use both headphones and speakers with it.

What would you all suggest?
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USB and Optical are both digital so in terms of 'quality' it shouldn't matter although there will be different limits for bit-rates etc. For basic stereo or stereo encoded with Virtual Surround Sound (VSS) or 3D this won't matter. The biggest difference is likely to be that USB is more prone to electrical interference (something I went through recently with my S.M.S.L. C200 purchase in this thread). Also with consoles the older Dolby Digital standard used to have to be sent over Optical for it to be decoded down from 5.1 to 2.0 VSS (i.e. SoundblasterX G6, X7, Astro mixamps all work in this way) but should be less of an issue now.

Recently I've been running two separate PCs (Windows 11 gaming desktop + Linux Fedora mini PC) and tried a cheap USB switcher on the aforementioned S.M.S.L., which did not work, i.e. lots of interference. However that might have been have been a faulty DAC/AMP in general given that unit was picking up interference from anything. Your biggest issue for connecting a Heaphone DAC/AMP will be limited number of inputs; most offer USB + Optical/Coaxial so it's going to be a struggle to directly connect two consoles and a PC at once to one device. Secondly consoles don't have optical ports anymore and USB support on PS5 and Switch is limited to USB Audio Class 1.0 and not the newer, superior UAC 2.0 standard. Also in addition the PS4/5 both suffer from a 50% drop-off in power (I'm not sure technically this is the best term) which reduce the output by c.15.75db - Youtube video that explains some side effects). And Sony's 3D audio is only usable over USB or Dualsense. Not HDMI. So issues that need to be considered. The Switch doesn't have this UAC 1.0 issue and therefore audio output over USB is cleaner.

So in this sense it's probably more practical to have two separate solutions; a DAC/AMP for PC and one for the consoles. However another solution might be to consider a DAC/AMP which uses USB for your PC and then Optical from your TV which will work for any input; PS5, Switch etc. This will mean no messing with switchers, the best quality audio from each console plus not worrying about whether the DAC/AMP has UAC 1.0 support. However you will have to sacrifice Sony's 3D audio in those games that support it or use the Dualsense for those games.

One further caveat could be if you need microphone input too. That adds another complication when it comes to consoles.
 
Thanks for that detailed response, @Timber. I really appreciate it.

I do 80% of my gaming on PC so I think that's where I'll concentrate on then, and just get decent but easy to drive headphones for using with the Dual Sense controller when playing on PS5.
 
von Humboldt said:
Thanks for that detailed response, @Timber. I really appreciate it.

I do 80% of my gaming on PC so I think that's where I'll concentrate on then, and just get decent but easy to drive headphones for using with the Dual Sense controller when playing on PS5.
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No worries. That does sound like a good plan. Even if you do still continue to want something for the PS5, even something like the Creative Soundblaster X1 (I got this for £39 when I did own it) does a really good job as a very small DAC/AMP for PS5/Switch. And I imagine there will be other similar small UAC 1.0 comparable dongles that are similar.
 
von Humboldt said:
I do 80% of my gaming on PC so I think that's where I'll concentrate on then, and just get decent but easy to drive headphones for using with the Dual Sense controller when playing on PS5.
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Right, I think I'm going to start with a small, compact headphone amp/DAC for PC first, and worry about the consoles later. I've been aware of Schiit's uh, schiit for years and I see they now sell a new version of the Magni which includes a Unison USB DAC. Seems like a reasonable place to start - compact, reasonably priced all-in-one unit from a brand with a good rep. I can then add compact powered speakers at a later date.
 
Definitely give Topping MX3S a try, it's on amazon and if you don't like it you can easily return through amazon too. It's well priced and a high powered all in one too. For me it was the additional features it has that won the deal over others in similar or higher price range. I'm using optical out from PC to the unit currently as discovered my mobo's USB output can create a slight pop sometimes with short audio tones like the windows notification sound chiming on when something is done, but not other times. This doesn't happen with optical. I am using almost all of my USB ports though so I kind of expected this. It's a z690 mobo and my old mobo had dedicated DAC/AMP USB ports that were isolated from the rest of the mobo to avoid this noise issue. New board does not have this.

That being said, sound fidelity and standards support is exactly the same between USB and optical from the mobo so there's no major loss, only gains really in having that pure light connection.

I especially like the Topping because it's so small. Yeah it has an external power brick but that sits under the desk so isn't really an issue.
 
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