Sennheiser Game Zero Quality

I had the pc350 with my xonar xense card/bundle. And I've found the game zero headset to be better in quite a few ways.

But as with the pc350, previous razor, roccat and speed link head sets.... Out of the box the sound is rubbish. I'm sure I posted my setting in another thread but what I use to bring them to live is:

7Channels in, dolby headphones and 7.1shifter with the bass a little closer. Environment set to small padded room and the eq set to classical.

Obviously this is just my preference but deffo brings more punch out of these headphones.


I really do like the push mic up to mute. So many times I'd catch the in line switch and talk to myself for ages lol
 
OFC you did Amazons latest trick to avoid pandering to vendors price needs,

slash the price for a bit and care not for it :D


probably sold them at a loss too
 
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Okay so there was a setting in my sound card drivers called 'Excite Mode' which puts more power into them I believe. They sound a lot better now. Nowhere near what I was expecting but much better than my old Steelseries 7H's. Hopefully when the DAC arrives tomorrow it can be improved further!
 
Yeah, that's the gain setting. I think that's the highest gain setting the DG has. For 64 Ohm headphones. That is somewhat vague though; it's just a number. I don't think it displays what the dB gain is, like it does on the Essence cards.

I probably should have asked if you had set the amp to the highest gain setting. I probably assumed you had tried that already. :o

Still, that's a good sign that higher gain setting improved things; so a better amp still, should be further improvement. Whether that alone is enough to satisfy, remains to be seen. ;)
 
Okay so the E10K came today, it's not helped at all, the bass is still non-existent (even with the bass switch flicked on).

I quite like the DAC, but I'm 90% of the way to sending the sennheisers back. The lack of bass is turning me away from them, unfortunately.

Does anyone know of any UK stores where I can test a selection of good quality headphones? I don't want to abuse returns policies by ordering headphones and then sending them straight back. I can also get a sense of what I really want in a pair.

Cheers,
 
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AiiR said:
Okay so the E10K came today, it's not helped at all, the bass is still non-existent (even with the bass switch flicked on).

I quite like the DAC, but I'm 90% of the way to sending the sennheisers back. The lack of bass is turning me away from them, unfortunately.

Does anyone know of any UK stores where I can test a selection of good quality headphones? I don't want to abuse returns policies by ordering headphones and then sending them straight back. I can also get a sense of what I really want in a pair.

Cheers,
Click to expand...

Tell us what you want in a headphone and we can give you some ideas.


What sound signature
Open or closed

Custom cable is great for demos.
 
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Psycho Sonny said:
i personally don't think a £15 sound card is anywhere near what you need to get the best out of these.

also ryan the hd598 and hd558 are the exact same headphone with 3 minor differences. hd558 is a different colour, has some foam in the cups and different drill or mesh iirc. the hd558 can be modded into a hd598 in 2 seconds by simply removing the foam.

also i own the dt770 and the hd558 and for gaming the hd558 is better. good competitive gaming headphones don't have energy or bass.

OP you should look at second hand fidelio x1's plenty were up for sale in the members market recently. you should also spend a lot more on a sound card or get an external one.

iirc ocuk are selling one by a new company which has very good specs for a very cheap price.

i also own the same sound card as you btw and it's garbage, sounds like vhs/magnetic tape compared to my mixamp.
Click to expand...

as above i recommended look at fidelio x1's if you want bass.


sennheiser headphones are mainly all neutral

massdrop do some bass heavy headphones too time to time

https://www.massdrop.com/r/6HW75F
 
Ryanr1987 said:
Tell us what you want in a headphone and we can give you some ideas.


What sound signature
Open or closed

Custom cable is great for demos.
Click to expand...

I enjoy a deep bass, if that makes sense. I find it hard to describe what I want because I'm not really an audio savvy person but I like to be able to almost feel the bass. Definitely closed headphones though. The great thing about my old SS 7H's was that they blocked absolutely everything out (I used them at i-series and couldn't hear much of the crowds).

I will take a look at the Fidelios. I'm seeing the Fidelio X2 in some places too that are coming out at around £250. Probably a little over my budget though as I'm also looking for a microphone solution in addition.
 
if you want bass and closed then they aren't going to be good at all for competitive gaming.

the best bass orientated headphones are fidelio x1 and x2.

the x1 can be had for around £80-£120 second hand.

the best headphones for competitive gaming are open and have zero bass at all to stop it from drowning out any sound
 
If you are after a deeper bass then something like the K712 or K7XX is what you want. I personally thought the Philips had more of a mid bass hump(X2 less so)rather than deep extension.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
sennheiser headphones are mainly all neutral.
Click to expand...
I would agree with this based off my own experience, they mainly still adhere to their E.A.R. (Eargonomic Acoustic Refinement) technology, i actually quite like the subtle bass in their 500 series, my absolute best experience with music and gaming is a half decent sound card combined with a decent amp or receiver, for thunder bass you can simply turn up the amp or receiver capabilities, creatives soundblaster SBX Pro Studio software has a lot of deep bass, too much in fact, but if bass is your thing sometimes the software will give you the option of increased low end rumble.
 
Rather than starting a new thread, I'll add to this one:

I'm currently waiting on an Asus Xonar D2 soundcard to arrive. In my quest to seek a better sounding setup I read that this card needs an external amp to power high end equipment and increase sound quality.

I have the FiiO E10K still which I'm just about to return, however after reading that people are plugging their DACs into their soundcard to give a fuller sound, I'm wondering if I should keep it and how that setup works? Like how does it all connect up?

Cheers, I managed to achieve a fuller bass in the end by fiddling with the EQ on my older Asus DG (Which I've now moved to my HTPC).
 
FiiO E10K, being USB, cannot connect to a sound card. Only devices connected directly to the sound can make use of it. You'd need a DAC with optical and/or coaxial input to connect to the D2.

By connecting a DAC to the D2, it isn't going to doing anything more than the DG. You could though connect a headphone amp to the D2, rather than DAC/amp (E10K for example).
 
Marsman said:
FiiO E10K, being USB, cannot connect to a sound card. Only devices connected directly to the sound can make use of it. You'd need a DAC with optical and/or coaxial input to connect to the D2.
Click to expand...

I see, thanks. It has a Coaxial output but I imagine that's for speakers.
 
If you want to make use of the D2's DAC you have to use the analogue outputs to an amp or powered speakers
 
AiiR said:
I see, thanks. It has a Coaxial output but I imagine that's for speakers.
Click to expand...

Has optical too. The connection is dual purpose; an included adaptor can be used for connecting a standard toslink cable, or a mini toslink cable without the adaptor.

Either can used; headphones or speakers. Connect a DAC, then suitable amp, or maybe a unit that contains both.

As rids57 has said though, you need to use the cards analogue output to make use of it's DAC, or sound quality, or if you like. By Connecting a DAC to it, you turn it into a digital transport. By doing that, there's no point in buying a more expensive card over a cheaper one, if the feature set is similar.
 
Imo you're just trying to polish a **** here, if i were you i'd send the senns back and get something better and a modmic

Tu*d is sensored wtf?
 
I'd have to agree. You cannot drastically change the sound of headphones by swapping DACs and amps about. If you're not happy with the headphones to begin with, change them, then go from there; looking at better DACs, amps, sound cards, whatever.

Best that can be achieved with headphones that are not to the users liking without changing them, is altering EQ settings.
 
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