Sennheiser Game Zero Quality

AiiR

AiiR

AiiR

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Just received a new Sennheiser 'GAME ZERO' headset, which is my first foray into higher quality headsets.. or so I thought. First impressions are far from positive, and for £150 I was expecting a lot more.

The bass is near non existent, and the overall sound is very flat. Infact they're not far off the quality of my old Steelseries Siberia headset, which is half the price.

Its' currently plugged into a ASUS Xonar DG PCI 5.1 soundcard, is this a good enough option or am I going to need something more high end to drive these? I have little to no knowledge on audio gear, so would appreciate some advice!

Cheers,
 
Your soundcard should drive them fine they are only 50 ohm. Have you set up the soundcard to headphone mode or 2.0? It might be sending the base to the .1 if set to 5.1 mode.
Plug them into an ipod or a phone how do they sound then?
 
DG's amp will have plenty of power for them. They're 50 Ohm and likely very efficient. Wouldn't make sense for Sennheiser to make a headset that requires a more powerful headphone amplifier, when so many people will just use onboard audio.

Could be that you've either not got some of the DG's settings quite right as danoliver suggests, or if you have, it could be that you are just looking for something a bit more exciting; something with more bass. You wouldn't be the first person who wasn't overly impressed with the Game One's. I've seen a couple of comments from people who thought their cheaper Sennheiser headphones were better sounding.

Some of the best gaming headphones could be said to sound rather flat, especially Audio Technica AD700. A flatter sound signature is better for positional accuracy, as too much bass will hinder that. That could by why some people have found the Game One's to sound rather flat and lacking in bass. Not everyone wants that though, some people would rather sacrifice that and having something a bit more fun sounding. Everyone's hearing is a little different and people have different tastes.

Maybe you could try adjusting the equaliser setting on the DG, see if you can get the sound more to your liking.
 
Cheers guys, I did notice after that quite a lot of people have complained about a very flat sound. Maybe that's just the way they were designed. Personally, there's no way I'd consider the sound to be £150 worth of quality!

Settings seem to be fine, its been set to both 2.0 and headphone mode and there's no difference between the two. Had a god at adjusting the EQ and its slightly better, just a bit disappointing for the money they cost.
 
What do you mean by flat? They are the typical Sennheiser sound, mid bass hump, rolled off treble but there's a little area between the mids and treble that is boosted to give a bit of sense of energy.

They are ok but nothing special. I tried to mod mine as they are a bit warm but the electronics are in the way. I love the mic, volume functions etc. If they can base this on the 598 instead of the 558 I'd be happy!
 
AiiR said:
Cheers guys, I did notice after that quite a lot of people have complained about a very flat sound. Maybe that's just the way they were designed. Personally, there's no way I'd consider the sound to be £150 worth of quality!

Settings seem to be fine, its been set to both 2.0 and headphone mode and there's no difference between the two. Had a god at adjusting the EQ and its slightly better, just a bit disappointing for the money they cost.
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Maybe Beyerdynamic DT770, would be more to your liking. No microphone though, so you'd have to use a separate one.

There's plenty of great headphones to choose from, but not many great headsets really. Those that are considered to be great, cost a premium. That is the one problem with headsets: People want a good attached microphone, but if the headphone part is not to their liking, that doesn't leave many or any other options if the headset owned already considered one of the best. With headphones; if they are not to the owners liking, there's plenty of other good choice.
 
Another +1 for DT770 80ohm version + mod mic v4.0 and you got perfect set up for your budget. Also I thing this is the best one you can get if you want to game and listen to music without going crazy for headphones 300+
 
With my old senns pc360s on a xomar card I overamped them and felt they sounded far better. Might be worth a go to bump the ampage up in the settings and see if they are more to.your liking then. Of course remember to turn them down a bit then. It may lead to some loss of detail and positional audio which is what these sorts of headphones excel at. I suppose it depends on what you are looking for, for fps multi players the better positional audio is awesome, for single player games it isn't quite so important and perhaps, as recommended above, a more exciting can would be better for you.
 
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.
 
My sennheiser PC363D surround sound gaming headset sound terrible through my soundblaster z sound card, lifeless, lacks any decent bass, very bad sound quality overall, but with the 3D USB adapter (supplied with headset) they sound great in games. It might depend on the headset but from my experience you want a half decent sound card and some good headphones, my sennheiser hd555's are superb with the soundblaster z.
 
I really like the fit of these, so if I can try and get the best out of them then that would be a good option.

Moving onto a soundcard, unfortunately I don't really have space for a PCIe card as it would block the airflow to my graphics card. Are there any decent external options that are around £50-70?

Edit - found a FiiO E10K, are these any good?

Cheers,
 
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FiiO E10K is a very good low cost DAC/amp. Has none of the surround sound effect processing you get with sound cards though; so if you're just looking for good stereo sound, it would be a good choice. A certain improvement over the DG.

Also no microphone input, as DAC/amps are for output only. You'd either have to use the DG for microphone input or onboard audio. Either that, or look at an external card from Asus or Creative.
 
AiiR said:
I really like the fit of these, so if I can try and get the best out of them then that would be a good option.

Moving onto a soundcard, unfortunately I don't really have space for a PCIe card as it would block the airflow to my graphics card. Are there any decent external options that are around £50-70?

Edit - found a FiiO E10K, are these any good?

Cheers,
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that's good for music but not for gaming.

you want a external sound card like this

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...ndcard-and-headphone-amplifier-sc-024-as.html

also doesn't the xonar dg block your graphics card?

these are better options though than external for similar price

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/powercolor-devil-hdx-7.1-channel-pci-e-soundcard-sc-000-pc.html

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus-xonar-d2-7.1-pci-sound-card-sc-000-as.html
 
Psycho Sonny said:
that's good for music but not for gaming.

you want a external sound card like this

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus...ndcard-and-headphone-amplifier-sc-024-as.html

also doesn't the xonar dg block your graphics card?

these are better options though than external for similar price

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/powercolor-devil-hdx-7.1-channel-pci-e-soundcard-sc-000-pc.html

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/asus-xonar-d2-7.1-pci-sound-card-sc-000-as.html
Click to expand...

No it doesn't, as it's in the PCI slot right at the bottom (still rocking the standard pci slots on my board!).

Thanks for the suggestions. Can I ask what the difference would be between an audio solution designed for music rather than gaming? I'm 'upgrading' my card soon from a GTX970 to an AMD R9 390x so will 100% lose the vacant PCIe slot as the AMD is a larger cooler. An external solution would be the most convenient I think.
 
I'll use the FiiO E10K and the Asus Xonar U5 as examples as they are roughly the same price...

FiiO E10K is focused on stereo sound quality only and uses high quality components to maximise the fidelity of the audio signal through the DAC and the Amp and on to the headphones. The only control is the bass boost, which is very good quality and operates mostly on the sub-bass area of the audio spectrum, so it doesn't make the bass muddy or boomy. It needs no drivers or other software and is entirely plug and play.

Asus Xonar U5 is focused on gaming, so has a powerful sound processing chip that takes care of all the various audio effects, such as the equalizer, bass boost and virtual surround sound through headphones. It also has to cater for 5.1 speaker audio output and microphone input. All of this obviously requires a specialised driver and control software and is most definitely not plug and play.
 
I had the Zero and sold it after around 5 weeks because like you I just wasn't impressed with the Zero.

I opted for the Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro, MUCH better and costs £50 less but it is a 250Ohm headphone.
 
Zero was not well recieved compared to the 350's

Mic is outstanding shape is great they are really comfortable too but the sound was below par.

As Ryan says if only they were based off the 598's.
 
Thanks guys, I've ordere the fiio dac to see if that improves things. I do really like the shape and feel of the set just a little disappointed at how much the things cost!

If they still sound poor after this then I will probably return them and seek something that doesn't have an attached mic (will look at the suggestions from earlier).
 
Thanks for your review I was looking at getting theses but am now thinking AKG 702 with modmic could be a better option!!
 
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