Sennheiser gsx 1000 thread?

[shankly1985]

Considering £30 budget sound cards give you better DAC and equally beefy output GSX's hardware could be likely sold for £50...

Bit low, the only thing lacking is amp output. The DAC is perfectly fine.
You then have build quality, external adds price, it's features ability to record game audio and communication separately.

All adds cost, then you have the best virtual surround sound. £120 is a perfect price.
It's aimed at gamers, they is loads of top quality headphones out there that fit within the amp range. Sennheiser themselves have excellent headphones that work well with this unit, my philips fidelio x1 are perfect also.

You start going higher power your market you aiming for becomes much smaller.

So I can totally understand Sennheiser here.

 

[shankly1985]

I've just bought a GSX 1000 and I can hear my microphone input in the headphones. Is there a way to stop this? 'Listen to this device' is unchecked for the microphone in Windows.

Turn off side tone on the unit.

 

[shankly1985]

I've just bought one of these to go with my HD599's and have a quick question on the setup

I've followed the Quick Guide and set the GSX1000 as the main audio in Control Panel > Sound, then clicked configure and selected 7.1 Surround

When clicking Next it gives a number of options that can be selected, do I leave all these as default (i.e. everything selected) or do I need to de-select some of the options? I read on another forum about only having Large Speaksers selected but not sure if that is the best option when using the HD599's

Any advice is greatly appreciated

Leave Full range selected, and 7.1

 

[shankly1985]

Hey guys I havee a question. Long story short I have owned the Sennheiser PC 363D headset for 3-4 years. It came with this little 7.1 Dolby adapter which is nice. However, I recently bought myself a pair of Sennheiser HD 599s. The problem is when I plug it into my PC raw the sound is awful, so I plugged it into the adapter which came with the headset and it sounds great.


My question is. What is the difference from this Sennheiser GSX 1000 and the little 7.1 Dolby adapter which came with one of my old headsets? Would I notice any difference between the two? Thank you!

The biggest difference is how the two create a surround sound. Dolby will take a stereo signal and create a 7.1 surround sound the biggest downside to this is unwanted echo like you standing in an empty room.

The GSX allows window to see the device has a true 7.1 device that games can then send a full 7.1 signal to the unit and the GSX then creates a surround sound to be played back on stereo headphones.

It sounds much better and the echo is removed, therfore creating a more natural surround sound experience.

In my experience nothing on the market comes close to the surround sound the GSX creates.

 

[shankly1985]

I have had the gsx for some time now and while i can detect gun fire and airplanes accurately, footsteps is another thing. I have started a thread here and im looking at what will give best positional sound including footsteps.
Tested BF4 and i couldnt hear them until they were already firing upon me, im just unsure what to do next.
I have the windows 7.1 and full range speakers on and then 7.1 on the gsx etc and finer details are an issue.

Am not sure what might be the issue here. I not played BF4 with GSX but I did play a lot of BF1 and had no issues hearing footsteps.

 

[shankly1985]

Ok i just tested with the on board realtek alc 1220 and the mic still through the gsx as the on board mic has some interference from my 1080ti i presume as it sounded like an alien all the time lol.

The actual sound from the on board was actually better and i could hear footsteps much better, now im unsure if the gsx has a fault or something as i would`nt expect on board to sound better?
I have a sound BlasterX G5 on route to test further and see what happens.

Defo should be sounding better than onboard. Minding posting some screenshots of you Windows audio settings? Not by chance enabled the new Windows 10 7.1 spatial Sonic for headphone? This will conflict with the GSX sound.

You'd don't have it connected to USB 3 port do you?

I've seen some people say it doesn't play well with USB 3.

My older Motherboard I had my connected to USB2 and using a more recent dated motherboard I only have USB 3 and its still working fine here.

 

[shankly1985]

No i havent enabled that, just the normal 7.1 in windows sounds and all optional speakers ticked.

Also i have it on a usb 2 port as well, ive tried a usb 3 port as well but still the same.

What about the unit itself, what settings you have enabled or tried? Other than that I really not sure can only give you my experience.

 

[shankly1985]

cheers for the reply..
tbh i dont rate these 840's ..so a new headset is next , i was trying to make these sound better
costs not that important

No disrespect to @EsaT he fine to have his own opinion about the GSX but he really does have a hate towards the device.
My advice to you is don't just take his word for it and to be fair here don't just take my word for it either.

They is plenty of good information out there about the GSX.

 

[shankly1985]

End of the day the GSX does what it sets out to do - though Sennheiser missed the boat a bit in terms of gaming potential outside of the core focus of the device i.e. potential console usage, etc. the price tag is and always has been a stickler for me though - even taking into account the R&D cost, etc. I find it poor when taking into account the hardware - which I can forgive for gaming use given what it does do well.

Price has always been my biggest negative. For my personal use console gaming was never a thought.

 

[shankly1985]

Some do and some don't but having tried a load of different options, modding a stereo source to sound more 360 rarely works either using software or hardware. All one can do is make is sound 'bigger' and that is just by adding echo effects.

That's why it's very important for the GSX to read audio from the game that is setup to output 7.1. Even have Windows set up for 7.1

This way the GSX will produce its best virtual 7.1 surround sound.

If a game only supports stereo playback then the GSX will be using a more subpar virtual surround sound.

 

[shankly1985]

That's precisely (at best) that virtual surround.
Binaural sound isn't some virtual surround of upmixing stereo.
Binaural sound contains cues brain uses to process that 360 directionality with just two input channels.

They is different methods of achieving the same thing. Dolby Headphone was designed to take a stereo audio source and create a virtual surround sound. These Methods like SBx all have an unwanted echo effect that i find very annoying unnatural, like playing inside an empty hall.
Senn GSX takes the virtual sound to a different approach by accepting a 7.1 audio source and down mixing it using there rendering engine to create a much, Much better surround sound experience.
I have personally tested I believe all surround sound available and can say nothing on the market right now offers a better surround sound experience for headphones then the GSX 1000.

 

[shankly1985]

What do you mean???

The GSX has two audio devices "see image"

One is the main audio i.e. the 7.1 goodness etc the other is for Discord or Teamspeak etc you can control the volume by the wheel on the side of the unit and even do cool separate recording by choicing to record both these devices together with recording hardware/software.

 

[shankly1985]

But the headset earphone is set to default communication device right?

Yeah Windows will set communication device default when you first attach the unit.

 

[shankly1985]

yes but if you leave it on the other and play a game you get a mess of audio like undecipherable surround mess. I thought my ears were broken for a bit till i realised my mistake

Yeah I had the same experience haa

 

[shankly1985]

@Born_2_Kill_83
Day one buy and still wouldn't change the GSX for anything out at the moment for gaming.

 

[shankly1985]

Thanks to a guy called Meat Wad on Youtube for the heads up.
Firmware update released couple months ago. To update download the Sennheiser gaming updated, run the software I needed to then update the software for it to show the GSX has compatible. the new firmware will show up release notes below with link to updater.
https://en-uk.sennheiser.com/gaming-downloads
Sennheiser GSX 1000
Release Note

Date: 14-02-2018
Version: 5.23.37.0.808

Change Log

New Features:
• Added Support for tournament mode.
o Volume wheel on side can mute communication while tournament mode is active.

Changes and Bug fixes:
• Fixed an issue with start up on USB 3.0
• Microphone has been retuned for improved performance.
• Improved audio performance in 7.1 mode.
• Optimized signal to noise ratio on side-tone (microphone).
• Fixed an issue with mute function on windows 10.

 

[shankly1985]

Have you noticed any real improvements?

Can't really say I have tbh jumping into new games so I can't really compare

 

[shankly1985]

I also had this happen since 1809 update but some how I managed to fix it.
Try opening device manager and uninstall the GSX

 

[shankly1985]

Bought on release still a happy customer firmware worked for me right away.
I have used mine on USB 3.0 and updated on 3.0 no issue.

No issues from my end.

 

[shankly1985]

Oh its Shankly lmao. Is Sennheiser paying you? I bet your device came straight from them.

If there were never issues on usb 3.0, why would they release the firmware to fix an issue?

BTW their shoddy customer support still hasn't replied back to my concerns. I'm going to have to call them again.

I think most likely you were just one of the first to install it before they pulled the update from their servers. I don't think this company likes to deal with customer problems and I think they lost a lot of money on this device its so overpriced and they regret manufacturing it.

Abit hostile?
To answer your question no I not getting paid, I bought this direct from them and have prove of purchase. Am simply a happy customer giving my feedback on the product, just because its doesn't lay with your view doesnt mean am wrong. Lol

Fact! I not had issue with USB 3.0 doesn't mean the issue wasn't there for some USB devices. Again am just proving my feedback.

Think about that next time you post and don't be so hostile.

Edit

And I installed the firmware a good few months after its release it was our like 6 months before someone on YouTube pointed out to me they was even an update available.

Mr getting paid by Sennheiser here would have known that months ago its release lol