Sennheiser gsx 1000 thread?

shankly1985 said:
They is couple honest reviews on Rainforest, but I do agree people who given the product Free could be just saying its good for the fact they given it free.

I 100% agree with this review.. Now I not trying to drive high demanding headphones so for me so far I would give this 5/5.
Am hearing the reason no Review channels post is like above lack of product overseas. You would think Senn would have sent out review copies to big Audio channels etc!!

Anyway enough at the guess work, am 100% happy with the product and that's all that matters :D Take what you want from what I have said about it and the people here and 3 reviews on rainforest.

An average AMP/DAC packed with the Best gaming DSP currently available.
By Ruben on 11 Nov. 2016 4 stars out of 5
Verified Purchase
These are my impressions on a few days of testing the GSX 1000 that i bought immediately, when it announced it's release for 3rd November on amazon. As there is only 1 review currently, form an actual buyer not marked as "Vine Customer Review of Free Product", i feel that another honest and thorough review is needed.

This unit is marketed mostly for gamers, and it does a wonderful job at it's intended purpose. For virtual surround in first person shooters, i have yet to hear a DSP unit, which can match it's performance. The binaural technology implemented is no joke, and the sound is very much outside of your head when using it. I've been using a pair of Sennheiser HD598SE for testing, as i feel that is closest to what the average owner of this products is going to connect it with.

So the DSP is great for creating an atmospheric and very real sounding audio environment. It can take a while to get used to, if like me, you're used to a stereo representation close to your ears. It can be slightly overwhelming with the level of information being thrown at you through the 7.1 surround. Over time however, we get used to it and it will certainly show itself to be vastly superior to any motherboard audio solution.

But here's the problem with it as i see it: It's marketed as an "amplifier", whereas i would call it a gaming dac with a headphone out attachhed, if that makes any sense. It provides a great DSP for immersive gaming, but the amplifier does not power demanding headphones very well and will sometimes require me to turn it up to near 100%, when watching videos on YouTube for example. It handles games and other things well, but for some videos where the volume is low for some reason or other, i would like a bit more power to spare, just in case.

I connected my HD800S just to try it and of course i don't expect anything from it, but it is a great test for any amplifier to be connected to a very demanding pair of headphones. The results were very much expected. Very harsh and uncontrolled presentation in music. The amplifier simply lacks the power and control, required for music. However, in less demanding tasks like Battlefield or Counter Strike, it was quite a nice experience and the GSX 1000 really showed it's strengths when very demanding material didn't expose it's weaknesses.

Again, this is only to test the limits of the unit and it is not a fair test for the intended purpose of the unit. However, at this price i would have liked it to at least show a bit more maturity and be more than a one-trick-pony for gaming.

As someone who is spoiled by high end audio equipment, it really pains me that the GSX 1000, does not have a optical output, so that people who only want to add the binaural DSP signal, to their existing audio setup, would be able to do so... And again, as the GSX 1000 is not a unit which excels at anything but it's DSP, it's would be great to be able to hook it up to much better amplifiers and dacs.

I must conclude that this product is for the hardcore gamers, with deep pockets and preference for pin point audio imaging and immersion above everything else. It's DSP beats out everything i've tried including, but not limited to: Creative Sound Blaster ZxR, Creative Sound BlasterX G5 and Asus Xonar Essence ST, which are some heavy-hitters in the computer audio market.

While it's sound quality is only as good as the G5, It's DSP simply beats out anything i've ever heard for gaming. It's pin point accurate and the sound stage is wall to wall. It's presented in a very natural manner compared to say the Essence ST, where the "room feeling" is too unnatural for my tastes. Luckily for anyone who purchases the GSX 1000, you can adjust the "room setting" among other things on the unit, enabling you to get your preferred surround experience. You won't have to settle for one specific surround presentation, as this one can do it all.

I always leave mine at 7.1 in gaming with headphones with all other effects turned off. The gamer, music and movie setting all sound unnatural. Gamer is very cold and sterile with no bass and only treble. Yeah, you can hear footsteps alright, but everything sounds completely sterile.
Music enhances both bass and treble because that's what the kids want and movie enhances only the bass when compared directly.
If i was to ever use one of them, it would be the movie setting, as it only gives a slight boost to the bass without making the treble harsh like the music setting. Depending on your taste, this can provide for a more immersive experience.

The front-and-back surround sound setting is useless. Why would you ever want your surround presentation is be biased towards sounding like everything is in front or behind you?

The reverb setting does nothing to my ears through 7.1 headphone gaming.

Overall, most of the DSP settings seem gimmicky to me. I much prefer to set it to headphone and 7.1 without adding anything extra. If you have a good pair of headphones, this should sound the most natural.

This little gaming beast, is great for it's intended purpose and the average gamer with entry to mid tier headphones will be blown away by it's performance, especially in first person shooters - You will never have heard your game sound quite like this before.

Where it disappoints, is as a serious audio reproduction tool able to do more than just gaming and casual movie watching with it's impressive 7.1 surround. I give the binaural DSP a solid 10/10 for gaming, especially in the FPS genre. As an amp/dac unit for great audio reproduction, i give it a 5/10. Don't think now that this product bad, it's only when compared to great audio equipment that i shows it's weakness. Any average/competitve gamer will be more than happy with this product and it's strengths heavily outweigh it's weakness, as you won't be buying the GSX 1000 for anything other than gaming, and for that purpose, i give the product as a whole a solid 8/10, considering it's great performance vs the asking price.

I only bring this up all of this snobby criticism because Sennheiser is the company that created this product and because of it's price of 199 gbp.

In conclusion, this product is a gamers dream and makes FPS players simply unload in their pants. But is it worth it to you?

4 stars. It excels at it's intended purpose. It's DSP is unmatched by anything i've ever heard. But because of the price, amplifier quality and lack of an optical output, it leaves a little to be desired by audio enthusiasts.
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Awesome review.

As someone who is spoiled by high end audio equipment, it really pains me that the GSX 1000, does not have a optical output, so that people who only want to add the binaural DSP signal, to their existing audio setup, would be able to do so... And again, as the GSX 1000 is not a unit which excels at anything but it's DSP, it's would be great to be able to hook it up to much better amplifiers and dacs.
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I guess it's just the way tech "evolves" and they will hopefully introduce extra functionality based on it's shortfalls.
 
Hunched said:
How does one know what amps to look for when it comes to surround preservation? Doesn't seem like the easiest thing to research or to just throw in Google and hope to find anyone that knows what they're talking about.
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Yeah unfortunately not something really tested for - one of the main problems is amps with cheap dc filters as this tends to degrade the "width" of the sound for some reason plus some cheap "jellybean" op amps that seem to lose some separation/soundstage fidelity over the original signal. If an amp is generally well regarded for separation, etc. then good chance it will have minimum impact on the reproduction of positional audio.
 
Just uploading a quick test video, dont ask why my aim is stuttering no idea lol was using a controller.

Bioshock is a pain because I going to need to play through the start again to get to that point but i'll do that now.

This clip is the default settings am using now! 7.1 Set to story mode with all other settings switched off.
Also for some reason if I listen in to the Sound Blaster Z Line In I get lot of noise?? This normal?
Here a video of it

 
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Got 8 mins of Footage from Bioshock uploading. From the beginning of the game.. Didnt change anything on the fly just let it use my default settings 7.1 and story mode..

Bioshock sounds excellent with the GSX. One thing I did notice though, and i would say its a game issue rather than GSX some of the distant sounds are way too loud, matter of a fact the game itself is very loud overall.

Again i walk around with controller and some reason motion judder so just ignore the image :D and listen has I walk past people and objects.

:D
 
GTA 5 up next, and that be enough for today.. If they is anything you guys want me to do just let me know..

I want to do a game where I change the effects on the fly to showcase them all. What game you think is best?

Battlefield 1 sounds amazing but trying to find that spot without getting shot at is a challenge it would seem lol
 
shankly1985 said:
GTA 5 up next, and that be enough for today.. If they is anything you guys want me to do just let me know..

I want to do a game where I change the effects on the fly to showcase them all. What game you think is best?

Battlefield 1 sounds amazing but trying to find that spot without getting shot at is a challenge it would seem lol
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join an empty map, search for one from the filter options and have someone from the OCUK BF1 thread join you so that the environment and tests are consistent for you to reproduce again for the GSX/SBX/EAX/Dolby HP etc.
 
Can do that, yeah I will turn off story mode for next recordings.

In terms of recording quality, apart from when I playing back I switch to stereo to hear the effects that most people would be playing anyway or am just redoing the surround sound again.. Quality I would say is on par but I do have that strange grounding noise so I guess that would maybe effect some overall quality.

I don't think recording will ever be 100% raw just like YouTube compression etc
 
Here GTA5 again with water 7.1 only this time. I even left the noise issue so you can hear it right at the start.
I think its a grounding issue within my PC getting picked up? Shame because I could just left my GSX plugged into the SBz showing that it is possible to maybe connect an AMP to this by 3.5??

 
Surely from these videos we are just hearing what our own soundcards surround is producing?

As the GSX is aimed at competitive gamers, it would be beneficial to see something like you trying to track the movement of a player you can't see as this is what gives you an edge over other players.

I've just recorded this using a Soundblaster Z and Sennheiser PC360's on Unreal Tournament Pre Alpha.
I'm trying to track the movement of the other player just by listening to the sounds. I can't actually see him, i've just turned xray on in playback.
As you can see, the surround sound isn't bad but it's not great and it doesn't do height very well at all. I can't tell if the other player is on a lower level to me. (some of the sound is cut from the recording for some reason, must be a bug).


A video like this using the GSX would be great
 
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To record the Sound Blaster Z I had to use the WhatU hear in Recordings, Right click that and select listen to this device and then select speakers.
Now use a recording software that allows you to change the output like OBS and for the recording device you will select WhatU Hear.

This will then record the effect right from the sound card.
The GSX is more tricky because its externel and the audio effect gets done after its left the PC. So what I have had to do is connect the GSX to the sound card and then listen in.

Am more than happy to jump onto a server of a game with someone from here and record. Wont be tonight though will after be next weekend when I have the time.
 
Hunched said:
It's an external Soundcard/DAC/Amp.
It's recognized by Windows as a 7.1 sound device, no drivers or software is installed on the PC.
Windows sends 7.1 audio to the GSX, which is where it then applies all of its magic and processing and outputs the now virtual headphone surround through the 3.5mm headphone jack.
The only way to hear the GSX, is to capture the audio output through its 3.5mm headphone jack.
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+1
 
Hello there,

I just signed up to thank you for sharing your recordings. I was looking around the web to hear what the Sennheiser GSX 1000 may sound like and I came across this thread.

I am personally looking to upgrade from my Soundblaster Z/Ear Force DSS setup. I just upgraded my headphones and the sound coming from the Ear Force DSS is not as clean as I would like it to be. But the bass and surround sound mode is still awesome (even though the DSS suffers from that echo effect whilst in surround mode)

Can anybody here describe to me what the bass is like on the GSX 1000? Is it powerful and explosive? Or is it accurate and punchy? (I prefer the former as I want a cinematic experience).

It would be even better if someone could directly compare the two devices: The original Earforce DSS vs Sennheiser GSX 1000 (specifying what the differences are like with their respective surround sound modes)

I also have one more request... Could someone please upload how the GSX 1000 sounds like with music and vocals? (more specifically how different they sound in stereo mode vs surround mode)

The one thing I love about the DSS is that you can switch between stereo and surround, I see that the same is possible with the GSX but I'm not sure if the surround sound effect carries over to movies, music, youtube videos etc. (if someone could confirm this that would be great).

I always switch to stereo mode when listening to music, but when watching youtube videos, I have to switch to surround mode else it kinda hurts my ears a little especially when someone's talking (because the sound stage is very narrow when in stereo mode and the voices seem too close to the ears... Whereas the surround mode widens the soundstage, making it seem as though the voices are further away).

If the same effects can be achieved with the GSX, then I am sold.

Lastly, by what method does the Sennheiser GSX 1000 simulate surround sound? Does the unit take actual 7.1 speaker information? Or is it just remapping regular stereo sound? (edit: just realized this was answered already, thanks).
 
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