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What do you use for your gaming audio?

Marantz surround sound 7.1 AVR with large tower speakers in the front and rear, a 12 inch ported subwoofer and a large center channel. Right now I’m running it in 5.1 though. Sounds great and really immersive imo. Also on occasion, closed Beyerdynamic headphones and open Sennheiser headphones when I want to keep things more quiet.

Personally, I’d recommend a decent 5.1 receiver with some small or large speakers for a true immersive experience. Lots of great to solid choices from Marantz, Denon, Yamaha to Sony just depending on what kind of sound you are looking for.

I’m not as experienced with sound bars, but there are some pretty good ones out there for pretty cheap and they are much easier and less messy to set up.

I prefer regular headphones to gaming headsets because I feel they are generally better quality, but they are good options as well if you want something simpler.
 
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Demigod Mac

Member
Dolby Atmos 5.1.2 home theater setup.

Currently building a new house and will have an official theater room. Once in there, I am hoping to upgrade to a 7.1.4 setup.
Go for it. 7.1.4 is a substantial upgrade over 5.1.2
Denon's new X3800H receiver is great and supports up to 4 independent subs.
 
LG C2 speakers
Steelseries Arctic’s 7x
AirPods Pro

7x works wirelessly on every console, and I have SkullnCo adapters for Bluetooth on ps5 and on Xbox for the AirPods since I don’t always like having full headphones on.
 

Demigod Mac

Member
I have a 6.1 system, there are windows where the speakers of a 7.1 system would be.
I am still using the decent boxes I got around 2008. I even have to use them way below their potential to avoid being killed by my neighbors, so an upgrade makes no real sense :messenger_sad_relieved:
Not sure if today I would rather use Dolby Atmos 5.1.2 system instead of 7.1, but I don't know if it makes sense with a PS5, which does not really support this. Maybe the AV receiver can upscale it to something useful?
Atmos is pretty awesome if you consume a lot of content that supports it, though I really missed having the side surrounds when I switched from 7.1 to 5.1.2. Two steps forward, one step back. An Xbox and movies/TV shows that have Atmos tracks would benefit more from the 5.1.2 setup whereas a Playstation 5 would do best with 7.1. The Dolby Surround upmixer is surprisingly good, but pales compared to the real thing.
(recently switched to 7.1.4 and all is right in the world again)
 

Cohetedor

Member
5.1 setup but hardly get to really use it as most of my game time is between 1-3am when everyone else is asleep. Sad to say I usually am stuck using my projector's 2w speakers turned down so as to not wake people.
 

bad guy

as bad as Danny Zuko in gym knickers
If you will also be listening to music and are going to spend less than $1000 I'd go stereo. Makes more sense to get 2 excellent sounding speakers, than 5 okay sounding ones.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Yeah, I've thought about it, but I've also read it's a bit shit unless you have a very low ceiling so you can get a good direct sound bounce. My ceilings are about 2.8m I think, and also not entirely smooth (they have that rough texture that's pretty common on ceilings), so I'm not sure how cleanly the sound would bounce back down.
You considered height Speakers instead?
I have a 7.2/5.2.2 and that's what I'm doing.
My ceiling is pyramid shaped so upward firing is out the question and in ceiling is too much of hassle.
 
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nemiroff

Gold Member
Philips Fidelio X3 open back headphones + DAC + Balanced + Dolby Atmos

XcPC4mI.png

pl9Z0Js.png


BTW, this is the first headset I've ever owned that I can wear a full day straight without any discomfort.
 
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RoadHazard

Gold Member
You considered height Speakers instead?
I have a 7.2/5.2.2 and that's what I'm doing.
My ceiling is pyramid shaped so upward firing is out the question and in ceiling is too much of hassle.

I'm not sure that would add all that much compared to just my front speakers? The audio would still be coming more from the front than from above.
 

skit_data

Member
I have a 5.1 system but I usually play with headphones unless someone is visiting. I’ll probably switch to using pretty much only the 5.1 setup when the 3D audio patch arrives for it on PS5.

They’re really taking their good time with that 5.1 patch, starting to doubt we’ll ever see it which would be a disappointment.
 
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chixdiggit

Member
I have a pretty legit 7.1 system. It's nice when people are over but prefer a good set of headphones.


61+btxzpfDL._AC_SL1500_.jpg


Sony XM5. Granted, not only for gaming.
Nice choice. Literally just bought a pair of these and music sounds amazing. Haven't even had the chance to try for gaming yet though. We will see if they replace my Sennheiser HD 560 cans.
 

bootaski

Member
Pulse 3d for PS5 and Platinum Headset for PS4pro. I had wired Arctis headset for my PC, but I couldn't get DTSX to work, so I just use the Pulse headset over stereo cable with windows sonic surround for that.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
I'm not sure that would add all that much compared to just my front speakers? The audio would still be coming more from the front than from above.
The sound field should be completed different when set to Atmos compared to the FL/R so it should be less identifiable where the sound is coming from another then above.
But Ceiling Speakers would be the best option, but Height is a good alternative.
If you had a 7.1 set up you could experiment with it.
 
mostly LG CX built in speakers
occassionaly AKG 702
for VR the Sony plugs
on Vita mostly the built in speakers, occasionally AKG 242
on PC an ultra cheap bluetooth mono speaker or AKG 242 if I actually care about the sound
 

Soodanim

Gold Member
031f9bba25e1f93f15bf15f8f7a4d6c4--powered-speakers-loudspeaker.jpg


Steljes NS3. Powered speakers. Not in that colour though, mine are a dark grey that goes better with the black electronics around it than black would have due to them being glossy.
These do the job just fine for me, and I run all my audio through them. TV/consoles through Optical, PC through 3.5mm, and turntable through RCA. It also has Bluetooth for the times I want that, although I rarely do.
 
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64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
I only have some kzed iems which sound good but I prefer over ear headphones more, so I'm hoping to get hifiman headphones in the future with a good Amp
 

DAHGAMING

Member
On the ps4 I had a turtle beach dss2 and used a pair of xm3 or the Phillips shp9500, which sounded great. Now I used both of those headphones with the dualsense. I've read only that the audio is supposed to sound like trash out of the dualsense, I actually feel it's less dynamic and has an inferior positional audio, but it's my current setup. I would love to improve it, but I honestly don't know how.

Does the DSS not work with the PS5 ? Im thinking can you just plug the USB for it into the console, might have to mess with the settings to output via USB . Another option could be an audio extractor so you can use optical output, its a fucker due to the amount of cables but I think it will work.

Audio extractor like this: HDMI 2.0 Audio Extractor 4K 60Hz PS5 1080P 120Hz 4:4:4 HDCP 2.2 CEC D-olby vision HDR de-embed SPDIF Optical 5.1CH 3.5mm stereo L/R Audio Breakout D-olby Digital Audio Decoder EDID Management Scaler https://amzn.eu/d/0TYPCbD
 

DonF

Member
Does the DSS not work with the PS5 ? Im thinking can you just plug the USB for it into the console, might have to mess with the settings to output via USB . Another option could be an audio extractor so you can use optical output, its a fucker due to the amount of cables but I think it will work.

Audio extractor like this: HDMI 2.0 Audio Extractor 4K 60Hz PS5 1080P 120Hz 4:4:4 HDCP 2.2 CEC D-olby vision HDR de-embed SPDIF Optical 5.1CH 3.5mm stereo L/R Audio Breakout D-olby Digital Audio Decoder EDID Management Scaler https://amzn.eu/d/0TYPCbD
Since the PS5 doesn't have optical out, yeah it doesnt work. Yeah that audio extractor looks like it would work. I might try it someday. I just want a clean setup :(
 

executor

Member
Yamaha av decoder with my beloved Indiana Line Arbour full setup! Arbour tower speakers are anyway so good that I often play in 2.1
 
LG C1
Denon S690H Receiver with 5.1 Klipsch speakers setup

If you're willing to drop $1500 on a TV, you owe it to yourself to spend $500+ on a sound system. The difference is astronomical having room-filling sound over TV speakers/headphones.
 

Robbinhood

Banned
Rocking a paradigm studio 5.1 setup. 20s in the front and rear, Cc690 center. That’s a big boi. Rythmik FV15hp sub. An even bigger boi.
 

Jayjayhd34

Member
Using TV speakers have the z906 but too noisy for next door so was constantly having turn it up down been looking Dolby Atmos soundbar but don't no if I'll same problem.
 

JimboJones

Member
An old Yamaha TSS-10 surround sound system I got in 2004. Don't use the surround sound for it anymore just set up as stereo with the subwoofer.
 
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