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[Victor Omega]

I see many gamers either settle with cheap headphones, or ridiculously expensive gaming headset.

But never do I see mention of DACs, Amps and even Soundcard, let along internal pc cards.

Are these products "Too audiophile" for gamers or am I just not looking close enough?

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If you do use these products id like to know why, how do you use them, and what games you find them good for and recommend some if possible.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

I think there is some overlap, but not enough to make an impact on your gaming. Monitor, keyboard, mouse are all more impactful IMO.

That said, there are definitely audiophile gamers out there.

 

[Hari Seldon]

I own some audiophile equipment, including a fairly expensive vacuum tube headphone amp / pre-amp, as well as numerous high end headphones. The only thing I use for gaming that is special is decent audiophile grade headphones. I do not buy gaming headsets. And they only reason I use this is because 1. my Beyerdynamic DT990's are so damn comfortable that I could wear them 24 hours a day without issue, and 2. they are open-back headphones which is what I need in a house full of children in which I cannot block out all household sounds.

 

[amigastar]

I'm an audiophile myself with Hifiman HE-500, Schiit Modi Multibit and Resonessence Concero DAC and Project Ember Tube Headphone amp . Back in the days i've used Creative Labs internal Soundcards but now i'm going with DACs.

 

[rofif]

I was using fiio e10k and some or other decent headphones for forever.
Last year I finally switched to using pulse 3d. So the dongle is a sound card. The dac is inside the headphones.
I like how it sounds and have no problems with it. I listen to music this way too.

Like Maiden Voyage says(well maybe it's a stretch). It is kinda easy to get a satisfactory audio quality for cheap.
You can get standalone headphones like arctis or pulse 3d. Or get presonus e3.5 or 4.5 speakers. Connect to onboard or usb sound card and it is really on a good level.
If YOu want to go above that, it is hundreds for smal difference imo. You really gotta have ear for that.

I know audiophiles stan by their choices. People like what they know and what they paid for. But the truth is - 100-200usd and you get 97% there. Weather the last 3% is worth hundreds and you will appreciate it? who knows

 

[Rocco Schiavone]

I'm using the Sharkoon gaming dac pro S on my PC and PS5.
Works great on PC and not so well on PS5. On PS5 you can't get loud enough.

 

[Ribi]

Yes I use the schiit stack for CSGO and music along with 300$ moondrop blessings 2

 

[AJUMP23]

I have a state of the art sound system with state of the art speaker (martin Logan) that I play all my games on. Sound is important.

 

[thief183]

Steelseries artcis pro with an external DAC here. I actually bought it for a single game (Hunt showdown). Not exactly The best but at 240 euro both it is a steal.

 

[azertydu91]

I have a decent amplifier and a sound system that will be upgraded soon to a dolby atmos setup and I was wondering if getting a good sound card would helps some of the problem I encounter with windows.I know windows is particularly shitty with audio outputs.

 

[HTK]

I used to be but now I prioritize comfort and being wire free.

Comfort + Wireless (Is the way to go for me.)

I've had a DAC and high end headphones before and the sound difference isn't worth the price or the wires.

 

[rofif]

I used to be but now I prioritize comfort and being wire free.

Comfort + Wireless (Is the way to go for me.)

I've had a DAC and high end headphones before and the sound difference isn't worth the price or the wires.

yeah very similarhere.
Comfort of wireless is really worth some drawbacks. but nowadays there aren't many

 

[Hari Seldon]

The problem I have with wireless headphones is that they are all usually closed back headphones which I absolutely hate because I cannot hear myself talking on my mic, and I need to hear shit around me. If someone made good open back wireless that are comfortable I would be very interested.

 

[HTK]

The problem I have with wireless headphones is that they are all usually closed back headphones which I absolutely hate because I cannot hear myself talking on my mic, and I need to hear shit around me. If someone made good open back wireless that are comfortable I would be very interested.

This is a valid point and I agree. To minimize the issue I change the ear pads to suede or other material so some sound can leak lol.

I've ordered from here before:

Gaming Ear Pads – Wicked Cushions

Upgraded Replacement Ear Pads For HyperX Cloud, SteelSeries Arctis & Turtle Beach Stealth Gaming Headsets. Made by Wicked Cushions.

wickedcushions.com

 

[Maiden Voyage]

I was using fiio e10k and some or other decent headphones for forever.
Last year I finally switched to using pulse 3d. So the dongle is a sound card. The dac is inside the headphones.
I like how it sounds and have no problems with it. I listen to music this way too.

Like Maiden Voyage says(well maybe it's a stretch). It is kinda easy to get a satisfactory audio quality for cheap.
You can get standalone headphones like arctis or pulse 3d. Or get presonus e3.5 or 4.5 speakers. Connect to onboard or usb sound card and it is really on a good level.
If YOu want to go above that, it is hundreds for smal difference imo. You really gotta have ear for that.

I know audiophiles stan by their choices. People like what they know and what they paid for. But the truth is - 100-200usd and you get 97% there. Weather the last 3% is worth hundreds and you will appreciate it? who knows

I fully endorse the last paragraph. Quality headphones & a decent day/amp can be incredibly cost effective. The rest is up to the individual's price-to-performance preference.

 

[DonJuanSchlong]

There's no other way. Gotta have high quality audio!

 

[Bartski]

On Playstation Audeze LCD-X via Motu Ultralite mk4 for the very best, Pulse 3d for the rest.

On the Xbox it's usually just TV speakers or the old MS headset.

 

[DonJuanSchlong]

On Playstation Audeze LCD-X via Motu Ultralite mk4 for the very best, Pulse 3d for the rest.

On the Xbox it's usually just TV speakers or the old MS headset.

I love my LCD X's! One of my favorite planar magnetics.

 

[Digfox]

I use a DAC/AMP setup and have a couple atm; Fiio K5 Pro & Creative SBX G6 with the K5 always hooked up to the Consoles (via optical on TV) & PC. I do also use them for listening to music, podcasts, films/TV etc. Although I also have some Sony PlayStation Platinum's which I originally bought for PS4 but still use (few years old). Apart from having to mod the earpads with some cheap replacement pads they actually have been OK. I do notice the sound difference between them and my Beyerdynamic & AKG headphones but the convenience of wireless is nice.

I actually think gaming headsets have got better recently and even something like the Turtle Beach Recon 500, or Coolermaster MH751 can offer reasonable stereo sound for not much money. Although on PC I do believe there is a good argument for having a DAC/AMP setup or separate mic. Like others have said you can get some quality audio options for not much money.

 

[Bartski]

I love my LCD X's! One of my favorite planar magnetics.

Same, I'm a huge fan and all my top hype games I always start with those. But they're just too heavy and after a couple of hours, my head hurts so bad I need to switch to something lighter. For gaming, weight is a big factor, how hard some press against the ear. I have DT770s, HS-25s and plenty more but at the end of the day, it's a balance between quality and convenience. Most of the time Pulse 3d just does the job and I can game with those for many hours straight without fatigue.

 

[64bitmodels]

The problem I have with wireless headphones is that they are all usually closed back headphones which I absolutely hate because I cannot hear myself talking on my mic, and I need to hear shit around me. If someone made good open back wireless that are comfortable I would be very interested.

Wireless headphones usually have shitty sound quality compared to wired so making them open back wouldn't make sense for sound quality which is like the #1 reason most people even bother with openbacks
as for me, i usually use my TV speakers for gaming. good enough for me. it's only when listening to music do i bust out my Grado SR80Xs, which i like a lot but have horrible earpads.
when i get my PC done building though, i'm gonna use headphones for all games since PC has EAX which only really works when headphones are on, since yknow, 3d sound.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Xbox doesn't allow it. No usb audio out. Else I have a Chord Mojo sitting around.

Pretty happy with connecting my hps to headphone jack of my monitor. They happen to be akg k550.

 

[rofif]

Wireless headphones usually have shitty sound quality compared to wired so making them open back wouldn't make sense for sound quality which is like the #1 reason most people even bother with openbacks
as for me, i usually use my TV speakers for gaming. good enough for me. it's only when listening to music do i bust out my Grado SR80Xs, which i like a lot but have horrible earpads.
when i get my PC done building though, i'm gonna use headphones for all games since PC has EAX which only really works when headphones are on, since yknow, 3d sound.

It depends.
I don't hve big sample size but pulse 3d sounds quite open somehow, does not have any hiss, lag or audio stutter.
It sounds pretty great. That can be said for more 2,4ghz dongles headphones. not sure about BT. I always have some hiss or cutting out with my earbuds

 

[Kuranghi]

I'm lucky enough that my ears don't follow my eyes, my ears are big dum-dums can't really tell if something is really high quality or not, as long as its decent/good I'm cool with it. Meanwhile my eyes are completely pretentious wankers:

My eyes: "I saw some aliasing!"
Me: *sighing and quitting the game to go tweak the AA in the ini some more*
My eyes: "Nah wait it was just a bee at 900 yards, it was part of the game"
Me: *smashes my eyes with hammers*

 

[Borowski_1]

AKG K702, Sennheiser HD599 and Soundblaster X7 DAC/Amp

wanted to try like a HD560s or a Hifiman 400se these days

 

[lukilladog]

I just upgraded to intel 12th gen which lacks a pci port, so no more xonar sound card for me. But integrated handles my vintage Aiwa sound sytem and sennheiser hd300 headphones perfectly fine. At first I missed the deep bass, but the APO equalizer with Pete's front end does a great job.

 

[cinnamonandgravy]

Rotel RSX-1065 receiver >> Monoprice Monolith 5x power amp >> 5x Martin Logan Motion series speakers (Motion 40s as the front left/right).
(waiting for a good hdmi 2.1 receiver/processor, and will add at least two more speakers)

Grado RS2 headphones + Little Dot Mk2 tube amp, or Sony WH-1000XM4 wireless headphones.

 

[benno]

my gaming pc is also a dual boot audio workstation in a home studio so I have mastering studio grade audio to play games with.
Marian Seraph D4 PCIe card.
Prism Callia DAC/Volume controller/Headphone amp
PSI Audio A25M active monitors.

Does it make gaming better? Not really. If it was just for gaming I'd get something 1/20th the price like a pair of Mackie MR624's and a little Fostex PC100 DAC

​

 

[spons]

Xbox doesn't allow it. No usb audio out. Else I have a Chord Mojo sitting around.

Pretty happy with connecting my hps to headphone jack of my monitor. They happen to be akg k550.

Exactly - I would if I could, but it just doesn't work on Xbox. The problem here is that I connect my Xbox Series console to a monitor, not a TV. It's not in my living room and I'm not going to lodge a receiver in the current setup.
There are only two options then, since Xbox doesn't support Bluetooth audio either: connect headphones to the controller, or to my monitor. The latter is out of the question because it's more noise and interference than actual game audio, so I connect my headphones to the controller. It's far from ideal, but it works. I do think the lack of audio options on Xbox is galling.

 

[benno]

With the consoles without digital outputs you just take the toslink/spdif etc from the tv or monitor. My audio from my PS5 comes from a headphone socket on my monitor which doubles as toslink.

 

[DGrayson]

Yes I do. Not because I think its necessary for gaming but because I listen to a lot of music at my desk as well so its already setup this way.

Have a Topping DAC and Topping Headphone AMP, some Beyerdynamic closed headphones and Sennheiser open headphones, and some AudioEngine A2s.

 

[Spukc]

Denon amp hdr 4k dolby atmos

Kef speakers

 

[Digfox]

With the consoles without digital outputs you just take the toslink/spdif etc from the tv

Not always that simple though.

Like the poster above, impossible if you have a Monitor. And this can also introduce latency. When I enabled Dolby Digital on my Samsung 4K TV, my old SoundBlaster X7 then had lag on audio. The X7 was always great for taking the DD predominantly used on many old 360 and One games and encoding down to VSS stereo.

I do use my Optical port on my TV for Xbox - then accept basic stereo using either Dolby Atmos for Headphones or DTS Headophone: X. But again on PS5 this method doesn't work and you lose 3D audio.

Optical was a nice open standard which many Headphone DAC/AMPs support and ideally both consoles should support UAC1 DAC/AMPS and USB Mics. Or even sell a breakout box for those that want it to add the extra ports without impacting HDMI 2.1.

 

[FrankWza]

With the consoles without digital outputs you just take the toslink/spdif etc from the tv or monitor. My audio from my PS5 comes from a headphone socket on my monitor which doubles as toslink.

But again on PS5 this method doesn't work and you lose 3D audio.

Possible on PS5 for most options

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/playstation-5-3d-audio-few-questions-and-a-headset-to-get.1629806/post-265565462

 

[ReBurn]

The last time I used a DAC was on Rocksmith for PS4 because the audio lag through HDMI made it intolerable to play for me. I used the DAC to convert from optical audio to RCA into my guitar amp and that was pretty sweet.

 

[Digfox]

Possible on PS5 for most options

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/playstation-5-3d-audio-few-questions-and-a-headset-to-get.1629806/post-265565462

Sorry I specifically meant that if you use PS5 > TV > Optical > DAC/AMP - you lose the ability to use 3D Audio. I can plug my SBX G6 into my PS5 or use my Platinum Headset for Tempest 3D Audio. It's just using your TV's Optical Out will be stereo only output.

 

[Borowski_1]

Not always that simple though.

Like the poster above, impossible if you have a Monitor. And this can also introduce latency. When I enabled Dolby Digital on my Samsung 4K TV, my old SoundBlaster X7 then had lag on audio. The X7 was always great for taking the DD predominantly used on many old 360 and One games and encoding down to VSS stereo.

I do use my Optical port on my TV for Xbox - then accept basic stereo using either Dolby Atmos for Headphones or DTS Headophone: X. But again on PS5 this method doesn't work and you lose 3D audio.

Optical was a nice open standard which many Headphone DAC/AMPs support and ideally both consoles should support UAC1 DAC/AMPS and USB Mics. Or even sell a breakout box for those that want it to add the extra ports without impacting HDMI 2.1.

get an audio-hdmi splitter

it gives you optical and Rca out

 

[Digfox]

get an audio-hdmi splitter

it gives you optical and Rca out

Absolutely, you could. But again this kind of supports my point. It isn't always as simple as just using the Optical Out on your TV.

 

[FrankWza]

Sorry I specifically meant that if you use PS5 > TV > Optical > DAC/AMP - you lose the ability to use 3D Audio. I can plug my SBX G6 into my PS5 or use my Platinum Headset for Tempest 3D Audio. It's just using your TV's Optical Out will be stereo only output.

With the USB to spdif method you regain optical, mixing and the option to swap between Tempest and amp VSS while keeping full 2.1 and can still separate mic if your amp is weaker over the PS5s USB port.

 

[Borowski_1]

Absolutely, you could. But again this kind of supports my point. It isn't always as simple as just using the Optical Out on your TV.

i know i could, because it's how i do it

PS5>hdmi splitter>X7>headphones

you lose 3D audio from the PS5, but can you 7.1/5.1 suround from the dac/amp

 

[Digfox]

With the USB to spdif method you regain optical, mixing and the option to swap between Tempest and amp VSS while keeping full 2.1 and can still separate mic if your amp is weaker over the PS5s USB port.

Understood. And can see this gets you chat mixing back, which is cool.

i know i could, because it's how i do it

PS5>hdmi splitter>X7>headphones

you lose 3D audio from the PS5, but can you 7.1/5.1 suround from the dac/amp

Apologies I wasn't meaning to be rude, I was agreeing and it is an option as you say.

 

[s-bojan]

I am using Lotoo Paw s1 > Dunu SA6 on ps5. Sadly, it is not working on Series consoles (but it is working on Switch).
On pc, I am using Schiit 2 stack + Fidelio X2.

 

[Borowski_1]

Understood. And can see this gets you chat mixing back, which is cool.



Apologies I wasn't meaning to be rude, I was agreeing and it is an option as you say.

ahah, no worries

i didn't think you were rude at all

 

[benno]

But again on PS5 this method doesn't work and you lose 3D audio.

not really such thing as 3d audio, it's marketing speak for some post processing effect which just messes with phase and stereo timings. If you want surround then buy a surround processor with HDMI inputs and go that route.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Exactly - I would if I could, but it just doesn't work on Xbox. The problem here is that I connect my Xbox Series console to a monitor, not a TV. It's not in my living room and I'm not going to lodge a receiver in the current setup.
There are only two options then, since Xbox doesn't support Bluetooth audio either: connect headphones to the controller, or to my monitor. The latter is out of the question because it's more noise and interference than actual game audio, so I connect my headphones to the controller. It's far from ideal, but it works. I do think the lack of audio options on Xbox is galling.

They took away optical, they should at least offer a replacement via usb.

I sit close to monitor so it's possible to connect. SQ difference between controller and monitor is quiet significant I feel.

 

[Anchovie123]

Nothing too special. I use a Fiio E10K with a AKG K7XX.

 

[Digfox]

not really such thing as 3d audio, it's marketing speak for some post processing effect which just messes with phase and stereo timings. If you want surround then buy a surround processor with HDMI inputs and go that route.

I appreciate that, in that it's not true 3D audio. Although I suppose the beauty of both Series X|S and PS5 is that Spatial/3D works with any stereo headset and is completely optional. I've always had a preference for VSS over the years in certain games on PC or console. The ability to truly pinpoint sounds and their direction was always worth a trade off in sound quality. But obviously this is subjective and for some games I will prefer stereo.

For me 3D audio has improved certain games though; The Division 2, and Horizon ZD spring to mind.

 

[Borowski_1]

Nothing too special. I use a Fiio E10K with a AKG K7XX.

it's a good setup if you ask me

 

[TGO]

Yeah I have Atmos/DTS-X AV
Only have one Sub though but I can have more hooked up if I wanted
But I use it for films and music too

 

[VN1X]

Still rocking one of these (Asus Xonar Essence STX 124dB SNR):

With a Beyerdynamic DT 990 PRO.