Head phone and DAC for immersive gaming and lofi music listening

Gaming Audio Casual
#1

Hi everyone,

As the title suggest I would like to finally get an actual set up to elevate my gaming experience. I mainly play open world and RPG games such as AC, Tomb Raider, and a bit of FPS here and there. I am just a casual gamer and don’t really care much about competitive stuff so I don’t really care about hearing precise footstep or anything but rather looking for a set up that can help to make me feel like I’m inside of the game. I also listen to music quite often and most of them being lofi, chill hop and jazz rap types of music.

So far I’ve set my eyes on the Fidelio X2HR for the headphone but if you guys have any better recommendation I’d love to give it a try. In terms of DAC, I kinda like the idea of virtual 7.1 of the GSX 1000 or the Sound Blasterx G6 but if there’s any alternative that’s cheaper but don’t offer 7.1, I can always use Dolby Access or DTS.

My budget for everything is under 500AUD (around 400usd), I would highly appreciate if you guys could help me with some recommendation.

On as side note, this is quite contradicting to what I’ve said before but some consider virtual 7.1 to sort of destroy the audio of the game, what do you think about this?

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#2

I’m definitely not an expert in the realm but it sounds like you are me circa April 2020. Funny thing is you’re considering the exact dip I took into this pool.

After our new dog decided that my HyperX Cloud II would make a great chew toy I decided to look for something better than what it offered. After stumbling onto Z Reviews and other YouTube sites I ended up buying the X2HR, a BoomPro, and a GSX1000. I’ve been extremely happy with this setup, it’s performed very well with the games I’ve been playing, among them Mechwarrior Mercenaries, DCS World, Star Wars Squadrons and Cyberpunk 2077. The virtual 7.1 from the GSX1000 has worked very well for me in gaming. This setup is leaps and bounds above anything I’d played with before (Cloud IIs, Astros, Voids, etc.).

The only downside is that I’ve started down the audio rabbit hole. I’m in the middle of upgrading to a Schiit Magnius/Modius stack, standalone mic (got a Yeti X), and Hifiman Sundaras. But, first world problems…

Just in case anyone asks, here’s a picture of the offender and trigger for my audio upgrade:

Attach17727_20200618_092218
Attach17727_20200618_092218756×1008 636 KB

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#3

She’s adorable, cant figure out the breed though, is she a mix?

#4

Hello,
The Fostex Hp A3 would actually be quite good but falls out of the budget even if it were plug and play.
Alternatively, the Ify hip dac would be technically up to date as a dac/amp.
And you would have a bit more room for headphones.

The Dolby stuff over headphones is actually generated stereo.
If you have a good stereo setup, it will drive any promised Dolbymytos to the wall.

Dolby only makes sense if you have an av reciever and 5 speakers connected, then it’s Dolby, but not over headphones.
This would certainly be possible with the Iem technology, but it would be very complex and expensive.

A good advice is to get a good pair of headphones and not what the gaming industry sells. 90% of them are rubbish and plastic that will give up the ghost in 2 years.
And it also damages your ears in the long term.

Here are the Ify hip dac threath from the Forum for better Information about.

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#5

Pomeranian and Shih Tzu mix.

#6

First of all, she’s such a cutie haha.

Secondly, It’s nice that we’re pretty much on the same boat. Just wondering what was the main reason for the upgrades, is this one mainly for music consumption and you still use the old set up for gaming?

#7

Thanks for your reply and recommendation. If you don’t mind me asking, what’s different about gaming headset that make listening to them for a prolong period of time harmful to your ears?

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#8

The drivers are worth only 5-10$ and are very badly tuned. Together with the plastic they sound really shrill, harsh and unbalanced. Especially the high frequency range is mostly damaging to the ears.
The mid-range is usually badly tuned.

It’s definitely not worth the money, something like this costs a maximum of 20$ in production and is sold for 5 times that.
There are really better listeners from the audio sector that also offer you an experience in gaming and audio.

Buy a good pair of headphones and if you have a gaming headset at home, compare them and you will notice the difference.
The audio headphones will be much more full-bodied, powerful, have balanced mids, a clean bass, great highs without being shrill and harsh.

Otherwise, take a look at @Falenkor’s postings, he has dealt with this a bit more, especially in the gaming area.
He has very good approaches and great suggestions for headphones that are worth it and don’t necessarily have to cost a lot for the entry level as well as for longer use.

Here is the link

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#9

Good dogo, brings audio upgrade

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#10

The only reason for the upgrades is curiosity about what experience the newer equipment will give me. I get like this some times, I wanna try something new so I just spend some money on it. I totally plan on keeping my X2HR, though a buddy of mine might buy my GSX1000 but that’s kind of dependent on what the gaming experience is like for me on the Schiit stack as well as the Sundara.

I do listen to music a lot anyhow, so the new hardware definitely isn’t going to waste, and at this point I’ve been full time work from home since our office closed in March 2020 and we’re not reopening until July 1st at the earliest, so I’ve been listening to music at home all day every day.

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#11

If you miss the surround sound features just use hesuvi on windows

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#12

virtual 7.1 is garbage 9 times out of 10 and ruins sound qualities… you can obtain this through cheaper programs such as Dolby Atmos or Hesuvi and get practically the same results. The GSX 1000 is an absolute piece of garbage for a ridiculous price as it may as well just be a one trick pony dac, since it barely can drive slightly demanding headphones and the sound quality is honestly not that good in my opinion. G6 is alright… for it’s price not bad at all and drives even the 600 ohm beyers… it won’t provide the best sound quality but it’s still not bad. There is many better options but I wouldn’t call them cheaper than the G6 in this regard… Entry levels are around $250 maximum for amps and dacs together and will generally provide a much cleaner detailed sound than either of these units.

not bad but it depends on how picky your ears are… x2hr is quite a bit muddy on the bass as it bleeds into the mids and to some people they are deemed bright which is weird all considering. I’m personally not a big fan of it… but it’s a good cheap option for sure

I won’t even say this is subjective… this is a confirmed fact. 7.1 is a cancer on the video game and sound industry… it’s oversold hot garbage and they get some game developers to implement this so they can pump the price on headphones that make use of this software… the software itself is cheap as hell up to around $15 for 7.1 software programs that do just fine meanwhile the headphones can range an additional $50+ just because they added some 7.1 software and maybe a cheap change in pads at times. If 7.1 is your thing, by all means use it… it creates a virtual environment to emulate a set of bad sounding speakers… however, if you have headphones that are open back with a large soundstage you get a more accurate large environment in this regard that doesn’t sound so echo-y and awful.

Considering his music tastes and it appears he wants a large open stage? Tygr 300R easy… x2hr may be bassier with a wider stage but it’s uncontrolled and unrefined nature of sound completely throws me off

Noticing the AUD currency this may not be obtainable…would advise checking anyway to see if you can find a way to obtain this… tygr 300r is only obtainable by itself directly from beyerdynamic or 3rd party… otherwise it’s sold with it’s fox microphone

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#13

Thanks for the help, here the TYGR 300R is actually on sale from 450aud to 350aud so I might come to the shop, give it a try and potentially buy it. Do you have any other recommendations for the DAC other than the G6 or evem the X3?

#14

g6 is fine as is the x3 from soundblaster but they do not provide the best sound quality… you’d be looking at quite the increase in budget but the others would be let me think… ifi zen dac and then upgrade later to the zen can + zen dac stack… Schiit Magni and Modi or switch magni out for the heresy, Topping L30 and E30, Monoprice Liquid Spark amp and dac or you can substitute the dac out for a topping D10, JDS atom stack amp and dac

#15

Surprisingly the ifi is actually even cheaper than the g6 here and I think this is also the only dac in all your recommendations that doesn’t really require an amp to use a headphone so I will go this one and upgrade later to the can if necessary. Thanks for the help.

#16

the zen dac has most of it’s power inside of it’s balanced port… it’s not as strong as the g6 without use of the balanced port and definitely not as strong as the entry level units mentioned. Though for something like the tygr, it should be plenty

Note: no, you cannot just use an adapter or something to use the balanced port of the ifi zen dac… the headphone needs a special cable for that.

#17

So if I’m able to find a good balance port cable for the tygr then the ifi will be able to provide better audio then the g6 but without it it will not perform well?

Is this cable good enough?

#18

again, adapters will not work for the balanced port… do not try this you will destroy/damage the equipment

tygr cannot use balanced ports, it needs to be modded with a completely different cable to achieve that

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#19

Ah sorry, my bad I did not read your reply carefully enough. But since the ifi is alreay powerful enough for the tygr then I would only need to be cautios of the fact that if were to purchase a more powerful headphone then the ifi may not be enough to drive that unless I upgrade with an ifi can to form a stack right?

#20

yep, though headphones later do tend to use duel cabling which can be converted to be balanced. zen can is only an amp but is quite a good amount stronger

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