Going to assume I was using some pretty piss poor cabling, due note that for once now after changing cables I hear a difference in channels and overall balance… switched to Mogami cabling(can find them through “worlds best cables”)… definitely not disappointed hell of a lot better than the stiff monoprice too, highly recommended and plenty of flex to them
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this guy… 
Claiming that the DAC of the Goxlr will muddy the sound, but running the output of a schiit stack through another cheap ass 35€ mackie amp will get you the best gaming audio ever.
Oh, and of course, make sure to buy all this stuff through his affilitate links to get even better gaming performance… 
Goxlr minis have crazy amounts of noise. Not gonna watch the video, but they’re awful. Don’t know about the full size, as they have separate power, but holy fuck the mini is laughably bad. Not just noise either, just bad everything.
The headphone amp of the goxlr sucks. I have the bigger version, not the mini, but just using the Goxlr as a dac and connecting the line out to an proper amp works fine. I dont know about the mini, but i guess they use the same DAC in both, so i think they would perform the same. Of course a proper DAC will perform a bit better, but its no way a night and day difference.
But it isnt really about the goxlr, its about that he wants the goxlrs features but wants to keep using his dac. so his solution is to connect the output of the magni 3 amp to another amp, the mackie hm4, which has an output impedance of 47 ohm, which could actually muddy the sound of low impedance heapdhones. Sadly i couldnt find any mearsurements, but alone that it costs only 35€, has 4 headphone outputs and a high output impedance indicate that these thing probably isnt performing too well.
In general he does a bad job at explaining the benefits of going with proper headphones, he basically just says that you will hear footsteps better and from fruther away, which is total bullshit. How far away you can hear footsteps is limited by the games sound engine, no DAC/AMP or headphone will increase that. At the same time he is claiming on twitter, that he basically started a gaming audio revolution, while posting his affiliate links.
He then got called out by EposVox on twitter, that he has no actually expierence and sources to his claims. And his repsonse was basically, but DMS said… 
I’d agree the hp out on the goxlr stuff is basically there to check if things are making sound and nothing else, not good enough quality wise. Dac wise I don’t know since I’ve not tried the mini, but just because they use the same chip doesn’t mean they will sound the same (I’d expect they sound similar, but the mini could actually be worse as I’d bet it has a weaker psu and less attention paid to the output stage)
Depends on what level you are moving from. If you are going from like a goxlr to a modi it’s not really going to be super significant, but if you go from the goxlr to something really really up there it could be (headphones and amp permitting of course)
It’s pretty terrible, and I have no idea why he would run a nicer amp into a worse one, that’s just double amping and negating any benefit the magni would have
Would both agree and disagree, in the end the quality of the game’s sound engine is going to determine how things perform, but some source chains can further capitalize on that and some will be limiting. Some chains will naturally have larger stages and more stage accuracy, some will not. Again all depends on the setup at hand
it’s hard to gauge whether something is good when you have something like the engine hindering the sound in most cases… many games have really awful engines in use as it’s a pretty common cut corner even in competitive FPS these days.
Though his remarks over his video on “top tier” for gamers made me chuckle alot… as while hes… sorta on the right track at the same time hes all over the place and theres quite a bit of misinformation here and there, hes on the track of being still new to the hobby and trying to narrow the “best” still.
Would never encourage something like the xlr there over a dedicated dac… different uses… use the proper equipment for best results
Yes there’s a limit to what’s worthwhile and what’s not, there’s a point where the headphone and the source chain is just more capable than the engine is and it doesn’t lead to much extra improvement (in a specific game at least, might show itself in other games if that engine is specifically bad or a different game has a better one, def will in well recorded/produced music though)
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I sat and watched that… and I am not sure where to even begin, like I want to make a comment but I feel it would be horribly negative towards his extreme misinformation such as comments on how magni and modi are going to “make you better than everyone else” and other BS of that sort. Same thing as recommending things like fulla then making remarks like 660s, 1990, and hd800s which fulla … really isn’t that powerful … so using more demanding headphones like that isn’t going to go well whatsoever especially 800s over there
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It’s really not worthwhile to go for those cans no matter what unless you up your source gear accordingly. Doesn’t have to be crazy high, but you really really really wouldn’t want to be running an 800s or even a 1990 off a fulla or even magni modi stack if you want to get what you paid for out of those cans lol. Yeah skimming it, it’s fairly misguided, feels like someone who just learned about some audio stuff yesterday trying to come off as an expert
That “best gaming audio setup” linked in the description would absolutely not be something I’d want to put together lol
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I can not express this more… I practically beg people since I now know better as I learned the hard way here… to never EVER go up the chain of headphones like this without the proper source gear. I started my journey and if anyone recalls had a lot of issues… such as even hating the 880 600 ohm… it had turned out that the source gear was bad… I had this same issue with the Focal series, I literally despised them, and then even my favorite headphones the Aeons and T1 2nd gen… it wasn’t till I upgraded all my source gear that things really clicked.
For a gamer, if your going to take it up the chain to like $400 range headphones… the amps like Asgard 3 over there those in $200 maybe $300 are a good spot from what I found… if you can go further like to liquid platinum territory(400+ range per unit) I think would be better… but for gaming? eh, I think asgard is fine personally and if they can’t get asgard stuff like Topping and Lake People I found really good alternatives in most cases. For gaming, you don’t need to spend on $1k+ headphones whatsoever to begin with…
^ this, it honestly reminds me of myself when I first started… Hell even parts of this guide have those issues where some recommendations make me cringe lol
Edit: he comments a lot on warzone… yeah, still a budding audiophile then who seems to not realize the issue is that warzone has probably one of the worst sound engines to run any test off of
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I’d agree, imo the asgard 3 or lake people g103s will really satisfy the needs of most midrange or lower cans quite well (just pick which one best suits your needs), dac wise I’d look toward something like an allo revolution dac with a nirvana smps or a geshelli j2 (or modius), and if you can’t swing that then something like the jds atom dac+ or earmen donald dac or modi 3+ or really any of the decent 100 buck dacs will do, I’d prioritize the amp first in this case. For context when I personally think of midrange or below cans I think of things like the beyer 880/990 or 1990, hfm sundara or xs or 400se, focal elex, senn 6 series, dca aeons, aq nighthawks, akg k712, at ad1000x etc. Stuff in that range
But when you start getting into things like the beyer t1.2, 800s, focal clear, adx5k, etc etc other things in that 1k+ range that stepping up the source gear becomes very critical and you likely should be spending equal cost to the headphones on a proper chain (or more depending on the headphones, depends on how well they scale and your needs). But that’s all overkill for gaming and I wouldn’t do those for only gaming
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Someone should post on there to have them come here to this website honestly… and maybe do that towards other videos and spread the word that this is a good place to come to talk about audio for gamers and music lovers alike… that and the other fellow websites I guess.
I think we can agree here, though I don’t have experience with the nirvana I have checked out allo, geshelli, and modius(which I still have) all of which perform extremely well in my opinion for price and for gaming specifically same with the amp recommendations I find they are very good at giving you exactly what your wanting.
hmm, I had some issues with modi 3’s original not the + variant where it was a bit… shimmery like a glare of sorts so I dont have experience with the + unsure if they resolved that… though Donald dac had some of the best capabilities image wise that I have seen in the low budgets.
the fact you consider this price tag mid range wounds me lol id consider that fairly high personally. Maybe mid-fi? but not mid range for budget least not for your average gamer so to speak.
problem with this is that people grab the T1(current complaints I get of late) and think running off something like the liquid spark is going to provide the best result… when the T1 is a flagship… 2nd gen was originally an over $1k+ headphone and its 600 ohms… its a picky beast of a headphone… asgard 3 at the absolute minimum imo. Not even going to get started on just how picky clears are…
out of those, I mainly just say T1 since the price has dropped so significantly($400 range just like 1990 even in new conditioning off the used markets) that to me it makes it feel more worthwhile… its hard to find the others like you listed for cheap like that and T1’s performance when properly driven through good source gear is nuts but at the same time a very comfortable listen imo… since it doesn’t have a lot of beyer issues such as recessive mid range or extreme over the top overbearing treble or a flabbier bass of sorts…
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Yep all solid, all a bit of a sonic upgrade over the 100 buck dac range some with more features that one might want. And amp wise I thought the a3 and g103 were noticeable steps up from a fair amount of the 100 buck amps
So yes, I didn’t like the regular modi 3 either, the modi 3+ solves that for the most part, you have the modius so it basically is like the modius but scaled back a bit. Yes the donald dac was a sleeper lol
I mean didn’t the go on sale for 500-600 regularly at some point, I’d consider that reasonably midrange pricing? And I would agree they are on the upper end of midrange, but I’d still consider them midrange headphones personally nonetheless
All a pain in the ass lol
Price has slowly been rising since they got discontinued, I haven’t seen that many that cheap anymore unfortunately, but if you can grab one at that price I’d do it as well
Yes, the problem is just the source gear requirement, just like the he6se v2 getting down to 600 bucks, it’s an extremely misleading price due to hefty source gear requirements lol
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I got mine at $370 with zero issues lol… I mean the headband stuffing tore loose but I am debating on whether repairing it or just cutting off the foam banding and replacing it with a dekoni one or something… Common issue with this gen I guess
well that and certain “youtubers and streamers” making claims of, well just buy an hd800s and -insert bare bones amp and dac at like… $100- and call it a day!
Then again thats like the measurements argument or “all amps and dacs sound the same” or whatever, so I just keep my mouth shut on most of it less chimed at.
interesting, I like the modius though I never really use it and plan to do away with it later during my sales since I have bifrost 2.
no idea, barely paid attention. I guess I can see that being midrange at that point… its still pretty high
well that and finding the right setup to agree with said headphones… the rabbit hole hurts my wallet.
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-added Ovidius TX-901 to audition list for later… no clue how to go about that since linsouls return policy sucks ass. noted after zeos review on it.
Graph looks very weird. Probably way too little treble to be a good comp gaming headphone.
that honestly looks pretty damn bad lol
This guy confuses me. On one hand he seems pretty knowledgeable, one the other hand he really makes me shake my head.
He mentions that he loves Audio Science und even mentions HRTF, but when it comes to spatial audio, he claims that Dolby Atmos/DTS/etc just adds EQ and reverb and is worse for competitive gaming. If he really know what HRTF means and how we locate sound, how can he claim that a HRTF mix is worse than a pure stereo mix?
Or is my understanding of it wrong? If i am wrong, than somebody here please feel free to correct me, but i just cannot understand how people still claim that a stereo mix is better for gaming than a hrtf mix.
Thats my current understanding:
I know that HRTF, Virtual Surround Sound, or however people want to call it, is not perfect, to be perfect the surround sound software would need to know the exact shape of our ear and the headphone which we are using, but it is the best we´ve got for now and already an improvement over a pure stereo mix.
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The game itself having an HRTF (stereo) mix is the best scenario. Dont use any surround sound software here, just leave everything in stereo. Games that do this are for example: CS:GO (has steam audio), Overwatch (Dolby Atmos), Fortnite (has a 3D Audio setting), Hunt Showdown, Tarkov (Steam Audio, but not fully implemented yet) and probably some other games.
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Games that have no HRTF mix but are able to put out a 7.1 mix for speakers. Not the best scenario, but still better than a stereo mix. Using virtual surround sound software to create a hrtf mix from the 7.1 signal can be benefitial, its not as accurate as a game which output hrtf natively, since it only virtualizes the direction of the speaker and not the exact 3D location, also it wont be able to virtualize sounds which are coming from above or below you. But still, in my expierence with Apex, that is still far more accurate than the native stereo output of the game itself, in my opinion everybody who plays Apex without surround sound software is at a competitive disadvantage.
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Games that can only output stereo and dont have any kind of hrtf or 7.1 output: probably the worst case scenario, also surround sound sotware shouldnt be used here since it could actually make it worse.
To my knowledge warzone has no HRTF-implementation in the game itself, but its officially dolby atmos compatible. That means that the game is actually able to communicate with Dolby Atmos through the windows spatial audio interface, which means the game can tell Dolby Atmos the exact 3D location of the sound, so its basically doing the same thing as games which have an hrtf implementation in the game itself, which should mean that Warzone combined with Dolby Atmos actually should actually make it a lot easier to locate sounds and should be a huge competitive advantage.
@jurgupower,
Stereo is the best for competitive gaming with good imaging/sound-stage headphones. Virtual sound enhancements will never compete with good headphones, however if the game has shit sound nothing will fix it, not even good headphones.
Please explain yourself, which of the points i wrote is wrong? Because to me it sounds like you are just repeating the misinformation everyone is spreading.
HRTF is the most important thing, when it comes to being able to locate where sounds are coming from. A stereo mix, which is usually done for speakers is not more accurate than a hrtf stereo mix, which is done specifically for headphones.