USB Headphones sound muffled, help.

[puppzogg]

Hi there, so I have been on amazon a lot lately ordering and returning headphones to try them out but all have been too small for my big ass head, that is until today when I got these Razer Nari's in the mail. (I know "Why the hell did you get razer headphones their trash", thats not the point here). So I plugged in the USB dongle and tried them on, they fit *phew*, but the sound when I hopped in R6 to give them a test was all muffled just like the last couple headsets I have tried on. This confused the hell out of me because when I plugged them into my macbook pro they sounded just fine. Also, when I plugged them into my front panel audio port they sounded mostly ok, not muffled like when over USB dongle audio, but at least snappy and present while in game. I have no idea what is wrong but Windows or my PC causes these new headphones I am trying out to become muffled in game (and while doing things like listening to youtube videos or anything else). I am determined to fix this problem because I have no other choice because my previous headphones, the Razer Man o' War, are snapped in half and I need to replace them.

 

It is important to note that my Razer man o' war headphones sound just fine, no muffled audio like these new Razer Nari's.

 

Help.

[SkilledRebuilds]

Just now, puppzogg said:

Hi there, so I have been on amazon a lot lately ordering and returning headphones to try them out but all have been too small for my big ass head, that is until today when I got these Razer Nari's in the mail. (I know "Why the hell did you get razer headphones their trash", thats not the point here). So I plugged in the USB dongle and tried them on, they fit *phew*, but the sound when I hopped in R6 to give them a test was all muffled just like the last couple headsets I have tried on. This confused the hell out of me because when I plugged them into my macbook pro they sounded just fine. Also, when I plugged them into my front panel audio port they sounded mostly ok, not muffled like when over USB dongle audio, but at least snappy and present while in game. I have no idea what is wrong but Windows or my PC causes these new headphones I am trying out to become muffled in game (and while doing things like listening to youtube videos or anything else). I am determined to fix this problem because I have no other choice because my previous headphones, the Razer Man o' War, are snapped in half and I need to replace them.

 

It is important to note that my Razer man o' war headphones sound just fine, no muffled audio like these new Razer Nari's.

 

Help.

My Mums Logitechs NEED the software installed because without them its limited to 50% Max volume for some STUPID ASS reason.

Have you looked into their software, or complaints from others on the headphones in particular forums or such...

[puppzogg]

Just now, SkilledRebuilds said:

My Mums Logitechs NEED the software installed because without them its limited to 50% Max volume for some STUPID ASS reason.

Have you looked into their software, or complaints from others on the headphones in particular forums or such...

I have all of razers proper software installed. I may be missing something but if so i have no idea what

[SkilledRebuilds]

5 minutes ago, puppzogg said:

I have all of razers proper software installed. I may be missing something but if so i have no idea what

Quickly looking at someone on reddit..

 

Spoiler

I've calibrated the EQ to achieve the best sound I've been able on my particular unit, and I can confirm at least 4 people have find it pretty good on their own Naris.

4,4,8,0,-6,-3,3,-6,8,8 as my equalizer, after calibrating the sound using a brown/red noise file (every frequency, the lower it gets, the louder it sounds, because we tend to hear lower frequencies lower than they are in real life, unlike white/grey noise). This was in order to get as close as to the intended studio sound equalization for movies, games, etc.

Worth a shot I guess, see if you like it, just trying to help other Nari users because they're great headsets, but the sound, out of the box, is absolutely nothing to write home about unless you play with the EQ.

Of course, change the settings according to your tastes, and keep in mind that your headset will not sound exactly the same as mine (ALSO, there is some room for the drivers in the earcups to loosen over time, probably improving audio quality a tiny, little bit, some people even "burn" their headsets by having them play sound 24/7 at full volume to achieve this quality earlier in its life; so keep in mind that headsets are quite variable from one another even if they're the same model and even through its life).


Also worth reading the replies to this separate reddit post (not the post I got the above info from)
https://www.reddit.com/r/razer/comments/b6qny8/razer_nari_ultimate_guide_to_nondistorted/

 

 

[puppzogg]

8 minutes ago, SkilledRebuilds said:

Quickly looking at someone on reddit..

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I've calibrated the EQ to achieve the best sound I've been able on my particular unit, and I can confirm at least 4 people have find it pretty good on their own Naris.

4,4,8,0,-6,-3,3,-6,8,8 as my equalizer, after calibrating the sound using a brown/red noise file (every frequency, the lower it gets, the louder it sounds, because we tend to hear lower frequencies lower than they are in real life, unlike white/grey noise). This was in order to get as close as to the intended studio sound equalization for movies, games, etc.

Worth a shot I guess, see if you like it, just trying to help other Nari users because they're great headsets, but the sound, out of the box, is absolutely nothing to write home about unless you play with the EQ.

Of course, change the settings according to your tastes, and keep in mind that your headset will not sound exactly the same as mine (ALSO, there is some room for the drivers in the earcups to loosen over time, probably improving audio quality a tiny, little bit, some people even "burn" their headsets by having them play sound 24/7 at full volume to achieve this quality earlier in its life; so keep in mind that headsets are quite variable from one another even if they're the same model and even through its life).


Also worth reading the replies to this.
https://www.reddit.com/r/razer/comments/b6qny8/razer_nari_ultimate_guide_to_nondistorted/

 

 

Ok so all these tips are great but I can more specifically pinpoint the problem now. Its not they sound muddy its more like a deafend echo. All the sounds just sound so echo'y, its not being fixed by EQ adjustments or surround sound manipulation.

[Kisai]

2 hours ago, puppzogg said:

So I plugged in the USB dongle and tried them on, they fit *phew*, but the sound when I hopped in R6 to give them a test was all muffled just like the last couple headsets I have tried on.

Your USB dongle is probably not very good then. If you are buying PC headphones, you should either use the front headphone 3.5mm TRS port on the PC or you should use a USB-native headset. Or a USB "sound card"/DAC at least that has volume knobs on itself.

 

"echo" type of effects are usually indication of compression or mis-wiring. So for example, if your headset is TRRS, but your DAC is TRS, it may be shorting the microphone pin and creating a ground loop or something.

[SkilledRebuilds]

4 minutes ago, Kisai said:

Your USB dongle is probably not very good then. If you are buying PC headphones, you should either use the front headphone 3.5mm TRS port on the PC or you should use a USB-native headset. Or a USB "sound card"/DAC at least that has volume knobs on itself.

 

"echo" type of effects are usually indication of compression or mis-wiring. So for example, if your headset is TRRS, but your DAC is TRS, it may be shorting the microphone pin and creating a ground loop or something.

Oh snap, I had presumed it was a USB headset, not a 3.5Jack to USB dongle.

I'd say its the dongle giving you that echo then... Have you not tried this yet OP?

[puppzogg]

5 minutes ago, Kisai said:

Your USB dongle is probably not very good then. If you are buying PC headphones, you should either use the front headphone 3.5mm TRS port on the PC or you should use a USB-native headset. Or a USB "sound card"/DAC at least that has volume knobs on itself.

 

"echo" type of effects are usually indication of compression or mis-wiring. So for example, if your headset is TRRS, but your DAC is TRS, it may be shorting the microphone pin and creating a ground loop or something.

It sounds fine when i plug the headset/dongle into my mac book tho

[puppzogg]

2 minutes ago, SkilledRebuilds said:

Oh snap, I had presumed it was a USB headset, not a 3.5Jack to USB dongle.

I'd say its the dongle giving you that echo then... Have you not tried this yet OP?

No its a USB wireless dongle. 

 

I have tried the 2 different sets of suggestions

[Kisai]

3 hours ago, puppzogg said:

It sounds fine when i plug the headset/dongle into my mac book tho

What dongle are you actually using, because if this is the case, then what you are experiencing is probably the "spacial sound" or "virtual surround" effect. When wearing headphones, on a Windows PC, you are supposed to tell the PC you have plugged in headphones or speakers, so it sets the surround distance for these, or turn the surround off.

 

OS X has a completely different way of doing this:

https://www.macobserver.com/tips/deep-dive/creating-surround-sound-system-in-macos-extra-speakers/

 

So by default OSX only operates in stereo mode, not 2.0 Surround. On the PC, usually these features are turned off because you have to pay money to use them.

 

With that said, it should sound exactly the same on OSX as it does on Windows given the same media player (eg VLC) and if it doesn't there is some extra processing going on on the one that doesn't sound the same as plugging the headphones directly into the analog audio jack.