Surround sound with headphones

[Alesek]

Hello, months ago I bought Sennheiser HD 518 and I gotta say, they sound pretty amazing. The only problem I have is that the surround sound is not as good as I would like. I play CSGO and I can hear about half the stuff that my friends with gaming headsets can hear. I tried to set Dolby Headphones on my sound card but that didnt really help. The only thing that helped a little bit was to set audio to stereo speakers from headphones in csgo settings but it is still not good. My sound card is Asus Xonar DX

 

Do you have any suggestions I could do to improve this?

 

[paprikman]

7 minutes ago, Alesek said:

Hello, months ago I bought Sennheiser HD 518 and I gotta say, they sound pretty amazing. The only problem I have is that the surround sound is not as good as I would like. I play CSGO and I can hear about half the stuff that my friends with gaming headsets can hear. I tried to set Dolby Headphones on my sound card but that didnt really help. The only thing that helped a little bit was to set audio to stereo speakers from headphones in csgo settings but it is still not good. My sound card is Asus Xonar DX

 

Do you have any suggestions I could do to improve this?

 

The point you've got so far is pretty much a max thing you can get out of 518s. But I don't say it's bad.

There are headphones with much-much more opened scene, but, unfortunately, they start from $150.

Hm, maybe you can find some extensions for your audio card driver? The thing you wanna search for is called 'crossfeed'. It's all about that with speakers you can hear right one with your left ear and vice versa, but with headphones you basically don't. So this thing will try to correct this.

[Alesek]

5 minutes ago, paprikman said:

The point you've got so far is pretty much a max thing you can get out of 518s. But I don't say it's bad.

There are headphones with much-much more opened scene, but, unfortunately, they start from $150.

Hm, maybe you can find some extensions for your audio card driver? The thing you wanna search for is called 'crossfeed'. It's all about that with speakers you can hear right one with your left ear and vice versa, but with headphones you basically don't. So this thing will try to correct this.

ah, too bad. Everyone was recommending me headphones instead of headset even for gaming but headset for the same price is better for gaming I guess. Unfortunately, I cant find crossfeed for Xonar DX

 

Thank you for your answer though!!

[paprikman]

Just now, Alesek said:

ah, too bad. Everyone was recommending me headphones instead of headset even for gaming but headset for the same price is better for gaming I guess. Unfortunately, I cant find crossfeed for Xonar DX

 

Thank you for your answer though!!

Maybe there are some software solutions.

By the way, no, you did a good choice, 'cause you get much better sound quality and reliability with 518 than with some 'gaming' headset for the same price.

[Alesek]

1 minute ago, paprikman said:

Maybe there are some software solutions.

By the way, no, you did a good choice, 'cause you get much better sound quality and reliability with 518 than with some 'gaming' headset for the same price.

I actually dont care about sound quality as much as hearing footspets across the map which I did with my old headset before it broke (reliability :D). I am guessing a better sound card or dac is not really gonna solve my problem, is it

[FloRolf]

46 minutes ago, Alesek said:

I actually dont care about sound quality as much as hearing footspets across the map which I did with my old headset before it broke (reliability :D). I am guessing a better sound card or dac is not really gonna solve my problem, is it

To give you a better perspective, a headset is the exact same thing as a real headphone, just in Bad. Headsets have 2 drivers, just like headphones. All that things "7.1 headsets" do "better"  than headphones are made by software. 

Razer has a Programm called "razer surround"  which basically does exactly that. 

I don't use it but it does what you want. 

[Alesek]

1 minute ago, FloRolf said:

To give you a better perspective, a headset is the exact same thing as a real headphone, just in Bad. Headsets have 2 drivers, just like headphones. All that things "7.1 headsets" do "better"  than headphones are made by software. 

Razer has a Programm called "razer surround"  which basically does exactly that. 

I don't use it but it does what you want. 

do you know if there is any software I can download with the stuff I have to improve the sound in the way I need?

[FloRolf]

44 minutes ago, Alesek said:

do you know if there is any software I can download with the stuff I have to improve the sound in the way I need?

Can you not read? 

[Alesek]

1 minute ago, FloRolf said:

Can you not read? 

oh I thought it was only for razer products. Ill give it a shot. Thank you

[FloRolf]

14 minutes ago, Alesek said:

oh I thought it was only for razer products. Ill give it a shot. Thank you

Oh okay wasn't clear to me that that wasn't clear

Yes it works with any pair of headphones but I don't know why there's also a pro version of the software. 

 

Generally your sennheisers are better than 90% of headsets. 

What exactly are you missing on your game play? The Soundstage to hear where enemies or coming from? 

[Alesek]

40 minutes ago, FloRolf said:

Oh okay wasn't clear to me that that wasn't clear

Yes it works with any pair of headphones but I don't know why there's also a pro version of the software. 

 

Generally your sennheisers are better than 90% of headsets. 

What exactly are you missing on your game play? The Soundstage to hear where enemies or coming from? 

Exactly. I can't hear the footsteps far enough. I notice my teammates telling me where people are coming from way before I hear them. Also on my old headset I could hear them half way across the map. Now it's no way near that

[BrightCandle]

This isn't sounding like a surround issue, sounds like an EQ issue where you want the footsteps volume boosted like game headphones often do. The sennheisers have a great response time and neutral sound but most gaming headphones boost the lower frequencies. Some sound cards have a gaming mode that boosts these as well. You can simulate it however since footsteps in GO are around 200-500hz so if you boost that say +10Dba they will be twice as loud.

 

If it were a surround issue I would recommend checking that your sound card in the volume control>playback devices was showing 7.1 to the operating system.  If it is then Dolby headphone in headphone mode should give you reasonable surround sound so long as it suits you. Personally I didn't find Dolby headphone very good and moved to a Soundblaster Z which gave me better surround effect. But at least check you have it setup correctly.

 

 

[Alesek]

9 minutes ago, BrightCandle said:

This isn't sounding like a surround issue, sounds like an EQ issue where you want the footsteps volume boosted like game headphones often do. The sennheisers have a great response time and neutral sound but most gaming headphones boost the lower frequencies. Some sound cards have a gaming mode that boosts these as well. You can simulate it however since footsteps in GO are around 200-500hz so if you boost that say +10Dba they will be twice as loud.

 

If it were a surround issue I would recommend checking that your sound card in the volume control>playback devices was showing 7.1 to the operating system.  If it is then Dolby headphone in headphone mode should give you reasonable surround sound so long as it suits you. Personally I didn't find Dolby headphone very good and moved to a Soundblaster Z which gave me better surround effect. But at least check you have it setup correctly.

 

 

if I boost those frequencies, arent my ears gonna explode when I use AK47 as the shot sound is also quite low and they increased the volume?

 

it is showing as headphones, not 7.1. I thought that it was the best way to set it up, Ill try it one later when I get home. I tried Dolby headphone but it is even worse

[BrightCandle]

4 hours ago, Alesek said:

if I boost those frequencies, arent my ears gonna explode when I use AK47 as the shot sound is also quite low and they increased the volume?

 

it is showing as headphones, not 7.1. I thought that it was the best way to set it up, Ill try it one later when I get home. I tried Dolby headphone but it is even worse

To the OS it needs to show 7.1 to get dolby headphone working, then in the Xonar control panel you have the output as headphones and DH on.

[Alesek]

1 hour ago, BrightCandle said:

To the OS it needs to show 7.1 to get dolby headphone working, then in the Xonar control panel you have the output as headphones and DH on.

thank you, it is way better