Is there a better 7.1 soundcard than Sennheiser GSX 1000?

[an actual squirrel]

It is about as powerful as a typical smartphone iirc.You can probably scrape by with it and not have volume issues.

 

I have listened to gsx surround in videos. I thought it sounded good. But as a dac, it doesn't look like it would perform well. If they sold it as a software solution, I would probably buy it. Either that or they have to improve the hardware in the next generation of this.

[Dackzy]

10 hours ago, dabears46d said:

Dackzy, you do realize that the gsx 1000 is only rated for headphones with 150 ohms max right? Cuz the hp's you have listed are all over 300 ohms. 

And so what? It can still drive higher impedance headphones. It isn't like the amp in it won't output just because you hook up a higher impedance headphone, if it would then I did some magic to get it to. You can also hook up 300 ohm headphones to a Fiio e10k, even though it's "range" is also like 16-150 or something like that.

 

Also some of the headphones are under 150 ohm impedance. (k612 and he560).

 

Not that the impedance matters a whole lot when it comes to how hard a headphone is to drive, since it act as a voltage divider, the end power needs to be in line with whatever X dB/mW the manufacturer sets. Like look at the DT 880, you have a lot of different versions of it, like one is 250 ohm, one is 600 ohm, but the dB/mW stays the same. This is where it starts to get interesting, because they need to hit the same amount of power used, BUT physics say the voltage and current must change, it more specific dictates that the voltage must go up to overcome the higher resistance, but if we give it more voltage and don't change the current, then we end out with more power than we should have, since Voltage * Current= Power, so this means the current must go down, which means we end on the same number in the end, like we might see difference like 5.74mW vs 5.78mW (so small they don't matter). So they should in theory use the same amount of power, but because of how your typical headphone amp is, then it will feel like the higher impedance version will be harder to drive than the lower impedance version, simply because it can't output that much power to the higher impedance version, which is probably why we have this high impedance=hard to drive, but we also have OTL amps, which just fucks that nonsense up, because they can output most power at high impedance. So on a OTL amp you would feel that a low impedance headphone is harder to drive.

You should TBH be more worried about the output impedance of your amp. It can really change your sound a lot. If you hook up a set of Andromeda IEMs to a 0.1 ohm OI source and then also a 4 ohm OI source, then you will be able to hear how it changes the sound. More specific the bass in this case. I sadly don't have more time, but you can always look it up and test for yourself.

[Heeroo]

Sorry for reviving this thread, but @Dackzy when you hear compressed audio on this i have the feeling you are some geek who thinks he can hear more then there is really. Cause even if it isn't the best amp, the dac is rated quite right by many, also me. And compressions? You know exactly that this isn't coming from dacs these days, they all have pretty high DNR and your music has faar less range, so you are making this up cause you dislike the product from the beginning, not saying this GSX1000 is really good, but still what you talk here is pure BS from a geek who has smoked too much.

[Dackzy]

10 hours ago, Tecardo said:

Sorry for reviving this thread, but @Dackzy when you hear compressed audio on this i have the feeling you are some geek who thinks he can hear more then there is really. Cause even if it isn't the best amp, the dac is rated quite right by many, also me. And compressions? You know exactly that this isn't coming from dacs these days, they all have pretty high DNR and your music has faar less range, so you are making this up cause you dislike the product from the beginning, not saying this GSX1000 is really good, but still what you talk here is pure BS from a geek who has smoked too much.

You can quite litterally hear a loss of dynamics and detail when comparing it against higher end products or even just the schiit stack and it really doesn't help that the amp in it is weak, there is legit no point in getting it, worse DAC than the modi 3 and worse amp than the magni 3, to me it's performance is closer to the fx audio dac x6 which cost like $60-80, but it also has a lot of problems. You probably think that all DACs sound the same as long as they measure below a certain point with THD, but I can tell you right now that something like a Soekris 1541 and a ADI 2 dac sounds very different, so does a Dangerous music source and the ADI 2 DAC or the Modi 3 and D30. Many shitty products are "rated" well by a lot of people, often by people with little experience. This is the whole subjective hearing vs objective measurements, but there are still things we can't measure, like detail, soundstage, timbre, if something sounds dynamic or not and all of these things are places where it is lesser than the Stack, except the width. I can refer to Mr.Speaker headphones, they measure well, but they sound dead even though the measurements say that they should be good.

[Heeroo]

6 hours ago, Dackzy said:

This is the whole subjective hearing vs objective measurements, but there are still things we can't measure, like detail, soundstage, timbre, if something sounds dynamic or not and all of these things are places where it is lesser than the Stack, except the width. I can refer to Mr.Speaker headphones, they measure well, but they sound dead even though the measurements say that they should be good. 

so you call Z-Reviews someone with little expierience? Yes the amp is weaker, but im pretty sure that YOU don't hear any compression! As said early: Technically thats close to impossible to achieve on the dac side. You know that we have 16bit or 24bit on this dac, depends on what you want, so you have 96dB dnr, reduced to 72db cause you don't want to use the bottom 20dB, so overall your music has 72db possible dnr, a really good recorded orchestra has a dnr of around 80db, which also doesn't look at the 20dB, so we have 96db max, and 80dB max, thats around 65,536 volume steps we could reproduce. btw, the orchestra with 80dB is already a stretch!

So dynamic compression is bound to never happen on the dac side! I found some measurements on the dnr of this device in overall, it's around 76dB which still wouldn't lead to compression. A other thing is, did you use the DSP? So EQ and so on, or did you use the HD Mode(DSP getting ignored)?

 

BTW hearing a different DAC is possible, though not as clear as you make it up to be.

[an actual squirrel]

dacs, after a certain point, kinda all do start sounding the same. And people aren't even good at rating them by ear. Some dacs with great word of mouth, like the schiit modi 2 and the audio gd r2r 11, were found to have pretty bad performance when they were checked with an audio analyzer.

 

So I am not sure if audio performance in the context of audiophiles is even relevant to gamers. And if you are buying a sennheiser gsx, you are buying it for the 7.1 processing for gaming, which is quite good on it.

[rice guru]

11 hours ago, an actual squirrel said:

dacs, after a certain point, kinda all do start sounding the same. And people aren't even good at rating them by ear. Some dacs with great word of mouth, like the schiit modi 2 and the audio gd r2r 11, were found to have pretty bad performance when they were checked with an audio analyzer.

 

So I am not sure if audio performance in the context of audiophiles is even relevant to gamers. And if you are buying a sennheiser gsx, you are buying it for the 7.1 processing for gaming, which is quite good on it.

It's only good in relation to other solutions but all in all it still sounds bad when you can get similar perfomance but way better sound quality by paying dolby $18 for atmos for headphones or use the razer software and get a good dac/amp solution. at the same pricepoint as the GSX. like personally I have yet to see any pro gamers use the GSX competitively. 

[pas008]

5 hours ago, rice guru said:

It's only good in relation to other solutions but all in all it still sounds bad when you can get similar perfomance but way better sound quality by paying dolby $18 for atmos for headphones or use the razer software and get a good dac/amp solution. at the same pricepoint as the GSX. like personally I have yet to see any pro gamers use the GSX competitively. 

1 word stands out sponsorships

[rice guru]

1 hour ago, pas008 said:

1 word stands out sponsorships

True actually you have a point.

[Nitian]

Hello, I registered on this forum to ask some questions. @rice guru I'm choosing between dt 990 pro and hd58x and I happen to notice that you are using them both. Could you please share some more info why dt 990 pro > hd58x in games? @Dackzy I'm about to switch from on board sound to something else. Never tried nothing except realtek in my life. I hear so many positive reviews (not on this forum though, lol) on sound blasterx ae-5. Would you recommend it for an audio noob like me? Also would like to know your opinion on dt990 pro vs hd58x. 

P.s. my main choice was between gsx 1000+hd58x or creative ae-5+dt 990 pro, but after visiting this forum and reading about both of the aforementioned options I started to doubt.

[rice guru]

1 hour ago, Nitian said:

Hello, I registered on this forum to ask some questions. @rice guru I'm choosing between dt 990 pro and hd58x and I happen to notice that you are using them both. Could you please share some more info why dt 990 pro > hd58x in games? @Dackzy I'm about to switch from on board sound to something else. Never tried nothing except realtek in my life. I hear so many positive reviews (not on this forum though, lol) on sound blasterx ae-5. Would you recommend it for an audio noob like me? Also would like to know your opinion on dt990 pro vs hd58x. 

P.s. my main choice was between gsx 1000+hd58x or creative ae-5+dt 990 pro, but after visiting this forum and reading about both of the aforementioned options I started to doubt.

Build and comfort : I find the DT 990 to built better more solid more comfortable less clamp better padding but no detachable cable. And also require some maintenance as hairs can get stuck on the driver making things like bass sound loose. While the 58x feels off the non glossy plastics and metal felt initialy scratchy  but has detachable cable . The 58x was initially very clampy but it eventually got better now it's very comfortable.  

Sound : depends on what you want the. DT 990 has a wider sound stage and more presice imaging. It has a more aggressively sound signaturewith an emphasis  the highs where they can be too sibilant and the bass especially the mid bass hits harder than the 58x for some types of music but I love them for gaming. The 58x has more narrow soundstage and imaging isn't as good but it still pretty competent for gaming and when switching from music to gaming I will often just not switch headphones out of pure laziness.the 58x has a more laid back flatter sound signature with a emphasis on mids and a little bump to the bass. The bass sound tighter more controled. The reason I use the 58x for music is the fact that  they shine in vocals it's generally a Sennheiser thing I find I love the Sennheiser house sound.  And it performs very well in gaming. They both have very good separation. If I want crucial detail in the highs and want every little trill on a flute or hear every little vibration on cymbal I will use the 990 but other wise 58x for music. 

[Nitian]

I appreciate your advice. Thank you for a quick reply. I'm already reading reviews on your audio setup