There are quite a few games that support some form of Dolby output, like Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Atmos) and Diablo 3 (ProLogic). This way the engine gets the audio cue info in their own format. You'll get the best rendering of the audio field if your game supports outputting a Dolby-encoded stream. Atmos will also render above/below cues if the game supports this. Mind you, everyone has their preference as to what works best, so I do highly suggest you try out demos and see which works best for you. The direction and distance cues are apparent, and you can train yourself to work with this solution. It also doesn't butcher with room acoustic modelling, so you get good game audio quality. If you want a single solution for everything, this is a good contender. The SBX hardwares support an option that you can do a HRTF mix over both Line-Out and SPDIF-Out (max 48KHz), so you can use your Creative device as your Virtualizer, and pair it with dedicated DAC and amps. As mentioned before, rear cues are the biggest weakness with this solution. Even 0% Surround On is better than Surround off for the quality of the HRTF imaging. For gaming, it's suggested to use 67% Surround, and for music 11%. Their choice allows for minimal invasiveness on the Audio Quality, and has a pleasing presentation. SBX devices also come with EAX support, which can be useful for older titles.Īs for the modelling quality, SBX doesn't use a lot of heavy reverb (unless you max out the Surround Setting), and the Surround field is circular. You'll be surprised the amount of FUD on the forums there is about how to set this up properly, especially involving Direct Mode. So ideally, you use Audio Effects Mode, and enable Surround. The modelling gets squashed, especially the Center channel. When you use SBX, you shouldn't use Direct Mode. I wish there was some tweaking / training you could do for the affect engine. You CAN use it, and adjust the Surround setting for the amount of spaciousness / effect you desire, and train yourself how to pick up on the cues better. I feel it's biased to having the front channels too far left / right, and rear cues sound too similar to side channels. ($30) This is their upgrade from CMSS-3D ( Long Live The King) and I don't find it as accurate. In this day and age of massive Multicore CPU's, it's irrelevant You can either use a hardware solution like the SBX G6, or any other Creative soundcard / USB device, or use the MB3 software suite. This is primarily a software solution, tho the Creative hardware can accelerate it. The upside is that this VSS is free, and free is hard to argue with. I do not like their use of the hollow can effect they use for HRTF hinting, especially for behind. I find the model they use is not aggressive, and it's not too hard to detect directionality, but at the same time it won't distort any music played much at all. (Not sure if it's limited to 7.1) Mind you, games need to be Windows Sonic aware to benefit, which can be an issue for some older titles. The Windows Sonic solutions (this plus DAH and DTS:HX) all use the Windows Sonic audio interface, and will bypass your Windows speaker selection, and let the applications think you have a surround setup. I am happy to say that Microsoft has given it some love, and it's gotten to the point of being usable. I remember testing this when it first came out, and it was a horror story. This solution comes with every Windows 10 OS installation. I'll be discussing gaming quality, movie, and music listening (2.0 and 5.1 sources) (I was also using a set of HD-580 Precisions, then later my Sony MDR-SA5000, which are some seriously wide cans) Getting that level of HRTF experience has been difficult, but here in 2021 things have improved. That had an eerie accuracy about it, and I was able to hunt down prey via audio cues. The Gold Standard back then was CMSS-3D, and forcing 7.1 configurations (either in Windows or in game) to get your HRTF. Now, I've been doing 3D Audio reviews since my days of my association with 3DSoundsurge. Hardware used for testing: Beyerdynamic DT-1990 Pro w/ Dekoni Elite Hybrids Windows Sonic (because everyone has this) The solutions I will be discussing are:ĭolby Atmos For Headphones (referred to as DAH in this article) from Dolby Access add-on Hi Gang, I did my review of the various VSS software / hardware solutions that I own, and am ready to give my impressions.
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