Stereo vs Virtual 7.1 vs Real 7.1 for gaming

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The Hero of Orlais

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Jun 26, 2017
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Well, as the title said, which one is the best for gaming, i have a virtual surround headset, and the audio is kinda worst than the Stereo mode, but i'm just going to ask anyway, which is better, Stereo, Virtual 7.1, or Real 7.1 ?
 
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dark_lord69
Well, in a perfect world, and in my opinion real 7.1 is the best.

I use a fully featured 5.1 reciever with my computer. When I listen to music I use stereo (mode) 2.1.
When I game I tend to use virtual surround. I would love to use REAL surround but from a PC game to a receiver you've gotta have Dolby Live or something else to re-encode the game audio into something the receiver can actually decode as 5.1. (This is only an issue if you use 1 cable for your surround sound.) If you don't then you'll need separate inputs for each set of the 5.1 speakers. My receiver has that while many others don't. I still use fiber instead because when I connect each one of the outputs from my PC to my reciever I get a lot of noise interference.
(I do...
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dark_lord69

dark_lord69

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Jun 6, 2006
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Well, in a perfect world, and in my opinion real 7.1 is the best.

I use a fully featured 5.1 reciever with my computer. When I listen to music I use stereo (mode) 2.1.
When I game I tend to use virtual surround. I would love to use REAL surround but from a PC game to a receiver you've gotta have Dolby Live or something else to re-encode the game audio into something the receiver can actually decode as 5.1. (This is only an issue if you use 1 cable for your surround sound.) If you don't then you'll need separate inputs for each set of the 5.1 speakers. My receiver has that while many others don't. I still use fiber instead because when I connect each one of the outputs from my PC to my reciever I get a lot of noise interference.
(I do plan to buy a Dolby Live capable USB external sound card for this reason.)

But ya, GTA Vice City in 5.1 while connected to my Playstation 3 (at the time) was pretty cool.
 
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The Hero of Orlais

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Jun 26, 2017
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but, why would people saying that they're regretting changing from stereo to surround ? i used to think that surround is superior, but hearing people saying surround sucks makes me questioning my faith, is this the real life ? is this just fantasy ?
 
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The Hero of Orlais

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and do you have any good recommendation for gaming headset or headphone ?


 
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dark_lord69

dark_lord69

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Why?
1. Fake or virtual surround adds stupid audio effects that sound like crap when you listen to music. Which is why I use stereo mode for music. Sounds fine when I play Hearthstone and other games but sounds like crap for most music.
2. The other reason is because they didn't realize PC games won't give you real surround sound without using multiple inputs. (OR you can use a single cable if you have a Dolby Live [or similar] re-encoding sound card.) So that person MAY have switched to a virtual surround mode which isn't good for games where you need to know where the enemy is coming from.

Example:
Real surround: You hear footstep coming from the left rear speaker. Then you turn your character and fire at the enemy.
Virtual (fake) surround: You hear a footstep coming from .. ?behind you? you turn behind you to find that the sound didn't come from the correct location. (This is common because the audio channels don't discretely separate like they do for real surround.)

All of that is why I plan to buy this:
https://us.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-omni-surround-5-1
(Notice the Dolby Live ability.)

As for headphones.. I'm actually not sure anymore. In the past I would have suggested the Sony MDR V900's but they don't make those anymore. I had some V600's but my dog chewed the cord into multiple pieces.
 
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dark_lord69

dark_lord69

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"But do i need to buy a sound card that have 7.1 surround output ?"
Unlikely, many modern motherboards have 7.1 audio outputs. Look at the back of your PC.
Look at the 3.5mm jacks (headphone style) do you see 2 or 3? OR 6 or more?
If you see 5, 6 or more 3.5mm jacks on the back of your computer your motherboard likely already has (at least 5.1) surround sound. (Some DO have 7.1)

Typically I don't buy sound cards anymore, the only reason I've been considering the one I mentioned is because I would like all of the surround audio to go to my receiver using 1 digital cable. But if you just buy a computer speaker set you can get real surround sound and not worry about the surround traveling on 1 cable... If you buy/have a reciever your going to use you might run into the same issue unless it has separate inputs for each audio channel.

I would never recommend headphones that are "surround". You'll have to find someone else to recommend a headset. On the other hand it seems to have won plenty of awards so it seems to be a good choice.

Audio quality should be there but I personally wouldn't buy them.

Why?
Because it's not real surround. A software program on your computer could do the same thing with a $5 pair of earbuds.
It's fake so the hardware tries to guess where the sound is coming from which means it can be wrong. (This ability is NOT important in ALL games though.)
 
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The Hero of Orlais

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Jun 26, 2017
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so, is that mean a stereo headset can work as virtual surround sound ?
 
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Corwin65

Corwin65

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Nov 2, 2015
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Yes a stereo headset can fake surround sound.
 
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