X-Fi CMSS-3D Headphone

Discussion in 'Soundcards, Speakers HiFI & File formats' started by king-dubs, Oct 1, 2007.

  1. Grahf

    Grahf Guest

    Messages:
    1,814
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    MSI N580GTX Lightning
    Dust off some old stereo PC speakers you might have lying around and hook them up to your computer.
    Set your Windows sound to Desktop stereo speakers.
    Load up an online PVP shooter, set the in-game sound to stereo.
    Join a match and tell someone to walk behind you and shoot their gun into the air. Have them walk around you in a full 360 circle shooting their gun the whole time.

    I invite everyone to try this.

    Now, did you ever NOT hear the gun?

    Point taken.
    Not easy to be the lone dissenter in a thread as old as this one though. ;)
     
    Last edited: Dec 1, 2009
  2. ROBSCIX

    ROBSCIX Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    16,246
    Likes Received:
    22
    GPU:
    22" LCD on GTX260 C216
    I like DH also, I used to for quite ahwhile while playing hardware based EAX 1,2,3,4 games. I found it pretty good atleast in the way I was using it anyway.
    I don't think the intent behind it was gaming though.
     
  3. ROBSCIX

    ROBSCIX Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    16,246
    Likes Received:
    22
    GPU:
    22" LCD on GTX260 C216
    I am refering to directional audio from the rear. Not loud sounds. There is a difference.

    Now, did you ever hear a person sneaking up behind you?
     
  4. nexu

    nexu Maha Guru

    Messages:
    1,182
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    HD4870 512MB (@795/1085)
    Yeah you and king-dubs has been a great source of information and motivation to find out more about all this. Thanks! :)
     

  5. ROBSCIX

    ROBSCIX Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    16,246
    Likes Received:
    22
    GPU:
    22" LCD on GTX260 C216
    I always tell people to just try things out. It is your hardware so find out how it works or atleast how it works best for you.
     
  6. Grahf

    Grahf Guest

    Messages:
    1,814
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    MSI N580GTX Lightning

    I'm not sure what you mean by that.
    If you can hear someone shooting behind you with stereo speakers, then the stereo channel output is producing an in-game directional audio source from the rear (it's just doing a pretty crappy job).


    Let me ask you guys this:
    Have any of you ever tried CMSS-3D Headphone on stereo speakers?

    Seems to me that would be a great way to (subjectively) test this a bit more definitively. ;)
     
  7. ROBSCIX

    ROBSCIX Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    16,246
    Likes Received:
    22
    GPU:
    22" LCD on GTX260 C216
    So your saying you can get clean directional audio from the rear ONLY, using stereo speakers?

    Now, I have seen various tricks to emualte surround without using dedicated rear channels BUT nothing beat dedciated rear channels.
    I think we are just refering to two different things...
    I have always prefered surround sound system for the PC and find stereo systems lacking just for the reasons I presented.
    You cannot get true directional based audio with just 2 speakers in the front.
     
  8. Grahf

    Grahf Guest

    Messages:
    1,814
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    MSI N580GTX Lightning
    No, I thought you were implying that sounds coming from rear directional sources don't exist on stereo channels (they do).

    The issue is that 2 stereo channels of game audio information carry just as many sounds as 5.1 channels of game audio information. It may seem counter-intuitive, but the same sounds are indeed there. (In fact, that's the entire basis for CMSS-3D's stereo upmixing).

    In other words, you won't miss what a character is saying behind you and to the left if you switch from 5.1 to stereo just because you now no longer have a rear left speaker to correctly emulate the true direction of the sound.
     
    Last edited: Dec 1, 2009
  9. ROBSCIX

    ROBSCIX Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    16,246
    Likes Received:
    22
    GPU:
    22" LCD on GTX260 C216
    ..as I said, we are obviously refering to two different things.
    When I think of rear sound, I think of a sound that is directly behind me and nowhere else.
    Not a loud bang or explosions that evelopes the whole sound feild.
     
  10. bergwerk

    bergwerk New Member

    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    MSI Radeon 4890
    I use Windows 7 Prof. x64 and the problem is that there is NO Headphone-Setting in the Windows-Control-Panel. There is only Stereo, Quadrophonie, 5.1 and 7.1 ! I guess Stereo is the "hidden" setting for headphones ? :)

    Edit:

    I tested a little bit and found the best settings for me:

    1. "5.1" in Windows
    2. "Headphones" in the Creative Panel
    3. Enable CMSS-3D Headphone in Panel

    That's it :)

    When I configure my PC like Grahf suggested it, it sounds a little bit ****ed up :hatty:
     
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2009

  11. Retrolock

    Retrolock Guest

    Messages:
    596
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    G1 Gaming GTX 970
    One member posted in head-fi forums that the cmss-3d messes up with positional audio. You're a member there also robscix, what can you say about that, thanks!
     
  12. ROBSCIX

    ROBSCIX Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    16,246
    Likes Received:
    22
    GPU:
    22" LCD on GTX260 C216
    ..not that I have noticed when playing games and using these technologies.
     
  13. ncarbon

    ncarbon Active Member

    Messages:
    71
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    BFG GTX 295
    Positional

    I have been using the Auzen Forte/Sennheisser PC350 for months now with the stickied setup. In the CoD series, the CMSS-3D Headphone works GREAT!! Easy to position the enemy and use AUDIO as an advantage.


    FWIW Ned
     
  14. Qulle

    Qulle New Member

    Messages:
    2
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    EVGA/8800GTS/320 SLi
    I have Auzentech X-Fi Forte 7.1 souncard and I´m wondering what is the best setup for that with stereoheadset.
    Yesterday I tried changin speakersettings headphones -> 5.1 in OS and Cod4 setup. I´m running Xp by the way....

    Still I think that the best result comes with Grahf´s setup = Everything headphones and 2 channels in COD 4 setup. CMSS-3D is on. Crystalizer is off.
    If I change 5.1 in gamesetup, I don´t get better position. Maybe a little bit louder sounds or maybe not. I might be all in my mind, who knows :)

    Am I only who thinks that my setup gives best audio positioning result on COD 4 with XP??

    I´ll test more tonight... specially with 5.1 setup on in gamesetup.

    OT sorry about my english... it´s bit rusty :)
     
  15. ROBSCIX

    ROBSCIX Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    16,246
    Likes Received:
    22
    GPU:
    22" LCD on GTX260 C216
    Use the setup that works the best for you.
     

  16. Qulle

    Qulle New Member

    Messages:
    2
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    EVGA/8800GTS/320 SLi
    Yeah.
     
  17. spacebulate03

    spacebulate03 New Member

    Messages:
    5
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    Sapphire 4870
    can I get good positional sound if I bought myself a decent sound card and senn hd 201?
     
  18. limitlessOC

    limitlessOC Member

    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    Corsair Doms
    Hey all

    First time poster here

    I just recently got the AuzenTech Forte 7.1 paired with Audio Technica ATH-AD700 headphones

    In all honesty, i'm not too impressed by the 3D positioning i'm getting in games. The sound clarity is great but when I hear footsteps I can't tell which directions they're coming from. Some are pretty obvous (e.g. behind) but if it's left/right/up/down becomes much tougher to distinguish. Leads me to believe I may have this thing setup wrong.

    Current settings (mainly call of duty 4 modern war 1):

    Windows: set to 5.1 surround
    In-game: set to 5.1 surround, 80% volume, EQ on
    Console Launcher:
    • Game mode
    • Headphones option
    • CMSS 3D On, with both microFX and elevation manually turned on
    • EAX off
    • Crystallizer off
    • EQ off
    • Bass boost off
    • SVM off

    Any suggestions?
     
  19. ROBSCIX

    ROBSCIX Ancient Guru

    Messages:
    16,246
    Likes Received:
    22
    GPU:
    22" LCD on GTX260 C216
    For games you would want to have EAX enabled.
     
  20. limitlessOC

    limitlessOC Member

    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    0
    GPU:
    Corsair Doms
    Does it matter if the game does not support it (I don't believe COD does unless I'm wrong)? If it's enabled, do I need to tweak anything else or leave all else on default?

    Edit -- also, I notice folks going with 5.1 when tweaking the in-game/surround out settings. Is the reason for going 5.1 due to the fact that not that many games support 7.1? If the game supports 7.1, should I choose that instead?
     
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2009

Share This Page