Question Headphone Atmos and dacs

MartinGH1369

Hello.

I am wondering if anyone can answer a question for me. A bit of back story first:
A while back I bought some Astro a50 wireless for my X, I activated Atmos with the app and all was good-ish with the world. Atmos worked and games took on another level of immersion.

As always with audio gear, I started looking around for better options. The audio with the a50s cut out every now and again (I reckon because my router was near the headsets base station, unavoidable positioning, it was regular enough to be a problem) and I rarely game online so having the Mic was annoying and unnecessary.

I eventually bought some Sennheiser HD650s with a Vmoda boom Mic, a little splitter thing and an amp and a dac to boost the volume level as the HD650s were very quiet through the controller. I connect the dac through optical and the amp is cennected to the dac with phono leads....

I have no Atmos sound!

All my settings are correct.

The Atmos app says that Atmos is on/working but when I play the video of the falling Samaras/helicopter/Sycamore seed there is a distinct lack of depth and movement to the sound.

At first I wondered if it may have something to do with the small sound stage of the HD650s (or so I read) but my Fidelio X2HRs are exactly the same (in that Atmos doesn't work) except with more bass

My question: could the dac be removing the Atmos code when it converts from digital to analogue?

Apologies if this is a stupid question but I have no idea how it works.

Cheers.

reecie

It is just a stereo signal which has some clever positioning of sound in it. So you can amplify it. Have you ticked the “ Using HDMI or optical” box in the audio setting? That then sends the Atmos audio signal the correct path as you now have an optical connection rather than via controller.

As an aside those are really hard to drive headphone as they have a high impedance. Hence why you need the dac. I imagine they also have a narrow soundstage so not really the best for this application.

MartinGH1369

Reece, hello.
Thanks for the reply.

Yes the soundstage is narrow but the problem exists on my Philips Fidelio X2HRs which are supposed to have a much wider soundstage and usually do, they do when I connect through my controller instead of through the amp.

Yes, I have selected to use the optical input for headphones.

I have a Schiit Magni 3 amp which should be more than enough to drive the headphones, according to the spec sheet at least. I don't think the amp is as powerful as Schiit advertise. It seems others have the same concern as me too when I search "Schiit Magni 3 not very loud)

As a dac I am using an SMSL Sanskrit 6th.
I am thinking of buying a new dac soon. I've been looking at the Schiit Modi Multibit but I'm not impressed with the Magni 3 so I'm not sure whether to look at a different brand.

I'm very confused.

reecie

Tbh I’d just save money in the long run by buying headphones more suitable for plugging into the controller. Eg some Game One see http://outlet.se-shop.de/shops/list.php?category=22

WhiteHartMart

Game One's are fantastic value now - white ones were about £106 the other week on Amazon.

As an option - you could try a Creative Soundblaster G6 or X7 DAC/Amp - don't use Atmos but instead use the Creative Virtual Surround - Max on X7 or just the wide setting on the G6.  Both devices have good amps on board but the surround processing really does open the audio up and give a really wide, natural sound to my ears also. The just released G6 is about £130 I think so seems good value (doesn't support Xbox voice chat though).

safcalibur

Sorry to hijack the thread but I thought I'd post here rather than start a new thread. Does the Dolby atmos or windows sonic sound work through the controller so if you had a headset connected into the controller only or does it only work if connected to a base via optical etc...

Thanks

King Tones

Works through both

WhiteHartMart

Will work via the controller just fine

safcalibur

Thanks both now that's all cleared up I was wondering if you or anyone could recommend a set of cheapish headphones that I could use via the controller and benefit from the enhanced sound? I've got an old pair of AKG 450's and I don't hold out any hope of either Dolby atmos or windows sonic working well with them so if there are any you could recommend that would be great

Thanks

Saf

King Tones

Plug them in and give them a go.

All depends on budget and @WhiteHartMart would be your man for the best suggestions.

Personally I use Hyper X Cloud Alphas which I managed to get for about £50 and use them for MP Games and Party Chat and then have a set of Astro A50's for Single Player games