Gaming DAC

[arcturian]

Hey everyone. Curious of what Dac I should get. Currently using a THX 789 off a Focurite gen1 2i2. I'm using windows 10 and have some nighthawk carbons and HD6xx I use mostly. Curious of what dac to get, would like to have one with balanced xlr out for my amp. Also curious about how games are encoded. I was thinking of getting a M500 smsl. I know surround is not on the radar for a lot of folks, but I have a Clario soundcard that makes games that support encoding 6 or 8 channels sound great, even sent down into 2 channels. But it's buggy and has poor connection options. Any thoughts on this? Thanks folks.

 

[restorer-john]

The output of the focusrite 2i2 is balanced (just use a TRS to XLR cable) and it's performance is more than good enough for the application. Not sure what you are looking to achieve.

 

[Racheski]

If you already have a 789 then you don’t need to pay extra for a DAC with an integrated head amp like the M500. Some budget DACs with XLR out all around $200:
SMSL M300 Mk II
SMSL SU-8 v2
Schiit Modius
Drop and Grace Design Standard DAC Balanced
Geshelli Enog2 Pro
Soncoz LA-QXD1

The M300 will measure the best because it uses the AKM4497 chip, followed closely by the Soncoz and Modius.

You are going to need specialty headphones to support more than 2 channels of audio, and I don’t think any of the above DACs will support anything more than 2 channels natively, so you would need a specialty DAC to do that as well. I suggest you watch this Linus Tech Tips video about surround sound gaming headsets:

 

[raistlin65]

The output of the focusrite 2i2 is balanced (just use a TRS to XLR cable) and it's performance is more than good enough for the application. Not sure what you are looking to achieve.

I agree. You really should look at this review first, arcturian, before spending any money on a new DAC: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...rlett-2i2-audio-interface-gen-3-review.10187/

 

[jcadduono]

Grab VB Audio HiFi cable and set it to 7.1 and feed it to Equalizer APO with HeSuVi. I copy LFE to both front right and front left channels. I prefer HeSuVi's Crossfeed implementation over its virtual surround options, then I put it all through a small room 20% wet Acon digital reverb solo plugin.
Now on the HiFi cable input in windows sound, use the listen to this device feature and set it to your DAC.
Now you can can select HiFi bridge (I renamed to headphone surround) in games and stuff while still using DAC in stereo for voice comms and music and whatnot.
It works sooooo much better than any crappy virtual surround driver or hardware implementation.

 

[Tks]

Since everyone has a good reply for you, I thought I might just answer one that went unaddressed. Games aren't really "encoded", their audio is usually low sample-rate files packed into proprietary containers (though that has been stopping lately and it's been migrated to .ogg containers). As far as multi-channel support. That's just something I don't know much about really. The whole field confuses even me, with Dolby and whatnot all over the place in that sector. I have no idea what game devs are actually doing with respect to that outside of piping out to Windows non-exclusive audio.

 

[Berwhale]

With respect to Surround Sound, have you tried Spatial Sound in Windows 10? Windows Sonic for Headphones is free, Dolby Atmos for Headphones and DTS Headphones:X are paid options with free trial periods.

 

[arcturian]

Thanks for all the replys! I was curious of the m500 for possible 8channel in windows via the latest xmos but that I have not comfirmed.. I have tried windows sonic/atmos for headphones and a few others, it was pretty cheap emulation and robbed the quality. There was a noticible change in games that would see windows as supporting multiple channel audio on my old Halo clario card.. So was curious about some of the hifi chips that would show up as over 2 channels in windows. I do see some chips that are 7.1/8 channels. I think ess had some flagship chips with it. I have a few things to look over still from responces, thanks mucho again!

 

[arcturian]

I agree. You really should look at this review first, arcturian, before spending any money on a new DAC: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...rlett-2i2-audio-interface-gen-3-review.10187/

Nice, I wonder how the older one like I have would compare.

 

[zermak]

You can try VB-Cable. I have never used it but it lets you set 8 channels and then you can do all you want from there I guess, give it a try, it's free.

EDIT: corrected the name to better represent the product