gaming immersion: speakers vs phones

[VietnamRadioEnjoyer]

What I mean by immersion is the feeling of being there. The scary moment when soundstage & imaging is so perfect that you forget about the audio & look around to see what happened

for binaural, you should use an in-ear or headphone. for surround audio you can listen on a surround speaker setup or use a virtual surround software to convert it to binaural. and non-gaming stereo audio is usually made with stereo speakers in mind

These things are figured out. But not all games support binaural or surround. So what provides best experience when gaming with stereo audio? do you find open-back over-ears more immersive or speakers? or maybe IEMs? Which should theoretically be better?

The reason I am differentiating stereo audio for games is that in my experience, while stereo speakers can create a good stage in front of you, they can't do what headphones (& IEMs to some extent) can, which is enveloping you in the sound. and I find that it is more important for games. But I don't have access to proper speaker systems yet so maybe good stereo systems can compete with headphones in that area

 

[Vacceo]

I have been gaming with a multichannel set (AVR connection) for years. On narrative games such as Baldur´s Gate 3, Final Fantasy VII Remake or Cyberpunk 2077, the effects get well placed and it is a delight to play in "cinematic mode".

For more action-focused games like Doom Eternal, the "bubble of madness and Industrial Metal" gets a lot better with speakers (and subwoofer) than with headphones.

 

[AdamG]

These things are figured out. But not all games support binaural or surround. So what provides best experience when gaming with stereo audio? do you find open-back over-ears more immersive or speakers? or maybe IEMs? Which should theoretically be better?

Both Speakers and Headphones have their utility and pros and cons. Speakers (5.1 setup minimum) with a good sub can be very realistic and can give the game the illusion of size and space. The cons are the whole house gets to listen to the game sound. Headphones/IEMs can provide improved locational cues and doesn’t bother the whole house. Headphones can never fully reproduce the sound and effect of great Subs. I personally prefer a good headset over Speakers for gaming. Dolby ATMOS and DTS-X emulation on the Xbox Series X is pretty phenomenal. Theoretically best would be Speakers with a 9.2.6 setup. More expansive and better scale reproduction. I think it comes down to personal preference mixed in with what you have to work with as far as options. JMHO.

 

[Cbdb2]

Some games have spatial HP settings. Battle Field 4 for example sound great with phones, the outside stuff is very realistic.

 

[DVDdoug]

I'm not a gamer but to me headphones are just a "different experience" and I generally prefer speakers.

Headphones can be "immersive" and block-out external sounds. And you can get excellent sound quality at relatively low cost.

But if you REALLY want to hear sounds coming from behind you, headphones can't do that. Sometimes you can get the "impression" or "feeling" of the sound coming from behind but it's not like sound actually coming from rear-surround speakers.

 

[AnalogSteph]

But if you REALLY want to hear sounds coming from behind you, headphones can't do that. Sometimes you can get the "impression" or "feeling" of the sound coming from behind but it's not like sound actually coming from rear-surround speakers.

All a matter of matching your HRTF accurately. How do you think you get along with 2 ears to begin with?

Of course, you can turn your head and find out that you're listening to headphones after all. If you want to get rid of that, you need a virtualizer with headtracking (Smyth Realiser etc.). No idea whether the inevitable processing delay would be short enough for (competitive) gaming... people tend to be happy when the things can follow head movements with no obvious lag. The Realiser is one of the few than can do that, more affordable options tend to sport more perceptible delays.

 

[Cbdb2]

All a matter of matching your HRTF accurately. How do you think you get along with 2 ears to begin with?

Of course, you can turn your head and find out that you're listening to headphones after all. If you want to get rid of that, you need a virtualizer with headtracking (Smyth Realiser etc.). No idea whether the inevitable processing delay would be short enough for (competitive) gaming... people tend to be happy when the things can follow head movements with no obvious lag. The Realiser is one of the few than can do that, more affordable options tend to sport more perceptible delays.

If the video can track movement the much lower dsp demand for audio should be able to follow.

 

[Ian Wendt]

Surround in games, and especially PC games is a faint specter of what it once was. A combination of Creative Labs suing their competition (Aureal) out of existence, and Microsoft killing kernel access for audio drivers. The Aureal A3D soundcards could do some incredible stuff with spatial audio via headphones that nothing else has gotten even close to.

 

[holbob]

Bit off topic but trying playing System Shock 2 on a pair of headphones in the dark. Scared the living bejesus out of me back in the day.

 

[Ian Wendt]

If you had an Aureal A3D sound card back in the day, System Shock 2 was one of the games that could make use of it. EAX worked too for the Soundblaster crowd, but the A3D effects were a lot more convincing. That was a downright haunting game at times, and the excellent sound design was a big part of that.

 

[Curvature]

Measure your headphone response using in ear microphones and then correct with EQ by listening. It will sound a lot more realistic.

 

[VietnamRadioEnjoyer]

Bit off topic but trying playing System Shock 2 on a pair of headphones in the dark. Scared the living bejesus out of me back in the day.

Oh poor soul that sounds horrible. I recommend playing Alien:Isolation or Dead Space for some good relaxation time to wash it away

 

[VietnamRadioEnjoyer]

Measure your headphone response using in ear microphones and then correct with EQ by listening. It will sound a lot more realistic.

why would I EQ with my broken ears when I can use impulcifer?

 

[Curvature]

why would I EQ with my broken ears when I can use impulcifer?

Do it if you like. Nonindividual headphone compensation using average target curves, which is one of the steps, will only get you so far. It (the nonindividual compensation) never worked for me because my head shape introduced leakage and whatever shape my ears have is different enough that the HF never sounded right.

If you absolutely need a target curve for individual headphone compensation, flat is reasonable and is supported by a paper about VR realism by Meta.

 

[VietnamRadioEnjoyer]

If you absolutely need a target curve for individual headphone compensation, flat is reasonable and is supported by a paper about VR realism by Meta.

are you talking about this? that is for binaural though. and yes you need flat FR for binaural which for headphones is achieved by using an in-ear mic & for IEMs you just find a graph and use auto-eq as they fire the audio directly to ear canal

impulcifer on the other hand is about bringing your speakers sound to your headphones & it is as individualized as it gets. you listen to your speakers with in-ear mics and it creates profiles specifically made for your HRTF+Room+Headphones+Speakers and then you can use those profiles with stuff like HeSuVi and make your headphones sound like your speakers in your room

 

[Curvature]

are you talking about this? that is for binaural though. and yes you need flat FR for binaural which for headphones is achieved by using an in-ear mic & for IEMs you just find a graph and use auto-eq as they fire the audio directly to ear canal

impulcifer on the other hand is about bringing your speakers sound to your headphones & it is as individualized as it gets. you listen to your speakers with in-ear mics and it creates profiles specifically made for your HRTF+Room+Headphones+Speakers and then you can use those profiles with stuff like HeSuVi and make your headphones sound like your speakers in your room

You misunderstand.

There is a step in Impulcifier where you have to do headphone response compensation. The normal target is generic using AutoEQ.

Another point is that with IEMs you have the same problems because of ear canal geometry, but much harder to manage. Fit is one of the key factors in choosing IEMS.

Yes, that is the paper I was talking about. All of what we are discussing is in the scope of binaural hearing.