How to get 7.1 audio on ALL headphones using this guide!

[PolkFan]

I have been trying for weeks to find a way to get my AKG’s to do virtual surround for gaming and movies. I finally got it to work and it works so well that I felt like making a guide for other people!

This works for ANY pair of headphones and is 100% free to do.

It involves installing HeSuVi and VB-Audio Virtual cable

Set Virtual cable to 7.1 audio and set the Mic input for VB-Cable to “Listen” to the source that is driving your headphones for example this would be Odac for me or it could be realtek for you.

In HeSuVi go to virtualization and use the top option which is called Atomos yes for Dolby Atmos!

Click on the connection section in HeSuVi and enable Virtualization

Make sure in the additional section that Cable Input (VB-Audio Virtual Cable) is selected.

Also note that you want to go to advanced and make sure both VB-cable options are selected for 24Bit 48,000Hz.

This is it all your games and movies that are encoded in 7.1 will now work perfectly in this setting. Been playing GTA5 and fallout 4 like this and its a game changer for sure! Also for Stereo sources this software has a option for upmixing it to virtual surround kind of like the old days of Pro Logic II.

https://www.vb-audio.com/Cable/ VB-Audio Cable again free
https://sourceforge.net/projects/hesuvi/ HeSuVi

https://sourceforge.net/projects/equalizerapo/ APO Equalizer

This amazing software also works with equalizers once you download APOEqualizer(Also free) for a lot of pairs of headphones so you don't even need to spend the time doing that which can help with imaging for the sound stage!

 

[maverickronin]

EQ APO sure has come a long way...

I should take another deep dive on that when I get the time.

 

[PolkFan]

EQ APO sure has come a long way...

I should take another deep dive on that when I get the time.

I really enjoy what it became and that they have so many equalizers for people and multiple ones for each headphone. In fact all my headphones have EQ's for them!

I seriously looked and looked for virtual surround sound on headphones and offerings from Razer SUCK and are muffled crap plus it can't be found anywhere.

Dolby Atoms and Windows Sonic are close to useless they barely support anything where this method above works for EVERY single 5.1-7.1 source which is basically every netflix movie every game in the last 10 years and it even has a decent upmixing tool which is also superior to windows.

I have no idea why Microsoft is so 10 years behind in the audio department like who even has 7.1 audio setups on PC's these days? Plus every single surround sound headphone i ever listened to sounded like garbage even the "Premium" ones.

 

[maverickronin]

Plus every single surround sound headphone i ever listened to sounded like garbage even the "Premium" ones.

All the money goes into the licensing and electronics instead of the physical acoustics.

I remember many years ago when I was on headfi the thing to do (especially for console gamers) was get a specific device (Turtle Beach something?) which was basically a surround processor amp that took 5.1 AC3 over optical and mixed it to binaural. I think it came with a terrible pair of headphones, but everyone used it with AT AD700s, HD598s, or ran it into a stronger amp for K701s. Supposedly the overall SQ sucked, but it did give very good direction cues so you could hear someone sneaking up behind you in the FPS de jour.

 

[PolkFan]

All the money goes into the licensing and electronics instead of the physical acoustics.

I remember many years ago when I was on headfi the thing to do (especially for console gamers) was get a specific device (Turtle Beach something?) which was basically a surround processor amp that took 5.1 AC3 over optical and mixed it to binaural. I think it came with a terrible pair of headphones, but everyone used it with AT AD700s, HD598s, or ran it into a stronger amp for K701s. Supposedly the overall SQ sucked, but it did give very good direction cues so you could hear someone sneaking up behind you in the FPS de jour.

That sounds interesting as well not sure why we don't get more products like that? With how powerful modern CPU's are i see no reason to not just do it in software.

To be fair for music and so forth i like to have it as direct as possible to the source. It's nuts how well this works for movies and games.

 

[maverickronin]

I remembered the name. It was Astro and actually a standalone product. Looks like they're sill going and have a current model.

 

[pozz]

Just tried this myself. Works really well and the HRIR options in HeSuVi are fun to try.

Thanks @PolkFan

 

[PolkFan]

Just tried this myself. Works really well and the HRIR options in HeSuVi are fun to try.

Thanks @PolkFan

Happy to hear that man i find it amazing for games i wouldn't recommend it for competitive gaming as there seems to be a few ms of a delay.

 

[andymok]

I have no idea why Microsoft is so 10 years behind in the audio department like who even has 7.1 audio setups on PC's these days? Plus every single surround sound headphone i ever listened to sounded like garbage even the "Premium" ones.

LOL, we might have to call someone.

 

[Veri]

Happy to hear that man i find it amazing for games i wouldn't recommend it for competitive gaming as there seems to be a few ms of a delay.

I was going to ask, how about the delay of all this processing.

cheers

 

[Biblob]

I'm trying it right now, other than the fact it does feel more "spacy", it puts a blanket on top of the high notes so it sucks out all the high and high mids. Not enjoyable at all. At least it is not useful to listen to music

 

[PolkFan]

I'm trying it right now, other than the fact it does feel more "spacy", it puts a blanket on top of the high notes so it sucks out all the high and high mids. Not enjoyable at all. At least it is not useful to listen to music

Oh heck no music its a NO go for sure this is for pure movies and games nothing more

Perhaps it might be good to use the EQ for music though but nothing more

 

[pozz]

I'm trying it right now, other than the fact it does feel more "spacy", it puts a blanket on top of the high notes so it sucks out all the high and high mids. Not enjoyable at all. At least it is not useful to listen to music

You can adjust the filtering through Equalizer APO.

 

[dwkdnvr]

If you want to take the next step, the 'Impulcifier' project https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/Impulcifer allows you to use relatively inexpensive binaural mics to measure your own HRIR and create custom filters that can be used in HESUVI. I've only tried it with a stereo setup rather than full surround, but is seems to work very well. I use the Sound Professionals binaural mics with xlr phantom power adapters (runs about $200 I think), which makes measuring with a Motu M4 really easy.

 

[jimbomb]

If you want to take the next step, the 'Impulcifier' project https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/Impulcifer allows you to use relatively inexpensive binaural mics to measure your own HRIR and create custom filters that can be used in HESUVI. I've only tried it with a stereo setup rather than full surround, but is seems to work very well. I use the Sound Professionals binaural mics with xlr phantom power adapters (runs about $200 I think), which makes measuring with a Motu M4 really easy.

Second this comment. I'm also using Impulcifer with Sound Professional mics, but with a Zoom H2N into a laptop. Also only using it in stereo mode for now, but the results are beyond amazing. Extremely convincing illusion of listening to real speakers, and the sound quality is the best I've heard in decades of audiophile listening. There is a learning curve using the command line options, and for me it took a good bit of trial and error, but once I got it right it's now the only way I listen to music. No joke, this is truly next level tech.