Review and Measurements of Sound BlasterX G6

[Veri]

sounds tempting! But how can I connect the Sabaj A20h to my SoundblasterX G6? How much power will I lose ?

I would say the same way you'd connect it to the A10h, no?

 

[Mike November]

I would say the same way you'd connect it to the A10h, no?

This is a balanced Sabaj A20h amplifier. The 3.5mm line-out connector from the g6 to the RCA/telephone inputs on the Sabaj reduces the power of the amplifier. Or am I wrong?

 

[Robbo99999]

This is a balanced Sabaj A20h amplifier. The 3.5mm line-out connector from the g6 to the RCA/telephone inputs on the Sabaj reduces the power of the amplifier. Or am I wrong?

Just get the original amplifier you listed, it'll be powerful enough. As I said the G6 outputs 2V as a max, but you want to reduce that by -2dBFS to avoid the clipping issue that the G6 has in the bass at full output, which will take you down to 1.59V out. Your headphone is not particularly hard to drive, any quality well reviewed headphone amp reviewed on ASR will drive it to loud enough levels when connected to the G6 DAC even at the reduced 1.59V I mentioned, and even below that (as I use a -11dBFS negative preamp which takes the G6 output down to 0.563V for the parts of the frequency response that aren't boosted by EQ, lol! (And this is for my K702 which is almost identically difficult to drive as your K612 - and I don't even use High Gain on the headphone amp)

 

[Veri]

Just get the original amplifier you listed, it'll be powerful enough. As I said the G6 outputs 2V as a max, but you want to reduce that by -2dBFS to avoid the clipping issue that the G6 has in the bass at full output, which will take you down to 1.59V out. Your headphone is not particularly hard to drive, any quality well reviewed headphone amp reviewed on ASR will drive it to loud enough levels when connected to the G6 DAC even at the reduced 1.59V I mentioned, and even below that (as I use a -11dBFS negative preamp which takes the G6 output down to 0.563V for the parts of the frequency response that aren't boosted by EQ, lol! (And this is for my K702 which is almost identically difficult to drive as your K612 - and I don't even use High Gain on the headphone amp)

I was gonna say, if he uses EQ and wants headroom he might need more power but your anecdotal experience might prove otherwise I thought A10h was on original Topping L30 level which was sufficient but not enormous depending on one's headphones and preferred listening volume levels.

This is a balanced Sabaj A20h amplifier. The 3.5mm line-out connector from the g6 to the RCA/telephone inputs on the Sabaj reduces the power of the amplifier. Or am I wrong?

It's an amplifier that is balanced capable (inputs and outputs), yes. Using it single ended out/in will reduce maximum power but there's still two headphone amplification chips in there to use for the output when not balanced. Using my HD600 from the 6.3mm output I never even need more than low gain on it lol

 

[Robbo99999]

I was gonna say, if he uses EQ and wants headroom he might need more power but your anecdotal experience might prove otherwise I thought A10h was on original Topping L30 level which was sufficient but not enormous depending on one's headphones and preferred listening volume levels.


It's an amplifier that is balanced capable (inputs and outputs), yes. Using it single ended out/in will reduce maximum power but there's still two headphone amplification chips in there to use for the output when not balanced. Using my HD600 from the 6.3mm output I never even need more than low gain on it lol

I think he should be fine with his original amp, I haven't done a detailed comparison with it's power specs vs my JDS Labs Atom Amp, but Amir's review gave the impression it had ample power available - so if my Atom Amp and minus 11dB preamp is fine at Low Gain on the Atom Amp with my K702's that are the "same" in power requirements as his K612, then he'll be fine with his original Sabaj amp he quoted as he can even use High Gain on it if he wants or needs, which he probably wouldn't even need to use.

 

[Riccardo_91]

Hi boys,
can you give me some advice to set up the Soundblaster G6 with beyerdynamic dt990 headphones on PS5?

Is better: 7.1 Sbx on / off, dolby bitstream
or
Stereo sbx on / off, linear PCM

In the case of Sbx on, which parameters do you recommend to use? Thank you!

 

[Robbo99999]

Hi boys,
can you give me some advice to set up the Soundblaster G6 with beyerdynamic dt990 headphones on PS5?

Is better: 7.1 Sbx on / off, dolby bitstream
or
Stereo sbx on / off, linear PCM

In the case of Sbx on, which parameters do you recommend to use? Thank you!

So according to the Creative website you'd hook up your PS5 via Optical Cable, and should still have access to all (or most of) the features:

One thing I'm not sure on is how you set & customise your different surround sound options & variables considering the Sound Blaster Command Software is not used with it - as that is the software that I use to set all the variables. You might need to look into how that's done on PS5 if you don't already know the answer to that.

But in terms of gaming, you'd want to use Virtual 7.1 Surround option SBX on, and you'd make sure your game was set to output 7.1 Surround in the game menus. And you'd want to set the Surround variable (don't know how you'd do that with PS5) anywhere from 20-40 for the Surround Variable and you'd try what works best for you in that range in terms of the correct position of the simulated speakers. Have a look at the advice in the following thread in terms of more detail on how to finetune the best Surround figure (0-100, where I suggest 20-40) in the following thread:

Virtual 7.1 Surround Sound processing in Headphones

Hi, I thought I'd start this thread as a gaming virtual 7.1 surround sound enthusiast in headphones. We can let this thread develop into whatever we like on the topic of Virtual 7.1 Surround Sound processing in headphones, and perhaps I'll continue to edit this first post with links to useful...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[domisol24]

Would you recommend directly driving he6se with this?

 

[Robbo99999]

Would you recommend directly driving he6se with this?

That's about the worse case scenario to drive, and with the G6 you'd probably want to run it at -2dBFS to make sure it doesn't clip, because that's one of the issues with the G6, so you're already losing 2dB of volume doing that. I'd say you probably need a dedicated headphone amp, perhaps dependant on how loud you listen, what do you think @solderdude ? He can easily calculate these things.

 

[solderdude]

Would you recommend directly driving he6se with this?

With a very poor sensitivity headphone (HE6SE @ 91dB/V) and about 4V (=0.25W in HE6SE) you could reach 103dB peak (in high gain mode).
That seems loud but it means you can get it to comfortable loud levels max.
So when you never want to play the HE6SE at loud or impressively loud levels it should be fine, otherwise look for an amplifier that can provide 2W or more.

 

[Robbo99999]

With a very poor sensitivity headphone (HE6SE @ 91dB/V) and about 4V (=0.25W in HE6SE) you could reach 103dB peak (in high gain mode).
That seems loud but it means you can get it to comfortable loud levels max.
So when you never want to play the HE6SE at loud or impressively loud levels it should be fine, otherwise look for an amplifier that can provide 2W or more.

And I guess that's not including the -2dBFS to prevent clipping which seems to be problem with this specific DAC when Amir measured it. So if you've not taken that into account then I think we'd need to knock off 4dB from your 103dB figure - to account for the x2 factor of High Gain operating on the digital -2dBFS (if I'm correct in my understanding of the maths associated with it) - so that would take it down to 99dB peak in High Gain mode.

 

[Bibabutzemann123]

Hello,
Did anyone measure the latency on the G6 when mixing USB and Line In/Optical In?
I want to mix my PC sound with SPDIF audio coming from a Playstation.
My Sound blaster Z causes additional 80ms delay when listening to the Digital Input.
Measured it by routing the audio from the playstation directly to speakers and to the digital input of the sound blaster z simultanously.

 

[sbronf]

hello guys, I have a question about connecting the g6: I already have a topping d30pro dac reviewed here hooked up to a lake people headphone amp and a rega io stereo amp. to optimize connections and use only one pair of headphones and one headphone amplifier, can I connect the g6 via optical out to the optical in of the topping dac? would i use the g6's virtualization 7.1 effects? the volume is fixed, the problem of keeping it at -2db does not arise in this case or would it be unsolvable? Thank you very much

 

[Robbo99999]

hello guys, I have a question about connecting the g6: I already have a topping d30pro dac reviewed here hooked up to a lake people headphone amp and a rega io stereo amp. to optimize connections and use only one pair of headphones and one headphone amplifier, can I connect the g6 via optical out to the optical in of the topping dac? would i use the g6's virtualization 7.1 effects? the volume is fixed, the problem of keeping it at -2db does not arise in this case or would it be unsolvable? Thank you very much

Would you "use" the virtualisation effects or would you "lose" them did you mean to say? You'd potentially use virtualisation for movies & games, but for music you'd use it in Direct Mode. I use the Line Out of the G6 to apply virtual surround and it can be applied through the Line Out if you tick the "Apply headphone virtualisation to Line Out" option in the Creative software, and that Line Out port can be either analog or optical, so I'm assuming it would work the same way if you plugged in a optical cable into that same output - so I don't think you would lose the virtualisation. At that point the 7.1 Virtual Surround is baked into 2-channel at that output point, so I can't imagine you losing the virtualisation, because the Topping DAC would treat it just the same as any 2 channel signal (it just so happens to have the 7.1 Virtual Surround baked into that already). I think that should work.

Regarding the -2dB problem you mentioned, that might arise in that case, I don't know for sure, but I use with analog out to a seperate headphone amp and just to be sure I make sure I use -2dB in Windows Software or in playback software.

 

[sbronf]

Hello and thanks for the reply. I meant that I was afraid of losing virtualization 7.1 using the optical out.
you mentioned "Apply headphone virtualisation to Line Out"...but I don't see this option in the sound blaster command software...can you tell me where it is? Thank you

 

[Robbo99999]

Hello and thanks for the reply. I meant that I was afraid of losing virtualization 7.1 using the optical out.
you mentioned "Apply headphone virtualisation to Line Out"...but I don't see this option in the sound blaster command software...can you tell me where it is? Thank you

Hi, it's right here:

First click on the cog that I circled in red. Then it opens up the window you can see on the right, and then you check the tick box that the red arrow is pointing at. (Keep crossover frequency at 80Hz which is the default value, I always used to lower it to 10Hz but surround doesn't sound as realistic, it applies too much bass to the virtual channels as well as engaging the virtual subwoofer at the same time so you end up with too much bass).

 

[dj94030]

Hi all,
Regarding the -2dBFS issue. Is it ok to simply put preamp 2dB lower in equalizer apo so that the "estimated peak gain" is -2.3dB and then never worry about the windows volume?
Using headphones output.

 

[Robbo99999]

Hi all,
Regarding the -2dBFS issue. Is it ok to simply put preamp 2dB lower in equalizer apo so that the "estimated peak gain" is -2.3dB and then never worry about the windows volume?
Using headphones output.

Yup, that should be fine!

 

[Audioboxer]

I was asking in this topic about the Apple USB C dongle to keep things simple for a headset I need some mic input with https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...le-usb-c-headphone-adapters.5541/post-1552090

However, I managed to snag a Philips SHP9500s and a v moda boom pro mic really cheap, much cheaper than the pc37x, pc38x, MMX100/MMX300, and H6PRO I was looking at. I've owned the X2HR in the past, so I roughly know what to expect from these Philips models.

But when I looked at Oratory's -12.5db pregain https://www.dropbox.com/s/sc2wanrbrqe0qn7/Philips SHP9500.pdf?dl=0 And I thought my Sundara's at -7.5db were up there.

Thinking I'll need something better than a USB-C dongle to power that EQ. So that brings me to the G6, can get one reasonably cheap (but more expensive than the headset/mic lol). What's the G6 like handling mic input? Anything else more recommended now that can handle a mic? I don't need fancy features or anything just some power for EQ, ability to handle mic and while sidetone would be beneficial, it's not a must with open back headphones.

 

[Robbo99999]

I was asking in this topic about the Apple USB C dongle to keep things simple for a headset I need some mic input with https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...le-usb-c-headphone-adapters.5541/post-1552090

However, I managed to snag a Philips SHP9500s and a v moda boom pro mic really cheap, much cheaper than the pc37x, pc38x, MMX100/MMX300, and H6PRO I was looking at. I've owned the X2HR in the past, so I roughly know what to expect from these Philips models.

But when I looked at Oratory's -12.5db pregain https://www.dropbox.com/s/sc2wanrbrqe0qn7/Philips SHP9500.pdf?dl=0 And I thought my Sundara's at -7.5db were up there.

Thinking I'll need something better than a USB-C dongle to power that EQ. So that brings me to the G6, can get one reasonably cheap (but more expensive than the headset/mic lol). What's the G6 like handling mic input? Anything else more recommended now that can handle a mic? I don't need fancy features or anything just some power for EQ, ability to handle mic and while sidetone would be beneficial, it's not a must with open back headphones.

I can't answer you re the mic, as I don't ever use a mic. I'm just mentioning this because it could be some people are expecting me to answer (rather than themselves) as I'm quite active in this thread, but I have no experience with mic usage, so I hope someone else will answer your question here.