Some claim it will sound bad on headphones with no presets. Others have success with generic profile.
I tried re-taking ear photos, but got even worse sound. It seems excessively filtered/eqed, and I think this is in addition (and not due) to the reverberations. I couldn't find advice on how to tell if the photos are good or not, but they seemed to make sense both times (with the 2nd sounding worse).
With SBX, surround on/off only makes a small negative impact on quality in order to get quite accurate surround effecr.
If you can, try a Diffuse Field EQ combined with SBX from Soundblaster (and you're in the right ballpark with your SBX 33 although this will be personal & headphone unit based), it gives me the best results, find attached at the end of the post an Equaliser APO config file for Diffuse Field EQ (based on combined measurements from Oratory/Resolve/Crinacle).
I consistently find Diffuse Field EQ's to be most accurate for 3D gaming, perhaps because it doesn't add any room influence & allows the game to add the environmental effects. I'm more & more finding my HD560s to be the best gaming headphone I have (I bought a second one too). Diffuse Field EQ looks kinda crazy, but it works well on my K702 too for gaming (obviously a Diffuse Field EQ specific for K702), I'd say it's the best EQ for 3D Virtual Surround gaming - Diffuse Field EQ.
EDIT: I certainly don't advise Diffuse Field EQ's for music listening, but I do for 3D Virtual Surround gaming.
EDIT #2: As a loose observation I also find that increased headphone use for 3D gaming has a side effect of making headphone music listening more realistic spatially - I think your brain adapts to headphones in a 'spatial' way when gaming which translates further when listening to music on said headphones. The more you listen to speakers the more you realise that headphones are quite far removed from that experience, but your brain does adapt to headphones, and 3D gaming on headphones turbocharges that spatial conversion effect. I recently moved into a new house and I think it's pretty darn good acoustically for good speakers.....which solidifies my realisation that it's tough for headphones to match the accuracy of say female voices & violins and also the tactile bass......but 3D gaming on headphones is a good way to train your brain to accepting a good sounding headphone.
EDIT #3: to be clear I recommend headphone
music listening to be done with Harman EQ (not Diffuse Field) and
no virtual surround processing active.