What set ups would be good If your just using headphones?

jinx5

I am only using a amp with headphones on my PC. What would be the best setup for me wile using sb live!5.1?

Maddogg6

It kinda depends on how you are connected to your amp (SPDIF?) and if you play surround encoded material on your PC... but either way... (the safe thing for me to respond with)

The default DSP - with Surrounder set to 2.1 - should work for most anything - games, DVD's MP3's.

Beyond that is like asking what kind of g/f or car you should have, given the limited info you provide.

jinx5

That would be nice . I am using a PA2V2 amp with grado sr 125's and just want to make it good for listening to my mp3's. for games and stuff ill just use defalt I guess.

jinx5

Well I changed the default one a bit
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/1343/kxsetupok0.jpg

i took out reverb lite and stereo Chorus since I got no idea what they are and not notice any difference without them or changing them and added the 10 band eq. Anything else should I put?

Maddogg6

Reverb and Chorus are effects that can be applied via the kX Mixer FX page and FXMIX plugin edit: and kX Router SEND C/D /edit.
(Reverb effect, when applied, can make sound as if it were in an arena or a canyon - it adds 'ambiance' -

while chorus is a 'modulation' effect that can do various things)

Your question is still too ambiguous to answer:
'What car should I drive?' - depends on what your wanting from that car - A family station wagon? - a sporty convertible to help attract that someone to make a family with? - or a hearse to haul off that nagging mother-in-law?

You see - kX offers that same level of utility for sound/audio.

I take it you are new to the technical world of audio - and kX is great to learn about such things... so, if there is a specific plugin/effect you dont understand what it does... ask away - but we cant pretend to know what your intentions/needs are.

Google is your friend as well 'Audio effects'
'DSP programming'

'How to adjust a 10 band equalizer' - as the pattern shown on yours looks like it was done by your 'taste' - likely for only a song or 2, and thats not *wrong* - but EQ is commonly used by pros to compensate for acoustic problems somewhere between recording and playback (a 'boomy room' - or mic/speakers with 'peaks' or/or 'valleys' in its measure freq response curve) .

But, hey, if it sounds good - great!. But you're probably not hearing the audio in the way it was intended by the producers - but then again - when MP3 encoding compresses audio with 'loss' - it likely wont happen anyway.

To make a long story short - the least amount of processing of the audio that *isnt* compensating to obtain a baseline response in your listening space - is usually preferred.

So, what is best for your system? - you to learn how to figure that out for your own circumstances. OR - simply - experiment - you wont hurt anything if you *keep sound levels at moderate levels*. (ie: dont blow out your speakers if adding too much gain somewhere) You can learn alot this way - along with google of course, but we need specific questions to be able to answer.

jinx5

Thanks for your input. I kind of just wanted to get tighter base and to try to get rip of the damm hiss lol doesn't help when i am amping the hiss lol meh ill just use the default with 10dB bass level for now until I have money to buy a new sound card and a receiver. I listen to rock, daft punk and other types of dance like techno tranz and all that.
I am using Grado sr125’s with a PA2V2 pocket amp. If you was interested.

Maddogg6

Ok - see thats something to comment on...

1) Make sure the AC97 slider on the INS & OUTS page of kX Mixer is muted. Particulary the MIC - but any AC97 input will add a little extra hiss.
2) SBLive's DAC's (analog outputs) are not very high quality... so - if you were to use the digital output instead of the analog outputs you are probably using - you should notice a decrease in hiss. So - maybe an amp with SPDIF input would equate to an immediate improvement..
But at least make sure you are using the REAR output - some (if not all) use a slightly better DAC for rear outputs compared to the front.

jinx5

I tried the digital output and all I hear is a never stoping hiss lol. well that was last time i tried it.

Maddogg6

hmm - you connected it to a SPDIF input? (digital out puts can *not* be plugged into an analog input - but need to be connected to a 'digital' S/PDIF - Sony/Phillips Digital InterFace input.)

So - your amp must have an S/PDIF INPUT for that to work.

jinx5

Ohh damm my amp is pretty basic as they come. Just line-in and line out. Anyways to a different note. How can I make it so the sound is more centered like it seemed to be on the creative drivers when picking headphone in Advance Audio Properties?

Maddogg6

'Centered' ? - are you asking how to adjust the balance? (Left vs Right volume)

If so - you can do this in the kX Mixer MASTER Page (Master Volume - affects *everything*) OR WAVE volume on same page next to MASTER VOLUME to adjust ONLY Wave / MP3 playback. But there are other ways as well.

jinx5

I just want them to sound how they would have sounded with the crative drivers. I love the settings and the options on the kx ones.

will5757

it sounds to me like he had some sort of virtual surround mixer on (expand headphones to "sound" like 5.1 maybe)

jinx5

Sigh I had nothin on. Using crative drivers and then you pic headphones, you can tell the differnce.

Maddogg6

well, I think thats actually a reason for some people to us kX instead of CL drivers.. ??

It would surprise me if that headphone setting you mention, added some 'effect' automatically, that kX is not doing..

You could try chaining a Virtual Surround after Surrounder and feed Vsurrounds output to the physical output you have your headphones plugged into.. ??
virtual5p1.zip
configuration for headphones and games?

I didnt use CL drivers very long, so I cant say anything for certain...

edit: a pic of a DSP to connect the VSurround Plugin in a default DSP config..
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/5...urroundgy8.jpg

Russ

The 10k1 version of the headphone spatializer plugin that is used with the CL driver has not been ported to kX as of yet.

Aside from the above, as Maddogg6 pointed out, there are other plugins available that might work better for you than Surrounder's 2 speaker modes (for use with headphones), so give them a try.