[Evshrug]

Sennheiser also introduced closed model with HD598 model number.

The closed HD 598 was called the HD 598 Cs, but it has been replaced by the HD 569. You may find some stock of the HD 598 Cs out there, though.

 

[Evshrug]

will the GSX-1000 boost my experiance in competitive gaming ???

...

or should i spend my money on better dac like chord mojo or something ???

Well, the key difference is you are talking about a surround DSP/DAC/Amp of the GSX 1000 compared to “just” a DAC/Amp.

For anyone reading this who doesn’t know, a DSP is a Digital Signal Processor, which in this context is used to take Audio from different directions, apply science and math, and create a resulting audio mix that will make the stereo headphones on your two ears be able to create a convincing recreation of a sound coming from a specific direction. Why? The benefit of good DSPs is that you can tell from Audio-alone if something is in front, behind, or to the sides of a game character, or recreate a surround sound theater when watching movies. Expand the action beyond the borders of the screen in front of you, increasing immersion and awareness.
Secondly, the GSX would give you player comforts such as mic monitoring, a dial wheel to mix the volume gain balance between game and party chat, quick access to overall volume and EQ presets. As an external USB device it is able to be moved between different computer systems easily.

A DAC is a digital to analog converter, and is required to make all digital media like video games or streamed music into the analog power pulses that make headphone/speaker drivers vibrate and create sound. The more accurate the DAC, the more “true” and believable the sound will be to real life, and also provide increased resolution and separation of different sounds playing simultaneously or with greater complexity than a pure, symmetrical sine wave.

An Amplifier or Amp provides power to the electromagnets in headphones, so that the drivers can move and vibrate in a controlled fashion. Lowering the distortion or improving the slew rate helps preserve the original audio performance of the signal emitted from a DAC, and more current or voltage can help control more power-demanding headphones more easily. An amp with more gain will provide more volume.

Upgrading all or parts of these components can have a beneficial effect, but you have to decide which benefits you value the most. Would it be valueable in your gaming to upgrade from left/right/centered to surround? Would you prefer to ignore surround and focus on spending more money to increase clarity of the source game audio?

While having good binaural-simulation that's only thing GSX has for itself.

I’m in a unique position of having owned a lot of other external DSP options over many years, but not really being able to compare with other brands. Rather than simply saying “the GSX is good,” let me ask you and other interested people a few questions:

1. If someone else had a GSX, what would you ask him/her to share? Would you read their review? Would you watch someone broadcasting a demo?

2. Would you seize a chance to demo a GSX 1000 or 1200 for yourself, and share what you learn?

3. Considering other options for external DSP/DAC/Amp products from Sennheiser, Astro, Creative Labs, Logitech, and more, what benefits would you like to gain from such a product? Which benefits does the GSX products provide, what remain on the wish list?

Anyone is open to pose answers to these questions, could be a good exercise

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Did you ever try a LA7000?

Simple answer: no.

Long answer:

No, but I've owned the TH-600 and TH-900, both which would more or less resemble what Lawton did to the D7000. That said, I know for a 100% fact, I wouldn't like the LA7000, as it would take away what I loved about the D7000 just as the TH600 and TH900 did. There's objectivity, and subjectivity. I didn't need a BETTER headphone. I needed one that had the same exact euphony and bass aspect of the D7000.

The tighter, more controlled bass of the Fostex models were exactly what I DIDN'T want coming from the D7000. And everyone said the TH-900 was like the D7000's bass but corrected. That correction was what ultimately made me give up the TH900. It wasn't what I wanted.

Again, speaking purely of preference. The longer, lingering decay is more preferable to me, than that of the Fostex. So when I see people say "the LA7000 makes the bass tighter and controlled, etc, etc" that's detrimental to what I personally want. The D7000 was special as is. Taking that away, well it's just another headphone that is close to what I wanted, but not exactly.

I think I've earned the right to say that I know what to expect from more speed and control. The amount of decay and looseness the D7000 was the perfect amount for me. No more, no less.

To sum it up, if I wanted something better than the stock D7000, I would just get a better headphone. I want the stock, untouched goodness that I remember. Nothing else.

 

[abuch47]

.

AHD 7200 could be good for you.

Never tried either but have the chance to own a perfect con d7000 for $800 but still a bit steep

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

AHD 7200 could be good for you.

Never tried either but have the chance to own a perfect con d7000 for $800 but still a bit steep

Doubtful. I think you're misunderstanding me about the bass. The 7200 doesn't even use Fostex drivers.

The D7000 just had the perfect mixture and resonance from its cups, driver design, pads, etc. Going to a different headphone means a completely different sound. Its indescribable, but nothing does bass like the D7000 did.

Let's just say it's a D7000 specific trait. Where nothing else can emulate that specific resonance and ambient quality.

 

[Helvetica bold]

On Xbox does Atmos for headphones work through an AVR? I have my headphones plugged into the AVR. There is an HDMI connection option but I don’t think I’m getting the Atmos virtual sound in Tomb Raider.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Man, rtings review of the Game One is like polar opposite of mine. They have no sub bass, and upper bass boominess. So which is it, Sennheiser? Lol.

Their graphs do prove that, so I wouldn't say they're wrong. But I definitely wouldn't say the same of the pair I reviewed. Makes me question everything I've ever heard, ever.

 

[illram]

Re: the GSX. I think the one thing it could really benefit from is compatibility with consoles, specifically, decoding Dolby Digital. Currently that is limited to the Astro and Soundblaster X7, I believe. The X7 is a more expensive "jack of all trades master of none" device that perhaps could use some more competition from a classically "audiophile" brand. (I personally own an X7, and an E5, and really like SBX and their EQ features.) The Astro meanwhile has the branding but is generally considered inferior sounding, and also they aggressively market it as paired with Astro's headphones which are overpriced for what they are.

I think in this space, the goal should be quality surround implementation first. We are all sacrificing the "pristine-ness" I guess of our audio by injecting it with VSS in the first place, so I think having for an example an amp that can actually drive a demanding headphone to loud volumes with a pleasing sound is secondary to first providing a quality VSS. While I currently find the X7 more than adequate even for demanding headphones (I've got an HD800S on it currently) we can all stick a quality amp on the front end if we want if it means the DAC device might actually be cheaper. (Assuming the product can also do VSS over line-out....) For instance my E5 lives on my secondary computer/gaming area (yes I have two...) and it's line out is feeding an iFi BL, which together sounds fantastic for PC surround gaming.

I don't know which way the industry thinks the winds are blowing however, for instance are we moving beyond channel simulation and into object based surround engines? E.g. Sonic and Atmos now being offered right in Windows or over Xbox. Game support currently is not great but perhaps this is the way the industry is headed and simulating a 5.1 or 7.1 channel mix is going to be obsolete in 5 years?? Interesting times...

 

[cskippy]

Man, rtings review of the Game One is like polar opposite of mine. They have no sub bass, and upper bass boominess. So which is it, Sennheiser? Lol.

Their graphs do prove that, so I wouldn't say they're wrong. But I definitely wouldn't say the same of the pair I reviewed. Makes me question everything I've ever heard, ever.

I'll post measurements and impressions when i get mine. They're currently on back order from Amazon.

 

[jude]

Man, rtings review of the Game One is like polar opposite of mine. They have no sub bass, and upper bass boominess. So which is it, Sennheiser? Lol.

Their graphs do prove that, so I wouldn't say they're wrong. But I definitely wouldn't say the same of the pair I reviewed. Makes me question everything I've ever heard, ever.

First of all, @Mad Lust Envy, I'm always happy to see a review from you, man, so thanks for posting!

After reading your review, and then reading your comments above, I decided to run quick measurements of the Sennheiser GAME ONE.

Here's the uncompensated frequency response (clicking on the graphs below will show larger sizes):

Since most in the community are used to seeing compensated frequency response measurements, below is the Sennheiser GAME ONE frequency response with diffuse field correction applied:



Below is our Sennheiser GAME ONE total harmonic distortion (THD) measurement:



I thought what follows was a bit interesting. When I first started doing the Sennheiser GAME ONE measurements, I was marveling at how inefficient these headphones are, before I realized they're not inefficient -- I had the headset volume knob turned down. I'd already run measurements with the volume turned down about halfway, so I re-ran them with the volume turned all the way up, and, to my surprise, they were quite different.

Below are frequency response measurements of the Sennheiser GAME ONE with the volume turned down about halfway (dotted line) and turned all the way up (solid line). As above, the first graph is uncompensated (raw), and the second one has diffuse field compensation applied:

---

Our audio measurements in this post were made using:

• G.R.A.S. 45BB-12 KEMAR with anthropometric pinnae for low-noise earphone and headphone testing
• Audio Precision APx555 Audio Analyzer
• Audio Precision APx1701 Transducer Test Interface
• Herzan custom acoustic/vibration isolation enclosure

 

[DevilofLife]

I about to get the Victor SU-DH1 to try on my PS4 and I have find a japanese site modding his SU-DH1 http://torapo.com/headphone/virtual/victor-su-dh1.htm#vol using google translate I think he modded the existing line in to a line out.
Can anybody that know japanese confirm if its a line out.

 

[pythago89]

Hi guys,
I had bought Senheiser Game One after spending lot of time to read this topic. I only focus on game FPS like PUBG and my Game One is perfect. But one problem i had found is that it's not loud enough, I plug it to my motherboard and i think Realtek is my problem. I was spent a hour in audio store to try Game One with GSX 1000. In stereo mode, nothing different, still not loud enough, I always set 100% volume on both PC and GSX1000. In surround mode, it louder but not too much, i set 85-90% volume on GSX.
Now Iam looking for a DAC/AMP to make my Game One louder. My interest is Xonar U7 MKII, Schiit fulla 2, creative sound blaster g5. Which is good ??

Thanks.

 

[pietcux]

Hi guys,
I had bought Senheiser Game One after spending lot of time to read this topic. I only focus on game FPS like PUBG and my Game One is perfect. But one problem i had found is that it's not loud enough, I plug it to my motherboard and i think Realtek is my problem. I was spent a hour in audio store to try Game One with GSX 1000. In stereo mode, nothing different, still not loud enough, I always set 100% volume on both PC and GSX1000. In surround mode, it louder but not too much, i set 85-90% volume on GSX.
Now Iam looking for a DAC/AMP to make my Game One louder. My interest is Xonar U7 MKII, Schiit fulla 2, creative sound blaster g5. Which is good ??

Thanks.

I have the GSX 1000 and the Game One. My volume sits around 24. Maybe you have the volume knob of the Game One far below 100%? That is what Jude mentioned. Last night I watched the latest Terminator movie from my Asus G74SX laptop, using the Dolby Atmos app. I had the volume below 30% on the laptop and it was very loud using the Game One, again the volume knob on the can maxed out. Btw. the Dolby Atmos app is working perfect to me, the best surround simulation for headphones I ever came across so far.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

@jude, thank you so much for the graphs.

It's interesting how much the lower half of the spectrum changes depending on how high the volume on the headset itself is.

I admit I'm more used to understanding compensated curves than raw. From what Isee there, the half volume measurements more closely resembles my impressions.

I've never been one to truly understand harmonic distortion (other than headphones with more distortion up top having some ringing artifacts), but is it correct to assume that higher distortion down low be in the bass can come off as a more lingering presence/longer decay? Because my GAME ONE rumbles very well for an open backed headset.

I had the volume on the Game One at around 80/90% most of the time.

At least from what I see, down to around 45hz was essentially in balance with most of the sound, with the higher bass being measurably louder. If just a bit.

Funny though, in actual be use, I felt more immediately grabbed by the 40-50hz range than anything the mid/upper bass did. And I have plenty of bass heavy tracks. Maybe it's just how it resonates, but to me it sounds like it was 'more' of it at least not far from mid bass in presence.

Then again it could just simply be driver variation. My only area of contention is sub bass performance which I felt was more than the graphs show on mine. The dips and peaks in the higher ranges are pretty close to what I heard, though not perfectly.

 

[pythago89]

@pietcux Thank for reply.

I dont think the volume knob far below 100%, I have checked my Game One at home with the volume on PC 100%, just adjust the volume knob on Game One.
In the audio store, i did the same thing with GSX1000 and another Game One, but feel the volume not loud enough, even with 7.1 mode of GSX 1000 ;((((
Tomorrow, i will check again in other audio store. May other DAC/AMP will make my Game One louder ??

Thanks.