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  1. #1
    [2012: Year of the Whore]
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    Sound Card / Gaming Headset / Installation All-In-One Question!

    I did not wish to hi-jack some other thread since I have so many questions concerning future purchases I will be making.

    At the moment I have an amazing computer rig with some suck-ass 10 year old 2.1 speakers. I'm wanting to upgrade to 5.1/7.1 speakers or headphones (preferably headphones, really) but I'm afraid to make the purchase because I have an integrated sound card on my computer. I tried buying surround sound and hooking them into it but I could never get the surround sound to work.

    My question is, if I buy these..

    http://www.astrogaming.com/products/...m-MLG-Edition/

    can I just plug them into the front of my computer where I have the headphone/mic jacks at? It's just the two generic holes with the headphone/mic pics above them.

    If not, can I buy a sound card and install it into a PCI slot? Or will it mess with my integrated sound card?

    Oh, and if I CAN just hook the A40 headphones into the front of my comp., will my computer recognize it as 5.1 surround sound?

  2. #2

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    In 90% of situations, most on-board audio already comes with 5.1/7.1/Digital/etc. outputs and usually has the same amount in terms of inputs.

    As for using a "PCI" soundcard, sure you can. Go into your motherboard BIOS, disable on-board audio. Uninstall the existing drivers if any (installed). Done.

    Like I said before though, unless you're some ridiculous audiophile. There is absolutely no need for a dedicated sound-card on a modern system.

    Goodluck.

  3. #3
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    If that's the case, why could I not get my surround sound I purchased to work? :-/ I have the Real Tek HD Audio or whatever comes with Windows (probably way off on name, it's an orange sound icon in system tray on bottom) and absolutely nothing I did would make it work.

    Granted the surround sound wasn't specifically FOR a computer (more for TVs), might that have been the problem?

  4. #4
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    Well, I should not say I couldn't get it to work.. I just couldn't get all of the speakers to work.. and it sounded like absolute shit.

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    Could be just a configuration/driver issues. I'm right now on my main PC and it also uses Real-Tek HD Audio. Logitech 7.1 system. Haven't had a problem since I set it up.

    Have you tried diagnosing to see if you have the proper drivers installed? Did you install the manufacturer's drivers? Or did you let Windows auto-install something.

  6. #6
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    "5.1" headphones are a gimmick. A good pair of stereo headphones with a good soundcard will have better directional sound than any "gaming" headphones. I'd recommend anything in the Xonar line, a $10 logitech mic, and a pair of Sennheisers. Creative Labs is absolute 100% terrible shit without working drivers; avoid it like the plague. Any audio product with the word "gaming" in the title is overpriced gimmick shit with EXTREEEEEEEME colors.

    Everything you need to game like a pro. Special MLG Edition.
    Rather shoot myself than own anything advertised like that. EMMMMM ELLLLLL GEEEEEEEEEE, BRO!~!!! Pass the Ritalin.

  7. #7
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    Lol, well I may not have had all my drivers up to date. When I get home I'll try hooking my surround sound back up and see what happens. I have a good driver update program and found like 90 out-of-date driver issues last week >_> So maybe it's fixed.

  8. #8
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    listen to Kerberoz

  9. #9
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    So I could take something like this..

    http://www.amazon.com/Essence-STX-Ch.../dp/B001OV789U

    and pop it right into my computer, disable on-board sound in BIOS, and have at it? Doesn't sound too terribly hard.

  10. #10
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    Yep, just plug in (PCIE 1x can go in any PCIE slot), disable the onboard controller, install drivers from the website and it's good to go. That's the same card I'm using and it's godly, especially nice since it has a built-in headphone amp for high-impedance sets.

  11. #11
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    Well I got my 5.1 surround sound I was using on my TV to work on my computer (by plugging into the front headphone jack.. wouldn't work plugging it into the back where it SHOULD be).

    Now I have another issue.. an odd one and I don't know if it's a setting but I can't seem to fix it or google an issue.

    Whenever I'm listening to music, watching a video, etc. and the sound gets low (like a piano playing) the music just cuts completely out and I hear a scratching noise coming out of my speakers.

    Now for some reason it doesn't do this when I use Windows Media Center but it does do it when I use Chrome, Firefox, WIndows Media Player, and I.E.

    Any clue what's up?

  12. #12
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    Nvm, it does it with Windows Media Center too if I turn the volume down too low. It's like it's wanting to cancel out the low volume background noise or something but its cutting off the background music instead. Ruining my shows

  13. #13
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    I know the conversation has moved on a bit, but-

    The mixamp in that Astro set is what does the 5.1 magic, the headphones aren't 5.1 at all. The mixamp is nice to be able to fine tune the game audio vs the voice audio as well, but I don't know if that intelligence works unless everyone is using one. It beats plugging your headphones directly into your TV/PC at least, since 3m is not enough cable to sit comfortably in most gaming setups and fine tuning the volume can be a pain (many TVs and amps require you to turn the volume to a heavy extreme up or down to really hear properly in your headphones, and if you forget to adjust before plugging/unplugging you risk blasting yourself out).

    That said, the astro headphones are pretty good for the price. There's nothing special about them, but they're nice for their intended purpose. What you need really depends on your circumstances, if you're gaming a lot in environments where noise may be a problem for your voice comm, then a $10 mic isn't going to cut it and you'll want something noise canceling. Having the mic that much closer to your face is nice for being able to keep your own voice down as well. Getting those features from your usual high quality headphone manufacturers doesn't come cheap; the A40 come out to ~$120 after you take out the cost of the mixamp, and the cheapest I can find something comparable from any major headphone manufacturer is $185.

    Edit: The A40 also are extremely lightweight in terms of pressure on your head, you can wear them for a very long time and not feel them afterward. I like me a good set of studio cans but my ears (or cranium, depending on which pair I'm wearing) tend to complain for a while after I take them off.

  14. #14
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    I wish the mixamp had a decent dac and amp on it like the xonar though . I emailed them a while back asking if there was a way to get s/pdif out of the mixamp, which there is not. I would like to have a stand-alone box that can do the 5.1 magic for certain movies and such. I only know of the mixamp and then some xbox-labeled thing that comes with a headset.
    For now I am using software solutions and I might go for one of those xonar cards if they can output s/pdif after running the dolby headphone magic on them, I need to look into it.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jak View Post
    Well I got my 5.1 surround sound I was using on my TV to work on my computer (by plugging into the front headphone jack.. wouldn't work plugging it into the back where it SHOULD be).

    Now I have another issue.. an odd one and I don't know if it's a setting but I can't seem to fix it or google an issue.

    Whenever I'm listening to music, watching a video, etc. and the sound gets low (like a piano playing) the music just cuts completely out and I hear a scratching noise coming out of my speakers.

    Now for some reason it doesn't do this when I use Windows Media Center but it does do it when I use Chrome, Firefox, WIndows Media Player, and I.E.

    Any clue what's up?
    Quoting myself because I'm still having this issue. I've reinstalled drivers and everything. And it's no so much a scratching noise.. but it's audible when the music shuts off completely until someone in a movie says something. I'm sure it's some setting to intentionally cut out background noises or interferences but I can't find anything. Any clue? ; ; Otherwise it's back to my 10 year old speakers.

  16. #16
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    So wait, is it that your sound actually cuts out or are you just hearing static when the track is otherwise devoid of audio?

  17. #17
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    No, okay.. I think I'm just saying it wrong so I'll type up a longer explanation, lol.

    Let's say I'm watching a movie. So long as someone is talking or there is a high audible sound on the movie my sound is fine. Now, let's say that this someone stops talking and all you have is a soft background music playing which isn't very loud.. well that's where my sound just completely shuts out. If I turn my volume WAY up and make the soft background music loud.. it doesn't shut out the music but then when someone in the movie starts talking it's loud as fuck, of course.. because I just turned my sound up full blast.

    Does that make sense? It's the same with music.. if the music gets too soft it just cuts off.

    That's why I think my speakers are set to try to filter out background crap or something.. but in actuality it's cutting out my movie sound and soft voices I actually WANT to hear. I don't think it's my speakers because they work just fine on my PS3/TV.. and they work just fine if I keep them extremely loud on my PC.. they just don't work right when it's really soft sounds.

    Any clue?

  18. #18
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    It could still be the speakers if they're underpowered. What kind of speakers and pc sound device do you use?

  19. #19
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    Some random RCA 1000 Watt surround sound speakers I got at wal-mart for a couple hundred bucks last year. And it's just integrated sound. Funny thing is.. I have to plug them into the front headphone jack to get them to even work properly. I can plug them into the actual sound board on the back but I still have the sound sound issue either way.

  20. #20
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    Do you have an actual model number or something for the speakers?

    Or perhaps can you take a picture of the connecting points (all of them, any part of it that plugs in sans the electricity...even if there are multiple bits that link together through another box)?

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