[SOLVED] Arctis 5 Headphones not using surround sound.

May 5, 2021
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For the entire time I've had my PC I've had the issue of not having surround sound in my headphones. From what I've heard it might be an issue with my motherboard not supporting 7.1 audio, only 5.1. I have an Arctis 5 headset, and a B450 DS3H motherboard. (Full Part List below) On the box of the motherboard it says that it supports 8-channel HD under the Audio/Lan if that helps at all.

GeForce RTX 2060
Ryzen 7 2700X
Gigabyte B450 DS3H Motherboard
16GB 3200Mhz G Skill Ripjaws ram
PowerSpec 650W 80+ Bronze
 
Solution
It's all software driven. The 8 channel and surround sound and settings included with the motherboard audio only apply to the motherboard as such.

You should have been prompted to install the Steel Series Engine, which has its own mixer, surround, Dolby, game preference settings etc. It's in there that you'll setup your headphones.

You may also find that Windows, discord etc has 2 settings for the Arctis, mine does. One setting uses windows playback settings, the other uses the Engine playback settings.

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
It's all software driven. The 8 channel and surround sound and settings included with the motherboard audio only apply to the motherboard as such.

You should have been prompted to install the Steel Series Engine, which has its own mixer, surround, Dolby, game preference settings etc. It's in there that you'll setup your headphones.

You may also find that Windows, discord etc has 2 settings for the Arctis, mine does. One setting uses windows playback settings, the other uses the Engine playback settings.
 
Solution