Question Headphones Issue/Quality

May 8, 2019
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So I've recently had to get rid of my 6 year old Turtle Beach ZLA headphones after they finally ceased to work. I've been on Windows 8.1 because they would not work on Windows 10, thus I've now taken the leap to Windows 10 and delved into the world of better headphones.

After purchasing a HyperX Cloud Alpha headset, plugging it in and firing up CS:GO to see how they sounded I immediately noticed a problem, sounds like footsteps and gunfire from far away sounded right up close and impossible to pinpoint so I assumed these headphones are not meant for this type of gaming and refunded them.

I read up even more on headphones and found from numerous reviews that the Sennheiser GSP 300 were the best for directional sound and pinpointing footsteps (my Turtle Beach ZLA were very good for this). However as soon as I launched CS:GO, among other games, I noticed the footsteps, gunshots, ambience such as water sources were again indistinguishable.

I'm plugging the audio and headphone jacks directly into the back of the PC and I'm wondering what my issue is, is my motherboard too old? I've had it since I bought my PC when the GTX 780 was released.

Appreciate any help as I am stumped

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Specs:
Windows 10 64bit
Intel i7 4790k
EVGA GTX 1080
ASUS Z87-K Motherboard
DDR3 16GB RAM
750W PSU
BIOS American Megatrends Inc. Version 1401, Date 07/29/2014
 

H0PEFU11Y

Prominent
Apr 30, 2019
120
7
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Do you have an external audio card (preferably. If not, then a sound adapter) available to use at all? This can determine whether its the audio jack or not, and may even be an alternative to having to replace the motherboard :)
 
May 8, 2019
2
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All I have right now is the headset, I've been looking into amps and DACs and trying to understand what these do. What should I look for to determine if it's my audio jack or not? I tried plugging it into my monitor and the sound quality was noticeably different, sounds were more distinguishable but lower quality, but having to do this is not ideal as I can't use the mic.